Shows
DO IT FOR A LIVING163: Stewart Waliser of Stews Self Service GarageStewart grew up in a Seattle suburb and was an active kid. When he turned 16, he got a beater $500 car and was tasked with keeping it running. He used this car to learn maintenance and slowly acquired mechanical skills. He went to college and continued to modify cars. He was living gin the dorm and didn’t have a place to do the work so he called several shops, but nobody would allow him to do the work at their shop. It was at this point that he shifted from wanting to be a surgeon to owning a DIY ga...2020-03-0300 minDO IT FOR A LIVING162: Nathan Cicio of Cicio PerformanceNathan grew up in Florida working on cars to help his dad’s business. In his twenties, he moved around always chasing entrepreneurial ventures but wasn’t always focused on cars. He eventually purchased a 2002 WRX Wagon and then he was hooked! The modifications began and he couldn’t get enough. This led to starting a performance shop with two buddies and eventually meeting Doug Wilks who was the owner of Top Speed Performance. Nathan then began organizing tuning appointments for Doug to fly in and tune several vehicles at once. After some time, Nathan offered to buy th...2020-02-1700 minDO IT FOR A LIVING161: Chris Riggs from Speed by DesignChris got his career going in cars by doing a buy-in for body kits while he was in college back in 2001. He ran this business all through college and made a decent living. But, after graduating, he became a medical salesman. He worked there up until 2012 when the company he was working for got bought and he was given a buyout payment. That same year, he started Speed by Design. Initially, he wanted to do installs for GTR’s. He soon realized that Oklahoma wasn’t large enough to warrant a specialty shop like he wanted to make...2020-02-1000 minDO IT FOR A LIVING160: Ben Silcock and Andre Simon return to discuss HP AcademyIts been about 4 years since we last talked to Andre and Ben of HP Academy. Originally, they were focusing on keeping the business small and running it themselves. They soon realized that they needed to hire some extra help. They have grown to 7 people and really helps generate content. Andre and Ben now release interviews each week and have greatly expanded their online education program. The online courses include tuning, engine machining, race car wiring, and vehicle setup. They are currently working with Engineered to Slide to even create a set of fabrication courses so be on...2020-02-0300 minDO IT FOR A LIVING159: Bryan Thompson of Powerhouse RacingBryan Thompson started out in Utah and bought himself a Toyota MR2. He quickly started modifying it to go faster. He ended up going to college to get a Computer Science degree but was cut short because of his love for cars. He then followed a friend to Dallas to begin working at Dinosaur Performance (which later purchased Powerhouse Racing). Soon enough, he was giving the reigns to run Powerhouse Racing. Even though he preferred working on cars, he soon realized he could develop parts that he really needed to make. After a few years, Bryan was given the...2020-01-2700 minDO IT FOR A LIVING158: AJ Hartman returns for an update on AJ Hartman AeroBack in 2017, AJ was humming along and making composite parts for race cars and street enthusiasts. He was approached by a customer who was wanting to help AJ scale the business, so he sold off 49% of the business. They changed the name to RHR Composites, hired 2 people, contracted some aerodynamic parts to be designed, and moved to a larger facility. Along the way, their vision for the future didn’t align so AJ had to buy out his partner to take back 100% of the company. Even though it was a huge struggle, AJ looks at the events as a le...2020-01-2000 minDO IT FOR A LIVING157: Matt Beenen returns with BuiltRight IndustriesSince he was a kid, Matt always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Using inspiration from his childhood, he decided to start a side gig to follow his dreams. His initial idea consisted of 50 latches that allow you to drop the Ford F-150 back seat down to access some secret storage. To his surprise, a Facebook post in a small F-150 group resulted in him selling out rather quickly. So, he began his journey to go at the business full-time. His second product development was a bedside rack system for the F-150’s. This side hustle first took ov...2020-01-1400 minDO IT FOR A LIVING156: Alejandro and Pablo Moreno of Tandem AutomotiveAlejandro and Pablo Moreno didn’t start a shop together but found they could grow a business by working as a team. Alejandro got his engineering degree, worked at Bell Helicopter for a while, and went back to school to get his MBA. In the meantime, Pablo was an auto mechanic, went to flight school, and then decided to start Tandem Automotive with a friend to work on drift cars (hence the name). When Alejandro finished grad school, he was looking for some sort of entrepreneurial venture and wanted to help Pablo. He crunched some numbers and ma...2020-01-0600 minDO IT FOR A LIVING155: Theresa Contreras and Sara Morosan of LGE-CTS MotorsportsThe business was originally started by their parents who did maintenance and custom work in California. Theresa studied graphic design and worked as a machinist. She went back to work in the family auto body shop and worked in the front end. She taught herself how to pinstripe and paint and continues to do so to this day! Sara was also interested in working at some sort of automotive business and studied business and automotive classes. Strangely enough, she worked at a competitor’s auto body shop for a few months before realizing she wanted to start a business th...2019-10-1400 minDO IT FOR A LIVING154: Vadim Belogorodsky from CANtrollsOn this episode we get a chance to talk with Vadim Belogorodsky from CANtrolls. CANtrolls is a company focused on using CAN interface hardware to make engine swaps easier… but it goes way beyond that! Vadim taught himself to program at age 13 and has since worked on medical devices, oil rigs (doing CAN-based Networking) and most recently with Zero Avia an electric aviation startup. Vadim is a standout in the automotive aftermarket for his ability to get things done. I know him personally to be an ambitious self-starter so I thought we could all learn what makes him tick, an...2019-09-0300 minDO IT FOR A LIVING153: Reid Lunde returns to discuss his interconnectable relay entered in the SEMA Launch Pad CompetitionReid has been very busy lately managing several businesses. He still has KSTuned which is the Honda racing side and then has Kaizen Speed for the domestic cars. But his new venture is a weatherproof. solid-state relay that can handle heavy current and is interconnectable. This makes it very easy to daisy chain additional relays without having to run more power wires. He also made it so that you can attach a CAN control module as an option. This gives the customer the ability to keep it very simple or more complex with the CAN module. Reid...2019-08-0500 minDO IT FOR A LIVING152: Johnny Cichowski of Nine Lives RacingJohnny joined the military after high school, served his time, and then used the GI Bill to go to college. He really didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life and began messing with cars and going autocrossing. He worked a short stent helping at a friend’s shop and then got a job at PFC Brakes doing sales and technical support. This job took him all over the world supporting various racing platforms. His next job was at OG Racing selling safety gear and brakes. He was also making custom seat inserts for race...2019-07-2200 minDO IT FOR A LIVING151: Jonny Mill of WheelWell.comJonny Mill grew up in a small town in California and moved to LA as soon as he graduated high school. He worked at a talent recruiter and had various jobs in the entertainment industry with advertising and marketing. He always enjoyed cars, but things really took off when he developed The E-Stopp (an electronic parking brake). It was intended for handicap vans but soon found an amazing niche in the automotive restoration market. He was approached by Bryan Harrison of SEMA to compete in the first SEMA Launch Pad competition and took first place. After that, he started...2019-03-1100 minDO IT FOR A LIVING150: Charlie Eklund of Hennessey's Tuner SchoolCharlie Eklund moved down to Houston, TX to attend Tuner School in 2017. The people at Hennessey Performance saw something special in Charlie and offered him a job in the admissions department for the school. Since then, Charlie has been the face of Tuner School to narrow down the applicants and help them get jobs after graduation. To further help them out, Charlie helps students find part time jobs while taking classes and they even offer a house where the students can rent a room and not have to worry about furniture. John Hennessey started Tuner School because...2019-02-1100 minDO IT FOR A LIVING149: Richard Tomlin of Apex Auto Works and White Pony DryRichard Tomlin owns a paint, restoration, and fabrication shop south of Houston, Texas called Apex Auto Works. He made a name for his shop by building cages for Spec Miatas and was cranking out one a week. The shop is located on the way to a road course so he catered to the weekend racers and was able to do anything they wanted from complex fab work to paint and body. He recently embarked on a new venture by developing an absorbent powder called White Pony Dry. It is far superior to kitty litter at quickly soaking up...2019-02-0400 minDO IT FOR A LIVING148: Bob Morreale of The Tuning SchoolBob grew up working on Fords by building engines and going drag racing. He got turned on to the Buick Grand National and became obsessed with going faster! After some frustration with trying to fine tune their setups, Bob decided to start diving into the actual electronic tuning. This opened a whole new world of going faster and picked up a bunch time at the drag strip. He had a couple computer businesses and a shop but was always helping people tune. So, he decided to make it a real business in 2007. The demand for their services...2018-09-0300 minDO IT FOR A LIVING147: Dave Carapetyan of Rally Ready Driving School wants to teach everybody how to drive a rally car!Dave grew up in Austin and has lived there his whole life. During middle school, he played in a punk rock band (look up The Snobs – Schools Out, Let’s Skate) in the early 2000’s. They organized a tour on the east coast and recorded a couple 7” records. While touring and playing shows, he got turned on to street racing. Having no affinity to school, he dropped out of High School and decided he wanted to play music and race rally cars. After some coaxing, he convinced his dad to “invest” in an Integra Type R rally car. Eventually...2018-08-2700 minDO IT FOR A LIVING146: Dan Kahn of Kahn Media started by sending articles about his car to magazine editors. Now he runs his own PR firm.Dan lived in a house of car enthusiasts in southern California. Both his dad and grandfather owned their own businesses, so Dan was kind of groomed to have his own business as well. In high school, Dan bought a 1968 Mustang Fastback and spent 2 years restoring it with his dad. Once they finished it, Dan went out and took some “professional” pictures of the car, wrote an article, and sent it to every magazine he could find. He was able to get this car featured in some magazines and even on a few covers! Being a true entrepreneur and knowing what...2018-08-2000 minDO IT FOR A LIVING145: Joe Gambino of Rogue Fabrication couldn't find a tube bender to meet his particular needs so he went out and made one himself!Joe grew up in Oregon and stayed there through college and went to Oregon Tech for Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Business. He never really saw himself owning his own business, so he spent several years working for other companies as an engineer. He spent all his extra time playing with and modifying offroad trucks. He soon realized that he could take a pretty good tax write off if he created a business to research, develop, and sell various parts he was making. In 2008, he made a simple web page and began making wheel centers to utilize the...2018-07-3000 minDO IT FOR A LIVING144: Colin McLemore of Mac’s Custom Tie Downs is working to become the household name for tie downs of all sortsColin grew up buying and restoring pedal bikes and really enjoyed working with his hands. When his dad took a job in Washington with Boeing, Colin bought a 1940 Ford which was quite a step up from the bicycles. He went to college at Washington State University and preferred to look for car projects instead of studying. Having to haul dead cars all over the place, Colin began looking for better solutions to tie them to the trailer. In 1993, he made the business official and started to sell his products. In 1994, he met Tim Foss of Street Rodder Magazine and...2018-07-2300 minDO IT FOR A LIVING143: Chris Walters details how they built up a relationship with Jay Leno over years before releasing Jay Leno’s Garage Car Care productsChris has been in California his whole life and used to have a job at a company that developed vehicle care products for professional body shops. This gave him intimate knowledge about materials and products for the car care market. One weekend, they were out an event demonstrating some car care products and caught Jay Leno’s eye. He invited them out to his garage to test out their products and shoot a demo video for JayLenosGarage.com. A few months later, Chris get a call that Jay’s detailer had moved and they were searching for a new pers...2018-07-1600 minDO IT FOR A LIVING142: Will Baty of Centerforce clutches shares how they continue to innovate to stay ahead of market demandsWill grew up in California and has always had a passion for cars. After high school, he started an apprenticeship at a machine shop working on engines. He went to college, but it just wasn’t for him. He was much more interested in racing than he was in going to class. After a few years, he began working at Centerforce Clutches via a recommendation from a friend of a friend. He started as a machinist and worked his way up the ranks over many years. In the mid 90’s, Centerforce decided to move from California to Arizona to allo...2018-07-0900 minDO IT FOR A LIVING141: Tony Whatley wants you to turn your side hustle into a successful businessTony started his car passion by contributing and participating on the LS1.com forum back in 1998. He wasn’t happy with the support of that forum and decided that he could do it better. So, he started LS1Tech.com in 2001. All the while, he was working in the Oil & Gas industry. He continued to teach himself various software systems to allow him to create websites, design graphics, and model parts. He eventually sold LS1Tech.com and started DV8 Motoring to continue to sell parts via relationships he made with the forum. His new venture is ca...2018-07-0200 minDO IT FOR A LIVING140: Bret Voelkel of RideTech explains how his company emerged from the 2008 recession stronger than everBret grew up in Jasper, IN and dabbled with cars during high school. After high school, he worked various jobs in Jasper and then took a job in Florida as a tech rep for the NHRA Drag Racing circuit. A few years later, he started working for a company in California to work for Blower Drive Service. He had been traveling about 300 days per year and decided to settle down back in Jasper with his new wife. He worked a tool truck and was building his own pro-street hot rod. He wanted to be able to adjust the ride...2018-06-1800 minDO IT FOR A LIVING139: Steve Dinan, Founder and former owner of DINAN, made the best products possible and backed them with a warranty and recently started a new service shop called CarBahnSteve has known he was going to work with cards since the first grade. His dad was an engineer and his mom was a pianist and they encouraged Steve and his siblings to pursue any passion they wanted. This even includes Steve attempting to build a submarine as a kid. He ended up getting drafted to the Vietnam War and worked as an electrical engineer supporting the airplanes. Once he got out, he went to college and got an engineering degree. While at school, he worked at a BMW repair shop. It was then that he started doing performance...2018-06-1100 minDO IT FOR A LIVING138: Jason Gauci of Lund International talks product development, marketing, and patents for their products in the off-road truck marketJason grew up in upstate New York and spent his childhood around cars. For college, he went to Clarkson University and got his Mechanical Engineering degree. He had every intention to go work for an auto company in Detroit but he just couldn’t commit to the cold weather. So, he moved south to work for Home Depot as a mechanical engineer. He worked his way up the ranks and eventually moved on to work for Newell Brands (makers up Rubbermaid and other household items) as a product engineer. While working there, he relocated from North Carolina to Atlanta....2018-06-0400 minDO IT FOR A LIVING137: Brent Picasso of Autosport Labs discusses the process of using crowd funding to make RaceCapture and PodiumBrent is a first generation American and his parents immigrated to the states after WW2. He spent a lot of his childhood playing with electronics. During high school, he practically took over the computer lab in the mid 80’s to code and tinker however he liked. He went to college to get a Computer Science degree and worked for Microsoft after graduating. He then moved over to GE Capital to do software support for them. At this point, he discovered Autocross and fell in love immediately! He ended up buying an MR2 to race and wanted to tu...2018-05-2800 minDO IT FOR A LIVING136: Dave Rowe of EPS Motorsports travels all over the world tuning various race cars using his MoTeC expertiseDave grew up in Melbourne, Australia and has always been a petrol head. He knew from an early age that he wanted to work with cars and left school at 15 to get an apprenticeship at a local dealership. During that time, he began racing go carts to satisfy his need to race. Once he finished his apprenticeship program, he became qualified to be hired as a mechanic. He then got a job at a shop that focused on motorsports and he began racing cars himself. After that, he took a job at MoTeC in Melbourne for 5 years before being...2018-05-2100 minDO IT FOR A LIVING135: Lance Stander, the owner of Superformance, tells how he moved from South Africa to the US to pursue his passion for carsLance is from South Africa and he grew up working with his dad at his dealership and salvage yard. When he grew up, he took over part of the business and spent years growing it. Eventually, he decided to make the move to America and attempted to continue with the auto salvage business. He came over on a holiday visa and quickly discovered how hard it is to become an American citizen. After 3 rejections, he was able to finally make it legal and he and his family got their citizenship. Along the way, he started in North Carolina, then...2018-05-1400 minDO IT FOR A LIVING134: Jim Ring shares how he and his brother Mike expanded RingBrothers to include manufacturing billet assemblies and specialty body panelsThe Ring brothers grew up around their dad’s fueling station and spent their time tinkering with whatever they could get their hands on. Jim moved around a few times and eventually moved his family back home to Spring Green, WI (2 hours west of Milwaukee). He saw a 1969 Camaro Indy Pace car for sale in the paper and had to get a loan from a bank to purchase the car. He fixed it up and ended up selling it for a profit. This was the catalyst for starting his own shop. Jim found a vacant car dealership and bought th...2018-05-0700 minDO IT FOR A LIVING133: Kris Miller has helped Powerstop Brakes increase their brand’s recognition through strategic sponsorships and by creating excellent contentKris grew up in Chicago and stayed there to go to college. His family has always been enthusiasts and he grew up tinkering with anything he could get his hands on. He got a degree in Aviation Flight Management and got his A&P License. He never worked in the aerospace industry because he got offered a job at a fuel management company. This company was buildings components of Holly’s EFI throttle body. His next move was over to AMS Performance as their 4th employee. He helped them grow the business. He decided to make a ca...2018-04-3000 minDO IT FOR A LIVING132: Gary Carbono left his job as a lawyer in Panama to pursue his passion for cars and founded Race Lab MotorsportsGary was born in Panama but grew up in the United States. His father had a machine shop and Gary was always around cars. He worked at his dad’s shop at a very early age and learned the importance of hard work. His parents ended up getting a divorce and Gary moved to Panama to live with his mom when he was 9. In his early 20’s, he bought a truck and began modifying it immediately. He increased the power with a supercharger and did basic tuning adjustments. He went to law school and became a lawyer but he neve...2018-04-2300 minDO IT FOR A LIVING131: John Nguyen quit his day job to pursue Track Spec Motorsports and has parlayed that into the Spec Corvette racing seriesJohn was born in Florida but moved to Philadelphia when he was 10. His dad and he were always tinkering and fixed things rather than replacing them. He stayed in the area and went to college at Penn State to get a Mechanical Engineering degree. Even though his passion for cars never went away, he got a job at a beverage company and ended up in California managing a facility. During that time, he had a side hustle of selling other people’s parts online. It became more and more difficult to make a profit and he wanted to...2018-04-1600 minDO IT FOR A LIVING130: Scott Molitor of MoFab takes us through the process of acquiring a performance shop to grow his businessScott grew up in Minnesota and enjoyed tinkering and making stuff as a kid. He played with dirt bikes and 3 wheelers anything else he could get his hands on. His dad got transferred for work and ended up in Colorado. After high school, he enrolled in an automotive program while working at a construction job. After graduating with his Associates Degree, he went hunting for a job. He had bought a Mitsubishi Galant VR4 and fell in love with imports and turbos. During this time, he meets Nick who’s dad ran the performance shop in Denver and they we...2018-04-0900 minDO IT FOR A LIVING129: Dennis Overholser, co-founder of Painless Performance Products, takes us through the ups and downs of growing his wiring and accessories companyDennis grew up on a farm in Indiana and went to Nashville Auto Diesel College before getting drafted to the Air Force during Vietnam. He took a position as a mechanic for their vehicle maintenance division and spent his time repairing equipment. When he got back to Indiana, he met a girl whose family lived in Ft Worth. During one of their visits to her family, he realized there were a lot of jobs in Ft Worth and made up his mind that is where they wanted to move. He got a job as a tractor dealer as a...2018-04-0200 minDO IT FOR A LIVING128: The Bondurant Racing School just celebrated its 50th year in business! Tune in to hear what Pat and Bob are doing to make it thrive for another 50 years.Bob has been racing his entire life. He got started in small Morgans and Triumphs in California and was jealous of the loud and fast American race cars. He stepped up to Corvettes and started winning immediately. He caught the eye of Carol Shelby who was trying to get Bob to race in the Shelby Cobra. After Bob had to race against a Cobra, he was convinced it was superior and went over to Carol’s team to drive. He won a bunch of races that year and then they took the Cobra to Europe with Dan Gurney to do...2018-03-2600 minDO IT FOR A LIVING127: Tim Palazzolo of GAP Racing earned his reputation as a world-class builder by paying attention to the little detailsTim was practically born into working on cars. His dad worked at an automotive repair business and Tim immediately took a liking to cars. When he turned 14, he got a compact truck and began modifying it for the mini-truck scene. He built the car all by himself and was happy to show it off at high school. He got his associates degree and got a job at O’Reilly Auto Parts as a delivery driver. Over the years, Tim worked his way up through the ranks, managed his own store, and even worked at the corporate office. Ti...2018-03-1900 minDO IT FOR A LIVING126: Trevor and Travis Hill of TWOth Autosport want to take novices and turn them into professional racing driversAs kids, Trevor and Travis saved up their money and spent it on go carts. With a matching contribution from their dad, they were able to get pretty serious and eventually toured around the US and Canada to race go carts. They both ended up going to college but continued to race. Their goal the whole time was to be professional race car drivers and they thought of school as their backup plan. Travis ended up working at the race track in Calabogie as a driving coach and began developing a business plan to educate drivers at various skill...2018-03-1200 minDO IT FOR A LIVING125: Dirk Starksen from Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT) tells how he got started and how he continues to innovateDirk has always been a builder and tinkerer. He started working for a clutch company called Kennedy Engineered Products that built engine adapters and clutches for VW’s. He was working as a clutch assembler and was in college for a Mechanical Engineering degree. He worked his way up the ranks at KEP. In 1994, Dirk was working on a project for the Japanese import vehicles and asked his boss if he could take the idea and run with it. In 1996, he started Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT) and started branding the pressure plates himself. He has steadily grown th...2018-03-0500 minDO IT FOR A LIVING124: Doug and Brad DeBerti build crazy vehicles, race trucks, and have a new show on Discovery called Twin TurbosDescription: Doug and Brad DeBerti, the father and son duo, have a new Discovery Channel show called Twin Turbos. Doug was born and raised in Montana and moved down to Bakersfield, CA when he was 18. In the late 80’s, Doug got a new truck and began making custom parts for it. He wiggled his way into a building lease and took out 4 credit cards to raise capital for the new business. In an ingenious move to project inventory, he would buy empty boxes from manufacturers and weighted them down! He would just purchase the actual products when the customer wo...2018-02-2600 minDO IT FOR A LIVING123: Glen Reid of Futura Trailers brought his innovative idea of a lowering trailer to realityGlen is from New Zealand and his dad actually used to own a trailer company. His dad sold the company in the mid-eighties and it was a couple decades before Glen got back into trailers. After high school, Glen got into construction and went off to create his own construction company. Glen then moved to Dubai and did construction there as well. Over the next decade, he built a very large business with around 700 employees. His next adventure went down a completely different path. He took his wife and two small children to the United States. They...2018-02-1900 minDO IT FOR A LIVING122: David Schardt of Forgeline Motorsports continues to push the envelope with their carbon+forged wheelsDavid was born and raised in Ohio and has been there his entire life. Growing up, he was very active in outdoor activities and his dad was racing. By the time he was 18, he had his SCCA license and was racing pretty regularly. When he went to college, he started off in Accounting but changed it to HR and Psychology. During school, he wrote a business plan to distribute wheels in the Midwest. His dad owned Dayton Wire Wheels and he noticed there was a void in the market of distributing wheels. After working in a wheel & tire store...2018-02-1200 minDO IT FOR A LIVING121: Bob Boileau discusses how he became President of Pikes Peak International Raceway and how they have outlasted the previous ownersBob grew up in Colorado and has been around racing his whole life. His dad raced with SCCA and then became the chief driving instructor in Colorado. His dad brought the family to a race and they met another family of racers. It was at this time that Bob would meet his future wife (she was 11 and he was 13). Bob went to college for a business degree and ended up in California after graduating to become a stunt driver. He ended up moving back to Colorado when he and his wife got married. Back in Colorado, he...2018-02-0500 minDO IT FOR A LIVING120: Paul “Scooter” Brothers shares his experience at Comp Performance Group, the SEMA board, and how they look for companies to acquireScooter grew up as a mechanic and got his first job right out of high school. He was drafted to the Navy during the Vietnam War where he served as an aircraft mechanic. When he came back home, he got a job at Racing Head Service around 1972. They were having trouble finding good camshafts for their market so they started Cam Dynamics (now Comp Cams) to fill the need. Over the past few decades, Scooter and the team have built Comp Performance Group into a juggernaut in the aftermarket powertrain industry! Now, Scooter looks for possible acquisitions...2017-12-1100 minDO IT FOR A LIVING119: Larry Chen works every single day to capture stunning automotive pictures from all over the globeLarry scraped and saved up $1000 to purchase his first Canon Rebel XT DSLR camera back in 2004. He had been taking pictures with a simple point-and-shoot but wanted to step up his professionalism. He had his own business fixing & building computers but also took pictures as a paparazzi. These jobs were a means to an end that allowed him to take automotive pictures. Over the last 13 years, he has traveled all over the world and been to hundreds of events to pursue his passion. As a testament to his dedication, Larry funded many of his photography trips by...2017-12-0400 minDO IT FOR A LIVING118: Chris Stewart took his knowledge of marketing & design and combined it with his love of music & racing to create the GridLife festivalsChris went to college at an art school in Michigan and focused on graphic design. After graduating, he worked at several design firms and worked his way up the corporate ladder. He was also running a forum called EFHonda to pursue his passion of the EF Honda chassis. He even started his own parking lot meet up called the EF Honda Meet to hang out with fellow enthusiasts. In 2004, they stepped it up and rented Gingerman Raceway on a Monday and took their cars out on to the track. They called it Westminster Honda Meet 4 (for 2004). As...2017-11-2700 minDO IT FOR A LIVING117: John Whalen of Whalen Speed R&D details how he has built up his business over the yearsJohn bought his first Eagle Talon when he was in high school and upgraded to a turbo Eclipse when he got to college. He did quite a few mods and ran it a lot at the drag strip. Then, John and some buddies got together and rented a small shop to modify their cars and others for customers. After a few years, John separated off and took his fabrication equipment to work at another shop. That second shop began to shift to more domestic cars so John decided to go out on his own. He bought an 8500...2017-11-2000 minDO IT FOR A LIVING116: Trevor Doelling of Texas Speed quit installing parts to focus on online sales. Now, they are machining and manufacturing their own parts.Trevor raced cars all through high school and he progressed over the years with more powerful and faster cars. When he turned 21, he bought a Trans Am that came with the new LS V8. At that same time, his now business partner Jason Mangum also had a Trans Am and they raced against each other any chance they got! Trevor graduated college in 2000 and moved to Dallas, TX to look for a job. It was at this time that Trevor and Jason really considered starting a real business. When they pulled the trigger, Trevor moved back home...2017-11-1300 minDO IT FOR A LIVING115: Howard Anderson of AR Fabrication and Darton East believes that slow and steady growth is the best way to ensure successHoward began his focus in the sport compact performance market building roll cages and engines for customers. He bought his first CNC machine way back in 2005 because he wasn’t able to reliably get sleeved blocks. Things were going good until the economic downturn in 2008 when they had to sell off all the assets to stay out of bankruptcy. In 2010, he started Howard’s Hot Rods with his wife. This was kind of a side business and Howard went to work for another machine shop. As time went on, Howard decided to build a building on his prop...2017-11-0600 minDO IT FOR A LIVING114: Three friends - Jeremy, Ben, and John - teamed up with different skill sets to start Fathouse FabricationsJeremy and John met during high school and shared their love for turbocharged 4-cylinder cars. Jeremy (aka Fathouse) and John worked behind John’s parent’s house wrenching on their cars and other peoples’ cars. They met Ben at a car meet and struck up a lasting friendship. After a few years of doing car stuff on the side, they decided to have a go at creating a real performance shop. They all brought a different aspect to the table: Jeremy was an industrial welder and had been fabricating parts for Evo’s and other cars for years, J...2017-10-2300 minDO IT FOR A LIVING113: Jason Whitfield of Whitfield Fab has built his business by doing everything he can in house, including manufacturing weld-ready cages for drag racingJason has been hustling to make money ever since he was a kid! He started by mowing lawns, washing cars, putting grip tape on skateboards, and painting other kid’s bicycles. When he was 14, he bought a VW bug and immediately began working on it and modifying it. Then he bought a Mazda mini truck slammed it with hydraulics and did other modifications to it. During high school, he teamed up with an older friend to start working on other people’s cars and trucks. After a brief stint in college, Jason realized that wasn’t for him. S...2017-10-0900 minDO IT FOR A LIVING112: Chris Stephens, the co-host of Discovery Channel’s Garage Rehab, helps shops improve operations and turn a profitChris Stephens started his automotive journey modifying and fixing Volkswagens. His family was big into cars and his brother set out to open up a shop called while Chris was in college. He joined the business and they began working on import cars. As time went on, the business continued to grow and their focus shifted to becoming an efficient service shop. Fast forward to 2016 and Chris saw a casting call on Facebook looking for a host for a garage rehabilitation show. Both him and his brother applied, but Chris was ultimately chosen to host Garage Rehab...2017-10-0200 minDO IT FOR A LIVING111: Tim Suddard of Grassroots Motorsports explains how the magazine got started and how it has changed over the yearsTim grew up in Massachusetts and got interested in cars early on as a teenager. He moved to Florida to go to college and find some better weather. After graduating, he worked at an ad agency and handled a lot of the automotive stuff. He bought a Datsun 240Z and began hosting SCCA Autocross events. He was hungry for automotive information, but all of the magazines were focused on new car specs and data, not modifying cars in your garage to go faster. So, he told his wife they were going to start their own magazine and...2017-09-2500 minDO IT FOR A LIVING110: Ian Baker of World Time Attack set out to create the ultimate time attack racing spectacle and continues to improve his eventIan Baker got his racing career going first as a race car fabricator. He was on the forefront of turbo charger installations in Australia. In 2007, he worked with a shop that took a car to the Tsukuba Circuit in Japan to race and wondered why they didn’t have anything like that in Australia. Over the years, he has built up World Time Attack to be the premier unlimited time attack race in the world. Even though Ian wasn’t the first to host a Time Attack event, he has worked to make it the bucket list event for a lo...2017-09-1800 minDO IT FOR A LIVING109: Eric Hazen explains how he and Paul Lucas use their engineering knowledge to design products at Verus EngineeringEric Hazen met Paul Lucas while at college at Purdue and shared their enthusiasm of cars and engineering. During college, they both had engineering jobs at top level racing companies. After graduating, Eric continued his design engineering position at C&R and Paul started working there as well. During their lunch breaks, they imaging running their own performance business. With their knowledge of CFD modeling and air flow models, they decided to pursue designing and manufacturing aerodynamic components in their free time. Eventually, Eric moved to Phoenix and worked from home for C&R while Paul moved...2017-09-0400 minDO IT FOR A LIVING108: Mike Lewin of Professional Awesome shares how they are transforming their racing hobby into a real businessMike Lewin grew up in an environmentally friendly community and then went to Purdue for Engineering. During college, he met Dan O’Donnel through the car club and they became roommates. Dan introduced Mike to Redline Time Attack and they began working on Dan’s Evo 7 to make it faster and faster for each event. While they were building the car, Dan introduced Grant to the team to help build the Evo 7. At this point, they decided to begin calling themselves the Professional Awesome. After graduation, everybody got real jobs and worked for other companies. But they cont...2017-08-2800 minDO IT FOR A LIVING107: Victor Alvarez took his love for Supras and turned it into a business with Induction PerformanceVictor Alvarez grew up in Long Island, NY and used to spend a lot of time working at his dad’s and uncle’s automotive shop. Victor was around cars since a very early age but he really fell in love with them when his dad bought a Supra. His family decided to move south to Florida to take advantage of the nicer weather when Victor was 15. When they got there, his dad started another automotive shop and Victor jumped right in to work there as well. He had plans to go to college, but he had gotten so invo...2017-08-2100 minDO IT FOR A LIVING106: Rory Connell has leveraged his network to become more successful and recently became Chairman of the SEMA YEN Select CommitteeRory has spent most of his life working at various automotive businesses. He grew up working on and racing go carts in California. Then went to Wyotech for a formal automotive education in Pennsylvania. He then moved back to California to work for a boat shop, a hot rod shop, and a shop which recorded the Wrecks to Riches tv show. His next job was as a fabricated at West Coast Customs where he got to work on all sorts of cool projects. He transitioned into the parts department there before moving on to Callaway Cars. This...2017-08-1400 minDO IT FOR A LIVING105: Dom Tucci is expanding the family business of building hot rods with his design firm Dom Tucci DesignsDom Tucci has been exposed to hot rods his entire life. Both his dad and grandfather built many customs cars during his youth. But Dom didn’t originally envision himself working with cars. He went to Syracuse University for Industrial Design and fell in love with 3D modeling and design work. As he progressed through the program, he was still helping his dad out at Tucci Hot Rods and really did enjoy the work. It was very hands-on and required a lot of visual details that he was learning in school. After graduating he created Dom Tucci De...2017-08-0700 minDO IT FOR A LIVING104: Ben Horst of Eddy Motorworks epitomizes the term “hot rod” with his Tesla-powered ExocetBen started tinkering with cars when he got into high school. When he enrolled at Georgia Tech for Mechanical Engineering (with a minor in Chemistry), his interest grafted towards electric cars. He participated in making a solar vehicle and modifying a Camaro to be a hybrid. Then he took it to the next level and made a tube-chassis hybrid car from scratch using a V-Twin engine, a forklift AC motor, a snowmobile CVT transmission, and batteries from a Smart Car. Ben kept bumping into Kevin Patrick of Exomotive at car shows around Atlanta. They got to talking...2017-07-1700 minDO IT FOR A LIVING103: Sasha Anis of OnPoint Dyno is positioning himself as a leader in electric car performanceSasha started his automotive career by buying a small shop just to work on his own car. He started to help friends with their cars and then began charging for his service. He worked at it for several years but just couldn’t make it profitable. So he closed the shop and moved on. He worked a corporate job and realized very quickly that he just didn’t want that life, so he decided to go back to working on cars. Sasha decided to start tuning cars and use a mobile dyno to travel to the customer and...2017-07-1000 minDO IT FOR A LIVING102: Susan Johnson of Moore Automotive takes a deep dive into proper accounting practicesSusan is the VP of Finance for Moore Automotive. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and started her career at a CPA firm. She worked at that firm for a while and then helped several other businesses “fix” their accounting and ensure that everything was setup correctly. She now has a total of 20 years of experience in Finance and Accounting. In 2010, she met Bill who owned Moore Automotive and they got married a few years later. She officially joined the business in 2015. Moore Automotive is an interesting business story in that it actually started by a...2017-06-0500 minDO IT FOR A LIVING101: Andy Fritts explains how he helped expand Seibon by creating Anderson Composites to go after the domestic marketAndy’s enthusiasm towards cars came from his father. They would spend nights and weekend working/modifying older cars. Then they got into carting and quickly graduated up to racing shifter carts. This transitioned into a quick stent learning to race open wheel cars at the Skip Barber Racing School. Throughout all of this, Andy held on to his passion of filming and sharing his experiences with outdoor activities. To pursue this as a career, he enrolled in Sacramento State University and majored in video Production. Years later, he got married, moved to Temecula in southern California, an...2017-04-2400 minDO IT FOR A LIVING100: Reid Lunde returns as a guest for Episode 100 and tells us about Kaizenspeed and KS TunedEpisode 100 features a very special guest! Reid Lunde sits down on the other side of the table for his own interview. He has spoken with dozens of other influencers in the business, but never had a chance to really share his story. Now, he gets his shot! Reid’s first experience with cars came in the form of RC racing when he was a kid. Not coming from a car family, he pretty much went out on his own to find inspiration. When he got into high school, his love of full size cars started. He made mo...2017-04-1700 minDO IT FOR A LIVING099: Ron Sledge gives some insight on how King Engine Bearings operates in the US.Ron Sledge has spent his life excited about cars and knew from an early age that he wanted to work on them as a career. He started his career in the aftermarket in the early 70’s at Michigan Engine Bearings as an industrial engineer. He got them involved in NASCAR in the early 80’s and traveled all over the country going to the races. In 2010, Ron starter working at King Engine Bearings. Ron has worked to double the sales since he started and solidified King Engine Bearings as a premier motorsports-grade bearing. He has stayed in Kentucky, and...2017-04-1000 minDO IT FOR A LIVING098: Kenny Tran of Jotech Motorsports says passion and focus are the keys to successKenny immigrated to the US from Vietnam and acquired his love of cars through his cousin who subscribed to every car magazine imaginable. They would pour over pictures and specs and dreamed of owning one of these sports cars. His passion for cars continued to grow and in 1995, he started to work at Jo-Tech which was started by his brother-in-law. Kenny was going to college for business administration but decided to purchase Jo-Tech instead of finishing his degree. The opportunity was too good to pass up, so he took the plunge and bought the business. Kenny quickly...2017-04-0300 minDO IT FOR A LIVING097: Sam Barros of Nostrum Energy saw a need for aftermarket direct injection injectors and is meeting the demand.Sam Barros came to the US to pursue a mechanical engineering degree at Michigan Tech University. During college, Sam interned at a nuclear power plant as a system engineer and loved the idea of working at a large engineering firm. But, when Sam graduate, he went a completely different direction. He moved to California and worked as a special effects engineer doing high-voltage special effects. One day, Sam got a random phone call from a very prominent businessman, Nermal Mouliea, who proposed that Sam come work for him on a new fuel efficiency project. Sam did a...2017-03-2700 minDO IT FOR A LIVING096: Thad Norman of Hypercar Development has lofty goals for their McLaren and wants to break a whole bunch of recordsThad Norman teamed up with a long-time friend, Safa Yousef, with aspirations to turn up the performance on the McLaren cars. Safa came from a racing background in both cars and motorcycles, while Thad came from an engineering and automation background. Together, they knew they could push the limits of what is capable with a factory car. They weren’t shooting for straight line performance, but were more focused on all around improvements. Thad and Safa had to seek outside funding to get the business going and had to try several different avenues before finding investors willing to...2017-03-0600 minDO IT FOR A LIVING095: Hear how Chris Rhoad started StudioRhoad.com to build beautiful websites and create engaging content for businessesChris went to college and specialized in Advertising and Design. He worked as a graphic designer at various companies over the years before ending up in Knoxville, TN. He had started StudioRhoad.com many years ago, but really took it serious a few years ago, and decided to run the business full time. He now employs 4 people and has several freelancers located around the globe. His team specializes in creating websites geared towards the end user. This process includes a discovery phase where Studio Rhoad determines exactly who the end user is and how that user interacts...2017-02-2700 minDO IT FOR A LIVING094: Jim Liaw tells us how he helped bring drifting to the US with Formula DriftJim Liaw grew up in Southern California and was immediately drawn to the street racing scene. But his passion really started when he saw an E30 BMW M3 and fell in love with the looks. During college, he reached out to any automotive related business he could think of looking for a job or internship. He landed a spot at Sport Compact Car as an intern working on finding new sponsors for the magazines. His next job was in the import drag racing with the IDRC series and sold sponsorships and booth spaces for their races. The next position...2017-02-2000 minDO IT FOR A LIVING093: Dave Vasser used hard work and determination to build Nitrous Outlet into a powerhouse in the nitrous marketDave Vasser grew up in Waco, TX and fell in love with street racing right away. He wasn’t too interested in school and actually dropped out in 10th grade to work with his uncle at his framing company. He worked at various other businesses but always dabbled with modifying cars and making them fast. He opened his for automotive business in 2000 selling race gas and nitrous out of a trailer. The next year, he started renting a space and doing installs. The business grew rather quickly and he had to move to a larger space to accommodate the va...2017-02-1300 minDO IT FOR A LIVING092: Ken Anderson has helped many companies grown their US presence. Hear about his latest venture with Mountune USAKen Anderson grew up in LA during the 70’s and enjoyed normal kid stuff like biking and skateboarding. Ken’s first car was a VW Bug and he discovered how much fun it was to customize it. In the mid-80’s, he got a job at a local Honda dealership in the parts department. That dealership begin importing Mugen parts from Japan and was installing them onto cars. After a few years of working at the dealership, he wanted to get into racing and got in touch with Russ at RC Engineering. Ken started as a shop assistant and learne...2017-02-0600 minDO IT FOR A LIVING091: Mike and Rossy Welch tell us how they met and built Road Race EngineeringMike got his start with race cars be being a corner worker at the local track. After a near-death experience with a crashing car, Mike decided to move to tech inspection. Here, he started to offer repair services to the guys going through tech and then branched out to helping them modify the race cars. Then he dabbled in co-driving with Rod Millen and helping them build cars. Mike was then approached by a friend who wanted to open a shop so they opened Road Race in late 1993. Over the years, the business never really got a strong footing...2017-01-3100 minDO IT FOR A LIVING090: Hear what it takes to start a performance shop with James Siebert of F&S MotorsportsJames Siebert has partnered with his friend and fellow car enthusiast, Scott Frazho, to start their own brick and mortar performance shop. They have both been interested in and have owned Mitsubishi’s over the years and exchanged stories at the annual Buschur Shootout. Individually, they both have been working on friend’s cars in the respective garages and would purchase parts via another shop to install on customer’s cars. They also would buy race cars, part them out, return them to stock, and then sell them to raise working capital. In 2016, they decided to partner up and...2017-01-2300 minDO IT FOR A LIVING089: Marty Staggs of Turbosmart USA explains how he helped bridge the gap between Australia and the USMarty Staggs was born into drag racing. Both his father and grandfather raced meaning that he was always around fast cars. As a child, Marty helped his dad build dune buggies in the garage and learned to weld at a very young age. He pursued an education in mechanical engineering but never got his college degree. He met his wife and quickly started a family so he got jobs working in commercial controls businesses. But he was always building stuff for cars and focused on the VW platform. Eventually, he stumbled upon a Turbosmart Wastegate and loved the product...2017-01-1600 minDO IT FOR A LIVING088: Frank Rehak tells how he transformed his family auto shop to Driveshaft Shop over several decades.Frank Rehak grew up working at the family’s shop and initially thought he was going to find a career as a motorcycle mechanic. He got a few jobs working on motorcycles and realized it wasn’t as great as he hoped. So he went back to work with his dad. He started at the bottom cleaning the machines and sweeping the floors. Frank worked his way up and eventually had quite a lot of responsibility at the shop. He had a few ideas about doing exchanges with customers and boxing up product to sell them anywhere and slowly bega...2017-01-0900 minDO IT FOR A LIVING087: Cody Loveland of LoveFab and Affinity Aero shares how he went from Honda’s to NSX’s to tube-frame carbon-bodied race cars.Cody Loveland worked on bicycles during his early teens but realized cars were way cooler when he turned 16. It didn’t take him long before he was piecing together turbo kits for his EK Civic and quickly had a group of people asking for him to make parts for their cars. His step-dad loaned him the money for a tig welder and Cody never looked back. While he was working as a package sorter for UPS, he started LoveFab, Inc in 2002 and worked both jobs for several months. But he quit his job and decided to not go back to...2016-12-1900 minDO IT FOR A LIVING086: Franco Ganino of Alliant Insurance talks about their Garage Keepers insurance plan called Installers EdgeFranco Ganino has been working at Aliant Insurance for 23 years. Being a car guy, Franco was excited when given the opportunity to work with Bob Corwin to work with SEMA and provide insurance. At the time, Bob was risk advisor for the NHRA and they become instant friends. They worked together to create an insurance product specifically for the SEMA members. They created “The Specialty Equipment Insurance Alliance” (SEIAinsuance.com) with the initial goal of proving manufacturers with product liability insurance. After 10 years, they started to add plans for garage keeper’s insurance. What they came up with would be kno...2016-12-1200 minDO IT FOR A LIVING085: Gidi Chamdi exposes the real truth about what it takes to chase the 6 second quarter mile with his GTR.Gidi Chamdi was born in Israel and immigrated with his family to the US in 1985. He wasn’t really interested in cars until he stumbled upon a magazine showcasing the R35 GTR. He became intrigued and bought one in one in April of 2013. A friend turned him onto a Shift Sector event in Willow Springs and got a tour of the track from Jason Huang. At the end of the event, they did an impromptu roll race and Gidi won it. From here on out, he was addicted! He did some research and picked ACG Automotive in Sa...2016-12-0500 minDO IT FOR A LIVING084: JP from Radium Engineering tells how he concentrates on design and outsources the manufacturing.Jeremy Powell (aka JP) grew up in Florida and his family couldn’t care less about the car culture. JP spent his early years skating and building ramps. When he graduated high school in 1995, he bought a Honda Civic and started to modify it with an intake and some headers. After feeling zero performance gains, he decided to bolt on a turbo kit which really woke the car up! From here on out, he became addicted to performance. During college, he decided that he wanted to work in the aftermarket automotive industry. He mailed a copy of his resume al...2016-11-2800 minDO IT FOR A LIVING083: Zach Denney explains how he brought ECUMaster to the United StatesZach Denney started his career in the automotive industry by working at Discount Tire. He also participated in the auto tech program in high school. Zach went off to college for engineering but he couldn’t really get motivated and ended up leaving school. He started working at a shop that bought and sold Supra’s. After that, he began working at ATS Racing working on MR2’s and honed his fabrication and tuning skills. Zach then went back to engineering school at UNT in Denton, TX and became involved with the Formula SAE program. He started building wiring harnes...2016-11-1400 minDO IT FOR A LIVING082: Matt Beenen tells us how he climbed the ranks to become President of GrimmSpeedMatt Beenen has always been interested in how things worked and his parents facilitated this fascination. As he grew up, Matt was interested in vehicle technology and pursued this passion by getting a Mechanical Engineering degree in college. He got involved with the SAE Mini Baja team at college. This gave him insight into teamwork, scheduling, and actually manufacturing a race vehicle. After college, Matt got a job at BAE Systems and worked as a systems engineer. On the weekends, he modified and raced his 2006 Subaru STI. This is where he met some of the GrimmSpeed employees...2016-10-3100 minDO IT FOR A LIVING081: Jud Massingill, founder of School of Automotive Machinists, tells us how he built the coolest vocational school around!Jud Massingill was born in Houston and has lived there his whole life. He attended the University of Houston and met his wife there. They have been married since the 70’s and she was the person who motivated Jud to make The School of Automotive Machinists (SAM). Jud got started racing at the circle tracks and caught the eye of an investor who wanted to back his racing team and open up a machine shop. This investor decided to spend his time and money elsewhere and offered the business for Jud to buy. He jumped on the opportunity, hired a...2016-10-2400 minDO IT FOR A LIVING080: Jason Dienhart details how he created Global Time AttackJason grew up in Orange County, CA and has always enjoyed going fast and being involved with fast cars. He was particularly fond of the late 80’s and early 90’s import tuners cars. In 1995, Jason purchased a brand new Honda Civic hatchback SI and began installing parts before he even brought it home! Things got extreme pretty fast and before he knew it, Jason was swapping motors in his Honda and in his friends’ cars. Jason became a crew chief for one of his friends and found a skill in organization and planning events. He used this skill to get a...2016-10-1700 minDO IT FOR A LIVING079: Louis Gigliotti focuses on efficiency and tracking metrics to keep GSpeed on a path to successLouis Gigliotti was born into racing and his father, Lou Gigliotti, took him to his first race when he was 4. He was welding and building tube chassis cars in his early teens. For college, Louis chose Purdue University to be close to Indianapolis and racing. Purdue had a Formula SAE team and Louis joined to pursue his passion of building cool and fast cars. Louis left school early and worked for the family racing business and competing in World Challenge. This lasted a few years before Louis decided to branch out on his own and started GSS...2016-10-1000 minDO IT FOR A LIVING078: Cole Powelson of LYFE Motorsport shares his journey to building the fastest Time Attack R35 GTR in the world.Cole Powelson grew up racing BMX bikes and first worked assembling bikes at a shop. When he was in high school, he began transitioning his passion towards cars. Fast & Furious came out and this drew Cole to the tuner scene. He went to a technical school and even attended a Porsche factory training program in Atlanta when he was 20. By 22, he had moved back to Salt Lake City and was turning wrenches for a race team while worked at a dealership full time. Around this time, Miller Motorsports Park opened up and provided Cole with more and more motorsports...2016-10-0300 minDO IT FOR A LIVING077: Jens von Holten shares his story of sailing from South Africa to the Americas and eventually purchasing Fuel Injector Clinic.Jens von Holten grew up in Cape town, South Africa during apartheid. While this was pretty difficult, it did open his eyes to understanding how other people experience the world. He received his Mechanic Engineering degree from the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town and had aspirations of becoming an engineer for a racing related company. His first position at a race team was the humbling job of sweeping the floor! Jens was willing to do anything to prove himself so he set out to be the best floor cleaner ever. This quickly materialized into promotions within the team...2016-09-2600 minDO IT FOR A LIVING076: Ryan Basseri from Rywire details how he grew his custom wiring businessRyan grew up in Monterey, CA and enjoyed the car scene of that area. His really got into cars was with a Honda CRX back in 1999 and began doing modifications and even engine swaps. He moved to San Jose for college and continued working on his passion for the CRX’s. He started a small wiring business out of his apartment during college to makes small looms and sub-harnesses. This started to grow and Ryan decided to leave college to devote his time to the wiring business. He moved into a house with some friends and turned the place to...2016-09-1900 minDO IT FOR A LIVING075: Brian Tooley, the founder of Brian Tooley Racing, tells us how he went from hand porting heads in his apartment kitchen to running 5-axis CNC machinesBrain is a self-proclaimed geek who spent most of his early years at Radio Shack. He was very interested in electronics and building model rockets. Never did he imagine that he would be programming machines to port heads for some of the fastest cars out there. When Brian turned 18, he joined the Navy and bought a Z28 Camaro. This sent him down the path of performance cars. In 1993, he started Total Engine Airflow and started porting heads. He then began working for Holley Performance doing product development. He didn’t last long at this job due to di...2016-09-1200 minDO IT FOR A LIVING074: Brian Mack from Lathrop & Gage talks patents!Brian Mack initially had aspirations of becoming an astronaut and got his Aerospace Engineering degree in college. After college, he took a job at Pratt & Whitney where he got to work on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. He went on to work for a company designing replacement parts for gas turbine engines for power plants. But, within a year, the company was sued by GE for patent infringement. This was Brian’s first experience with patent law and got to see the mix of engineering, science, and law together. From this, he decided to move and pursue his law de...2016-09-0500 minDO IT FOR A LIVING071: Terry Fair of Vorshlag Motorsports exposes the hard truths of purchasing CNC machinesTerry Fair started doing paint and body work at 14 even though his family really didn’t have any interested in cars. Terry’s decision on which college to attend was based on an invite from a friend to go check out an autocross held by Texas A&M in College Station, TX. He had never seen anything like it and he totally fell in love. He went for a couple rides with people that he still works with to this day. After college, Terry and his wife, Amy, moved to Houston and he began working in the oil...2016-08-0800 minDO IT FOR A LIVING069: Greg of GSC Power Division shares his path to manufacturing billet camshafts.Greg Caloudas has been tinkering with cars his whole life but he never imaged that he would be developing and manufacturing engine internals. His first experience with an import was back in 1999 when he purchased a 1994 Supra. He had seen an upgraded one at a race track and though, “I’ve got to have one!” While in college, Greg majored in Business Management with the plan of working for himself. He wasn’t really interested in the family business of restaurants and real estate. He began modifying his Supra and quickly realized there was a market for him to become a...2016-07-2500 minDO IT FOR A LIVING059: Round table discussion - System for certifying shops, tuners, and engine buildersIn the first Do It For A Living roundtable discussion, we discuss the idea of certifying shops, tuners, and engine builders to work on customer cars. Kevin Dubois assumes the role of a shop owner. Ben Strader takes on the task from an education standpoint. And Todd Earsley will act as a consumer. The idea is to bring a sense of legitimacy into an otherwise fragmented market. Think of something like ASE certification for mechanics, or Better Business Bureau for businesses, or even Master Plumber certification. We go over topics such as: Does the industry...2016-05-1600 minDO IT FOR A LIVING042: Jimi Day from FM3 Marketing discusses how to get the most out of attending eventsJimi Day from FM3 Marketing discusses how he went from being an investment banker, to a shop owner, and finally to a marketing company that hosts and promotes motorsports events. His company is most well known for their involvement in the Hot Rod Power Tour, Holley LS Fest, the Optima Search for the Ultimate Street Car series, and their newest event called Road Trip. He took his expertise at writing proposals and took that knowledge to get sponsorships for builds. He emphasizes that you need to be humble and try to continually improve how you do business.2016-01-1800 minDO IT FOR A LIVING041: Todd Earsley from My Shop Assist discusses the importance of working ON your business, not IN your businessIn Kevin Dubois’ first interview as an additional host, he talks with his partner, Todd Earsley, about how they are going to keep Do It For A Living going! They will be helping Reid to do more interviews and provide more episodes for the listeners.
Todd took his experience in business school and partnered with Kevin Dubois to help make shops more profitable. In today’s immediate satisfaction, internet market, it has become more and more important for shops to ensure their service side is operating at its fullest potential.2016-01-1100 minDO IT FOR A LIVING040: Kevin Dubois from My Shop Assist discusses the importance of accurately tracking your buildsKevin Dubois is the co-founder of My Shop Assist, a project management system designed specifically for aftermarket automotive shops. He took his experience (and mistakes) as the owner of Evolution Dynamics to create a tool to help owners run their shop more efficiently. After a tremendous crash at Pikes Peak in 2012, he decided it was time to buckle down and get serious about turning his performance shop from a hobby to a real business.2016-01-0400 minDO IT FOR A LIVING034: Bottle and Nero Deliwala from Titan Motorsports talk racing, business systems, and lessons learned“Bottle” and Nero Deliwala are the owners of Titan Motorsports, one of the founding internet e-commerce businesses in the performance automotive world. They were involved back in the days when NOPI was a big player and the OEM’s were sponsoring import drag racing. In this episode we talk about how racing fuels their distribution business and how their business has grown and changed over the years. From a college dorm room to a multi-million dollar business, Titan Motorsports has taught these guys a thing or two about business and they share some lessons in this episode. 2015-07-0600 minDO IT FOR A LIVING031: Are the odds stacked against you!? Eric and Marc Kozeluh from Twins Turbo Motorsports tell their rags to - fabricator’s storyMarc and Eric Kozeluh are identical twin brothers from New York who grew up reading Hot Rod Magazine. These guys came up at the time that B-series engines were making damn near the same power as a Mustang 5.0 and they wanted to know more. Like any story worth telling, they had some serious obstacles to overcome and they conquered and made a statement because they were willing to put in the time. If you’ve ever used your upbringing as a crutch then you need to stop being a little bitch and listen to this. 2015-06-0100 minDO IT FOR A LIVINGEpisode 016: Todd Lewis from Mainline Dyno expands on his journey from mechanic to business-ownerTodd Lewis came from a family of tradesmen in Australia. After 10 years of schooling, he followed the family path and got an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic. Because of his family’s machining background and his willingness to work hard, Todd moved up the ladder quickly. He gained experience as a mechanic before applying for a job at the company that he’s now the owner of. 2015-04-1000 minDO IT FOR A LIVINGEpisode 007: Todd Berk from Push, Inc. talks about integrating hardware and software for his new motorsports productTodd Berk from Push, Inc. is a mechatronics engineer who is using his passion for design to create a gauge for measuring acceleration and G-forces and talk to other Smart Gauges via Bluetooth. His product, the Smart Gauge is designed to measure acceleration and multiple angle G-forces and through the use of Push, Inc.’s software they intend to add the ability to share race and acceleration results directly to social media platforms like Facebook. The fit and finish is very high quality, and the best part? He’s designed the entire thing from circuit board to aesthetics himself! From...2015-03-2000 min