In this episode of Do It For a Living, we sit down for a followup with brothers Alejandro and Pablo Moreno, co-owners of Tandem Offroad. Their shop specializes in off-road truck builds and general maintenance, serving customers who demand both performance upgrades and reliable day-to-day service. The brothers share their journey of building a business together, the challenges of manufacturing their own products, and how they've grown their customer base in a competitive market.

One of the biggest challenges they faced was manufacturing their own products without properly understanding their true costs. Like many small shops, they were pricing based on what felt right or what competitors charged, not on what it actually cost them to make parts when you factor in materials, labor, overhead, and time. We dig into how they discovered they were losing money on products they thought were profitable, the wake-up call that forced them to completely rethink their pricing strategy, and the systems they put in place to ensure every product they make actually contributes to the bottom line instead of draining it.

Find out more about Tandem Offroad at www.tandemoffroad.com

Find out more about My Shop Assist at www.myshopassist.com
Check out all our content at www.doitforaliving.net

Thank you for listening and be sure to subscribe!

In this episode of Do It For a Living, we welcome back Zach Denney for a follow-up to his first appearance on episode 083. Back then, Zach was running Wholesale POwer (WHP), the US distributor for ECU Master, as a one-man operation out of an 1,800 square foot facility, hoping to hire his first employee. Fast forward to today, and he's now importing several brands including ECU Master, Verkline, and Delta ABS, as well as manufacturing harnesses and components to compliment those product lines.

Zach shares how he scaled from solo importer to running a full team, the challenges of navigating COVID-era supply chain disruptions and tariffs, and how he's positioned his companies in an increasingly competitive aftermarket electronics market. We also dig into product development, dealer training, the shift toward standalone ECUs, and what's coming next — including advanced displays and GDI applications.

We cover:
Growing from a one-man show
Building a team and defining employee roles
Supply chain and tariff challenges
Why everyone's moving to standalone ECUs
Training and supporting your dealer network
Order management systems and software stack
The future of integrating modern tech into older platforms

Check out ECU Master USA at www.ecumasterusa.com
Check out Verkline at www.verkline.com
Check out Delta ABS at www.deltaABS.com

Find out more about My Shop Assist at www.myshopassist.com
Check out all our content at www.doitforaliving.net

Thank you for listening and be sure to subscribe!

In this episode of Do It For a Living, we sit down with Kevin Emr, the visionary behind e-Muscle Cars. Kevin shares the story of his journey to combine cutting-edge electric vehicle power and technology with the classic aesthetics of muscle cars. We dive into the challenges of building an innovative business in a rapidly evolving market, how Kevin approaches modernizing iconic vehicles without losing their soul, and his vision for the future of electrified performance. If you're curious about the electrification of classic cars or looking for inspiration from an industry disruptor, this is an episode you won't want to miss!

Follow Kevin at www.e-musclecars.com

Check us out at www.doitforalivingpodcast.com
or on facebook www.facebook.com/doitforaliving

Be sure to check out My Shop Assist
or watch our video to see how to works in a shop

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 degree. He has worked with software companies, energy companies, engineering firms, and one of the Big Three auto manufactures on patent work.

Lathrop & Gage has a long history of providing counsel for all sorts of legal matters. This podcast covers the specifics of patent law and we will be featuring more podcasts that cover other areas pertaining to the aftermarket automotive industry.

JJ entered the car scene by helping friends out with audio and alarms. When he went to college, JJ opened up a small car audio shop. During his senior year of college, he started working with a friend who owned a performance shop in 1996. Before he finished college, he realized that he needed to devote all of his efforts into the performance shop and decided to work there full-time.

Fast forward to 2004 and JJ has started his own shop. He began buying and flipping cars to make some money. This morphed into buying and selling just Subarus and turning modified cars back into stock cars. Then he would sell off the performance parts to make even more money. 2007 was a turning point for JJ and his shop. He had been selling just parts but saw a need in the market to install these parts as well. But then the market took a turn for the worst. To keep the doors open, he resorted to selling Christmas trees during the winter and scrapping U-Haul trucks. He weathered the downturn and has been rocking ever since!

Nowadays, he is shipping out 5-6 engines each day and installing a few more each week. He is manufacturing parts and machining engines all day long. To get to this point, he had to take on a little risk and lease equipment versus saving up and buying them outright. But this risk allowed his business to grow quickly and get ahead of the market to make some money. IAG Performance now has a total of 5 CNC machines in a 24,000 square foot facility and 30 employees. His latest project is a billet block for the Subarus which should allow them to produce much more power. He plans on expanding the footprint of his business to continue to make more products.

David first realized the potency of a turbo when his dad (driving his Turbo Buick) smoked his V8 Monte Carlo from a light. This led David to trade in his Monte Carlo for an AWD Eagle Talon in 1989. He bought an air filter and an exhaust for the car and ran a mid-13 sec ¼ mile which amazed all the big V8 guys. From this point forward, David was hooked! He immediately began making parts he needed to see what the car was doing and to make it go faster. David got involved with an email community and began selling parts he made all over the country.

David and a few of his buddies got together and had the first unofficial Shootout with a total of 4 people in 1991. The next year, David organized the first official Shootout and 8 people showed up. His attendance to the event doubled (at least) every year as the platform became more and more potent. Now in its 26th year, The Buschur Shootout (DSM/Evo Shootout and some GTR's) is enormous and cars come from all over to compete and show off.

In this interview, David stays true to himself and has no problem calling people out. He was kind enough to keep some names out if it, but don't think he is holding back. When you have been in the industry as long as he has, you learn a thing or two about loyalty. While David refers to himself as the "dumb redneck" sometimes, he continues to push the envelope in the tuning world.

Terry 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 industry. He was still wrenching on the side to keep the automotive passion alive. In 2005, Terry had moved to Dallas and teamed up with an old college buddy to create a real business out working on cars. They created Vorshlag (which means absolutely nothing) and started to specialize in LS swaps back before it was cool. In 2006, they flew to Holland and teamed up with AST to create a mono-tube motorsports shock. Eventually, Terry bought out a business that built camber plates and this became the main product for Vorshlag. He has moved a couple times but stresses having a nice, clean facility for customers to see and experience the level of professionalism at Vorshlag. His current space is 7500 square feet and employs 6 people.

Recently, Terry dove in and bought his own CNC machines to manufacture his parts. He made this decision because he was getting more and more frustrated working with outside vendors to manufacture both prototype parts and production pieces.

AJ didn't really come from an automotive enthusiast family. But when his older brother purchased a white Fox Body Mustang, AJ immediately fell in love. During high school, he began working at a collision business and began working on cars. He worked there for 6 years and picked up body work pretty quickly. After that, he got an associate's degree in automotive technology and got a total of 8 ASE certifications. He began working at Pep Boys but quickly moved back to a collision shop. AJ purchased a house and began doing side jobs out of his garage. These side jobs kept getting bigger and bigger until he finally made the leap to make a real business out of it! His first composite part was a headlight duct for his Mustang.

One thing led to another and AJ ended up purchasing another composites business which really got the ball rolling on AJ Hartman Aero. He leveraged his experience repairing cars to begin making composite parts. His current shop is 5200 square feet with several rooms dedicated to each process of making composite parts.

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 dealer and sell parts online. What started as a side business turned into GSC Motorsports (using his initials as the business name).

One day, Greg was approached by somebody who had some unbranded cams available for Evo's. There was a long wait for the HKS cams at the time so Greg decided to purchase the 50 or so sets and market them as GSC Cams. He sold all of them in a few months' time with a relatively unknown business. This result caused Greg to focus more of his efforts on manufacturing and selling camshafts. He realized pretty quickly that he would need to manufacture his own products here in the US versus having them made overseas. This ensures that he can closely monitor and control the quality of his product. Once he decided to dive into manufacturing a billet cam, this became even more important!

Steven Aghakhani is a 13 year old who races exotic cars for a living! Everything from McClarens, Porsches, Lamborghinis, and even Formula 1 cars. His racing career began when he was 6 in go carts and it quickly morphed into something more serious. He has participated in several half mile events as well as raced at numerous circuit tracks.

Even though money is an obvious help in getting started racing super cars, Steven explains that there is a ton of mental and physical training required to sustain the strain of racing at 100% for hours at a time. He trains all the time and is at the track almost every day. But he has to balance this racing life with his school life with hopes that he can attend UCLA to study law and follow in his father's footsteps.

Jay Payson's love of motored vehicles goes all the way back before he can remember. He began working at a repair shop / filling station in his late teens where he learned a ton of information about cars. He gave college a try but that wasn't quite his thing. So he found an automotive program through General Motors at a community college which really peaked his interest. He worked at a few dealerships and then transitioned to a testing facility. His various jobs over the years moved him to Michigan to go where the work was.

In 1999, he went to work for SuperChips as a calibrator. Things have come a long way from floppy drive flash tunes! He moved into upper management by 2004 where he helped them grow several hundred percent over the years. He then moved to HP Tuners where he has been for almost 10 years. He has helped grow this company as well and focuses on creating mutually beneficial relationships with other companies.

Ravi Dolwani is a 4th generation member of the CSF Radiator company and is the CEO of the High Performance Division. This division is something that he started around 2010 with the intent of expanding the business to markets besides OEM manufacturers (such as Isuzu, John Deere, Mercedes Benz, etc.). He thought this expansion would be very seamless, but he soon found out this was not the case at all. He had to hit the pavement and go out to meet shops and spread the word about what he wanted to provide. Over the years, he grew the brand and proved that CSF could make a superior product.

Ravi put a lot of thought into how they sell their products. He made the decision to only sell through distributors and not go direct to consumers. The margins may be less, but this allows his team to focus on developing great products and not spend so much time on customer service inquiries. This all falls on the shoulders of the retailers who sell the product. Ravi has also been able to leverage economies of scale by piggybacking off the infrastructure of the parent company. This allows him to create a great product at a reasonable rate.

Lee Sweitzer has been around Mustangs all his life and even had a 1984 5.0 Mustang for his first car. At 17, he graduated high school and joined the service to become a Marine. He was stationed in Southern California and continued to race Mustangs. He has spent several years planning and preparing to open up his own performance shop to follow his passion. Lee has seen shop owners work themselves to the bone and is trying very hard to avoid falling into those pitfalls. He understands that it takes a bunch of hard work, but he wants to avoid making mistakes by researching ways to operate more efficiently. He has attended the Essentials of Operating a Shop seminar, many business seminars, talked with business coaches, and read business books.

He has just received the keys to his initial shop space and has begun to get the business going part time. It is a very small space but he really isn't tied down to a lease agreement so he has the option to move out whenever he needs more space. Lee already plans to work part time for several months to build up a client base and then look into moving into a larger space to hold multiple lifts and eventually, a chassis dyno. He is taking the task of opening up a shop very seriously and wants to limit his risk of making mistakes as he moves forward. Writing a formal business plan was an integral part of this process. While this may seem rare in the performance automotive world, writing a business plan forces you to take a hard look at the structure of how you want to operate.

After a four-year break, we're back with a brand-new season of the Do It For A Living Podcast, and we're kicking things off strong with a follow up from a special guest: Matt Beenen. Matt is an experienced entrepreneur and the driving force behind several successful businesses, Builtright and Mountech. In this episode, he shares insights from his journey, the challenges he's faced, and the strategies that helped him scale and strengthen his companies.

We dive into topics like building a sustainable business model, adapting to industry changes, and the importance of a solid team. Matt opens up about the lessons he's learned along the way, including the mindset shifts that have been crucial to his growth as a leader and business owner.

Whether you're a shop owner, entrepreneur, or just passionate about business, this episode is packed with actionable insights and inspiration to help you on your own journey. Tune in as we relaunch the Do It For A Living Podcast with Matt Beenen's story, and join us as we embark on a new season of learning and growth together.

Follow Matt at https://builtrightind.com/
https://www.facebook.com/builtrightind
https://mountechusa.com/
https://www.instagram.com/mountechusa

Check us out at www.doitforalivingpodcast.com
or on facebook www.facebook.com/doitforaliving

Be sure to check out My Shop Assist
or watch our video to see how to works in a shop

Carlos Tirado remembers reading car enthusiast magazines while riding the school bus every day. His brother bought a 1995 DSM and he fell in love with imports. His brother sold the car but Carlos was able to track it down and purchase it back when he was in high school. After graduation, he went to college to work with electronics and it just didn't interest him as much as he hoped. He shifted gears and changed his major to automotive refinishing. This is where he found how he could turn his passion for cars into a way to make money. He stumbled into powder coating when he saw some people posting on the forum needing their DSM valve covers to be powder coated.

Carlos met Jorge of JMS Racing and they formed a business and personal relationship of working together. The business officially started when Carlos asked his forum buddies what he should call his business. He has since moved locations to be right by JMS Racing and continues to capitalize on that business relationship.

He now rents a 1000 square foot facility and keeps it full of work. He has focused on producing the highest quality product possible and has invested quite a bit on upgrading his equipment. Carlos hopes to hire one or two employees over the next year and move to a larger facility so he can meet the demand for his work.

Jack McGee's earliest memories of working on electronics, and even repairing VCR's when he was 8. All of this was taking place in Jack's home country of Spain and a little bit in Italy. It wasn't until he was 15 that his father retired from the military and they moved to Colorado Springs, CO where he still lives today.

His first real business venture was partnering with local electronic stores and repair various items these stores would collect. This was a great venture for a while but he could see the market beginning to shrink and decided to stop this side repair business. He entered the workforce as a typical employee: guaranteed work, benefits, overtime pay, etc. But it just didn't satisfy his need for exciting work. So he left this job and spent some time taking a break from life responsibilities. A few years go by and Jack ended up purchasing a Galant VR4 which he eventually rebuilt the trans for. Word spread that he was doing this and he started doing more and more work on these cars. One thing led to another and Jack looked up one day and had purchased a 5000 square foot building which he still works out of today.

Now, Jack does everything he can to make the customers happy and keep improving his business. Difficult problems have arisen, but he and his team have done whatever they could to solve any issues that customers may encounter. And he is continually looking for ways to increase the efficiency at his shop. With 13 employees, this task is quite daunting but totally worth it when they can cut out wasteful activities. This has helped Jacks Transmissions become more successful than ever and given them direction on where to focus their efforts.

Jeremy is a 4th generation gearhead. He grew up working on everything from go carts to dune buggies to race cars while growing up. And he still has the same passion today as he did when he was a kid. The traditional college path just didn't feel right and Jeremy decided to go back to work with his dad at one of his body shops. This is when he began transitioning towards working on hot rods. He got a job at a small hot rod shop and eventually purchased the shop. They have since moved from the original location and have grown to 50,000 square feet and employ 60 people.

Jeremy is very focused on making improvements at the shop. As the business has grown, he and his brother have had to take on more professional roles and drift away from getting their hands dirty. This means implementing new software to manage and track the workflow called GlobalShop. They work hard to ensure their fabricators have all the parts and tools they need within easy reach. They talk with the chassis guys to hear ways to speed up and simplify the processes. They attribute a lot of their success to constantly improving their operations.

Don explains the ins and outs of running a successful dealership. While dealerships are often considered in a negative light, they are in the business of making money and are pretty efficient at doing so. Don provides valuable insight about the methods and metrics they use to gauge success and make decisions. They hold weekly status meetings and utilize software to track and delegate every aspect of the business. Listen in to gain knowledge about ways that you can improve operations at your shop!

Don Herring Jr. started his automotive career at 12 when he began washing cars at a dealership. During high school, he moved up to work in the parts department. He went off to college thinking he was going to become a doctor, then changed plans with the hopes of entering the air force. Unfortunately, his timing coincided with the end of the cold war and his aspirations of entering the air force diminished. So he again turned his attention to the automotive industry. He was making very good money being a car salesman during college and moved back to Dallas to join the family dealership. By 2005, his family had 3 dealerships and Don Herring Jr was in charge of the third dealership. He survived the 2008 economic turndown and 2015 has been their best year since then.

In this episode, we go down a slightly different path and interview a smaller shop owner to get his perspective on running a performance shop.

Justin Miller started working as a dealer tech at age 17in Raleigh, NC. He began doing work and selling parts online in his free time. Justin has worked hard to grow his business with an initial investment of his own $1200. He now rents a 4200 sq ft building with a dyno and several lifts. And he employees 1 full time technician and a receptionist.

In 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 need some sort of standard? What might the qualifications be to become a "Certified Shop/Tuner/Engine Builder?" Who would enforce this standard? How would this benefit the consumer? And many more!

David Localio was fortunate enough to have a family who fully supported his addiction to horsepower! He bought his first car in 6th grade. (That's correct. 6th grade!) His first experience with turbos came when he got ahold of a Buick Grand National and spent all of high school modifying it into the 10's. He got a job at a local repair shop and realized that service work just wasn't for him. So he enrolled in the School of Automotive Machinist (SAM) and ended up working there as well. He then went on to be involved with a ton of influential racers and engine builders over the years. He eventually began working on import motors because he saw a void in the market. This was the official beginning of Headgames Motorworks.

David was hit really hard by the financial crisis in 2008 and barely made it out still in business. He was forced to let most of his people go and got several months behind on his bills which has wreaked havoc on his credit. But he toughed it out, worked hard, and emerged stronger than ever! Now he works out of a 5000 square foot building with several employees and cranks out some of the best heads in the market.

Andrew Brilliant was gracious enough to continue to talk with us about aerodynamics. Tune in to this special Bonus Episode to hear more details about what he can do to improve aerodynamics on your car.

Andrew grew up in LA loving cars and knowing he wanted to be involved in racing. He attended Berkeley where he got his Mechanical Engineering degree. During his first job as a software engineer, he started helping the owner of the company who happened to have a couple race cars. This was his first experience with a racing team.

This let to Andrew creating simulations to determine gear rations and then expanded it to aero simulations. He continued to get more and more opportunities with racing teams and decided to leave the software company. He discovered that aerodynamics was that "thing" that he wanted to do for the rest of his career. This is when he created AMB-Aero. The chips started to fall into place and he moved to Japan where all the most advanced aero cars were racing.

He has worked on some very famous Time Attack cars from all over the world. And he is available to visit your team and discuss ways to improve the aerodynamics of your race car…without breaking the bank. But if you want to go all out, he is the best in the business and his car's lap times can prove it!

His passion for performance really got started when he went to college for mechanic engineering and joined the Formula SAE team. While at a competition in 2010, he met a representative of Pratt & Miller and ended up getting a job with them at their design office. This transitioned into a job at the Cadillac Racing team with Pratt & Miller. He worked on the CTS-V team for 4 years and now works on the ATS-V team. They use complex simulations and advanced telemetry data to make the cars perform at the absolute limit. With the rules constantly changing, the team has to adapt to stay ahead of the competition.

Stewart 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 garage. He spent all winter break creating a business plan and researched other self-service garages to see if the idea was even feasible.

After dealing with a shady real estate broker, difficulties with city zoning, fire marshal fixes, and having to relocate with a 3-day notice, he was finally able to open his self-service garage. He has now been in business for 5 years and has signed another 5-year lease. The goal for this year is to expand and grow the business. He currently has 7 bays with lifts, provides tools and some specialty machines, and employees 4 employees to help around the shop. They keep things simple by charging a flat rate for time and not doing a la cart charges to use tools or ask questions.

Alex grew up reading automotive magazines and aspiring to be one of the feature builders. He moved to Southern California with high hopes but no real direction on how to get into the racing industry. He got his first automotive job at Web Camshafts where he learned a lot about drag racing. Alex went on to build several Honda’s that got a lot of attention but the real break came when his Integra went 8’s in the ¼ mile. The side gig of making and selling manifolds out of his garage transformed into Sheepey Built.

Given that Alex doesn’t actually weld, he has taken great steps to set up his process flow to be as efficient as possible. He took what he learned at Web Cams and applied it at his own shop. He has specific people dedicated to tasks in order to keep the parts moving out the door.

 Kyle Shelley is the sales director for Turn14. He was good friends with the founder of JSC Speed (and then Turn14) and got to see the business be created. He had several sales jobs before becoming the first employee at JSC Speed. He started out at the bottom and worked his way up over the years. Turn14 was actually established in 2007 and JSC Speed was sold off in 2011. This is when all the efforts were put into the wholesale business.

Turn14 has a new “authorized seller” solution where the Turn14 customer must be approved by the part manufacturer to sell its parts. This allows the manufacturer to vet and validate that reseller as a legitimate business. Turn14 is trying really hard to ensure that legitimate businesses are reselling aftermarket parts. They are looking for shops and people who respect the pricing structure and give the industry a good reputation.

Kyle goes over the meaning of MAP (minimum advertised price) and UPP (unilateral pricing policy)

If you are a manufacturer and want to ensure nobody is violating your MAP policy, Oris Intel crawls the internet and looks for these violators. This is a new breed of companies using search algorithms to find violators and provide you with the necessary information to take action.

Turn14 also has a new position called the Brand Equity Specialist whose sole job is to ensure all their buyers are operating within the laws of pricing structure.

Dale has been tuning turbo EFI V8’s for many years, but the American drag racing market has traditionally been dominated by carburetors and nitrous controlled by antiquated methods. Dale made his break into the US by way of a forum post to Dominator (from Street Outlaws) offering to tune his car on EFI. Since then, he has also converted the Dung Beetle car to EFI as well. This has really changed the game for the domestic drag racing market and requires a much different approach to tuning 3000+hp cars.

Steve Ciabattoni started his career in payment processing right out of college where he was recruited (by his current partner) to work for a very large payment processing company. In 2011, he and jumped ship and created 360 Payment Solutions. Now, 360 Payment Solutions serves nearly 3000 merchants and employs 28 people. They label themselves as a Payment Processing provider, meaning that they help companies accept all types of payments including: checks, gift cards, electronic payments online (paypal), as well as credit card processing

In this interview, Steve discusses the new chip card technology (known in the industry as EMV - Europay MasterCard Visa), Apple pay, pay with phone, and integration with business software.

Back on Oct 1, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express shifted their liability statement and said you are going to be responsible for any chargebacks that come through if you don’t have the ability to accept the chip cards. And you cannot fight it. This is a shift in responsibility and something that you should consider.

Steve advises business to NOT lease your machine. Often times, this contract cannot be canceled and you will spend $40/month for a $300 machine. So over the life of the contract, you will be paying hundreds more than just buying the machine outright.

If you are in the market for a merchant provider, you want “interchange plus” pricing. This is the best fee structure for business and will give you the lowest rates for all types of transactions. And you will sound smart to the salesman!

For automotive businesses, you should have an “effective rate” below 3%. Your effective rate is calculated by dividing Total Fees by Total Sales.

Jim McIlvaine used to play professional basketball but now he runs the social media and web-presence for Optima Batteries. While playing basketball, Jim would do freelance work for magazines where he would meet people and attend events across the country. After Jim left the NBA, he eventually joined Optima Batteries as their “E-care Manager” where he created the Facebook page and began answering questions or comments on web forums (You may be familiar with his forum handle OptimaJim on almost every forum in existence). Today, you will see him at many automotive events taking pictures, streaming videos, and answering questions from customers about Optima’s products.

Jim says it is extremely important to gathering as much information about your potential customers as possible. The most important thing is to obtain an email address which can be used in Facebook to target an audience similar to this specific person (likes, location, age, sex).

Peter started TX2K back in 2000 after he went to a Supra event in Las Vegas. From the humble beginning of 40 Supras banding together to go to the drag strip, the TX2K franchise has transformed into the premier Supra, GTR, Roll Racing, and Drag Racing event in the country!

TX2K16 is improving this year by showing the roll racing speeds up on the large display boards at the end of the track. This betters the experience for the attendees by allowing them to easily see the winner and how fast they were going.

Back in early 2000, Chris Raymond was building websites and forums for other people. He saw a void in the market for a DSM forum and set out to make one himself. This is what spawned DSMTuners.com

He also runs Garage 40 which focusses on automotive businesses to help them with social media, email marketing, web design, and reputation management. Brand management is tough because you have to be in every place when your shop or product is talked about by your audience.

In this interview, Chris explains the ever-changing atmosphere of online marketing and what you need to be doing to succeed.

Tim Bailey was one of the early Subaru tuners when the WRX hit the states. Eventually, he started Surgeline Performance which was later purchased by Trey Cobb. While Tim still works on the actual tuning, most of his time is spent controlling the dealer and tuner network for Cobb. Now he travels all over the country to set up new dealers and help out existing ones. In this interview, he goes into detail about how they manage that network and why it is so important to regulate the prices of their products.

Chase Lautenbach & Justin Keith created Street Car Takeover just a few years ago because they saw a void in the racing market for more “streetable” cars to compete in drag racing and roll racing. Their series has expanded to 10 events in 2016 and they are looking to keep growing. While the main event is the drag racing, Street Car Takeover also incorporates a shop open house, car show, and other meetup prior to the actual racing. They want to offer more experience for the fans and encourage people to participate.

When the Modified Magazine decided to stop printing the physical magazine, both Peter and Dave found themselves without a job. So they looked for alternative means to produce content and decided on YouTube. In their channel, Speed Academy, they “focus on bringing performance oriented content to car enthusiast.” They have found that a website and YouTube channel are the perfect combination to generate content, get participation from fans, and provide the means to collect advertising money to keep going.  Listen in as they provide advice for shops looking to reach a greater audience.

Nathan 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 the business from Doug and run it on how own terms. He kept the original employees, changed the name to Top Speed Motorsports, and grew the business over the next ten years. He recently changed it to Cicio Performance and now has two locations. One is in Atlanta, GA (the Top Speed Motorsports location) and the other is in Virginia Beach, VA. He has plans to open a third location in another year or two.

With the new name, Nathan focused his efforts on running the business efficiently and tracking every metric possible. This has allowed him to open the second location and he is able to split his time between the two and manage them. His goal is to ensure his customers have a pleasant experience and work to get the cars completed as quickly as possible. He still works on GTR's but is expanding the services to 911's and plans on doing a ton of work with the new C8 Corvette when it comes out.

Rhys is a professional driver. But did you know that he is also a shop owner? He has taken his love for racing and turned it into a successful company. Rhys Millen Racing produces parts, builds movie cars, and champions race teams. His repertoire includes Global RallyCross, Pikes Peak, Formula Drift, Fast & Furious cars, Penzoil commercials, and RedBull sponsorships. The dedication to the sport and the constant drive to get new contracts puts Rhys in the upper echelon of specialty shops. Tune in as he talks about the challenges of meeting deadlines and the time required to maintain his place in the industry.

Lucas English of English Racing currently has built the fastest Evo X in the world. They have also been a key player in pushing the GTR to the limits at the drag strip. He has grown from humble beginnings in the DSM scene to a world-renowned shop for fast imports. English Racing is located next to Lucas’ house in a rural area outside of Vancouver, WA (just north of Portland, OR). He has struggled with land usage permits, neighbor complaints, and unrealistic expectations from customers. But his story shows that hard work and determination can make you successful.

Mark Jager doesn’t own a shop and he isn’t a professional driver. He is an enthusiast who loves to go fast and continues to push his car to the limits! Mark’s efforts off the track have raised the bar for how a driver/team can help their sponsors by actively providing updates, attending events, and using social media to generate exposure.  Mark addresses some of the shortcoming that are prevalent in the racing industry when it comes to sponsorship and hopes his story can help change it.

Jimi 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.

In 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.

Kevin 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.

Belak Industries is a wheel manufacturer based out of Miami, FL focused primarily on Honda drag racing. Damian Borroto established Belak Industries in 2012 after a decade working in multiple Honda speed shops in the Miami area, and eventually opening his own shop, TD Autowerkes. Damian has a “can-do, make-it-happen attitude” and he survived some serious setbacks in the last year. In 2014 he had his race car and trailer stolen, only to get pieces of it back. So he set out to build another car, and did! But on it’s first outing, a freak accident caused it to wreck, and total the chassis. Now he’s on to building his third SFWD race car and he hasn’t even considered giving up!

Game Changing Product: ID1700, Belak Wheels, AEM Infinity, FTW Fuel

Most useful software program: Windows

Favorite App: Pandora, WhatsApp, Instagram

Favorite Shop Tool: Hammer!... and his Dyno

Chris Jewell has been around the import performance industry since the beginning with multiple different companies. He currently owns Competition Clutch, a clutch company focused on import performance clutches. In this interview Chris talks a lot about mixing friends with business and how he’s mistakenly thought that his business partners were his friends. Chris says that his Achilles heel is “that I fucking care about people too much.” And he says that he focuses too much on the personal relationship and sometimes forgets that “it’s business.” With only a 9th grade education Chris built an influential business and he talks about how it all went down. 

John Veloso owns and operates K-Tuned, a product manufacturing company that is hyper-focused on the Honda K-series engine. They make high-quality, functional engine parts focused entirely on the K-series. John and I discuss his background, and his view on the world. He tells the story of his upbringing and how it all came to be. We discussed his business, and business in general. John’s business is customer focused and he makes a point to not take a customer’s money until he has the product to fulfill the order. He puts the responsibility on himself and his team to make sure they have inventory on-hand. In a time when everybody is trying to be everything to everyone, K-Tuned is successful largely because they stay focused and know their strengths. There’s no fancy this or that, just common sense and treating people right. This is a good listen. Enjoy!

Brian Gillespie is co-owner of Hasport Performance, a company focused entirely on quality engine swap components for Honda’s.  The company started out as a Honda/Acura salvage yard and quickly grew into something bigger. Hasport pioneered billet aluminum engine mounts and has a strong focus on customer support. An innovator in the industry, Hasport Performance is now a fully-equipped manufacturing facility and it’s all grown from the Honda street racing scene in the 90’s! Brian’s learned a lot over the years and is here to offer us all some guidance. Enjoy!

Action items that you can do THIS WEEK:                             

1.       Look at what the Hot Rod guys are doing, and use that for inspiration to come up with ideas for the import scene

2.       Subscribe to Racecar Engineering Magazine

Game Changing Product: OEM Turbo cars and AEM Infinity

Most useful software program: Solidworks, Skitch

Favorite App: iPhone alarms to keep himself on point and on time, Overcast podcast app

Favorite Shop Tool: Faro Arm, 3d Printer, Mitsubishi Laserjet cutter

Chris 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 so he shifted gears and focused on manufacturing and e-commerce. He has continued to grow the business over the years and is proud to offer quality products manufactured in Taiwan. They have expanded from just GTR parts to Fords, AE86s, and are beginning to offer McLaren parts.

Straight outta Detroit, Nick is a big cubic inch kind of dude. His childhood was all about big displacement and American muscle but now he says the focus is on improving engine efficiency. He comes from a family of home builders and electricians and has risen as the gatekeeper at Wiseco pistons. Nick and I discuss his story and how the industry looks today, from his viewpoint. He works for one of the larger corporations in the automotive performance industry so he offers a unique perspective.

Game Changing Product: Davis Traction Control

Most useful software program: Office 365 feature called “Lync”

Favorite App: Soar

Favorite Shop Tool: Kent Moore Digital Torque to Angle Meter

“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. 

John Shepherd is a legend in the import drag racing world. First with DSM’s and now with GTR’s. But did you know that throughout the 90’s Shep worked as a tech at a dealership? Then one day the dealership went out of business and he was jobless. Not long after, Shep got some encouragement from a friend and started out on his own. Now, over a decade later he’s world-renowned for his attention to detail when building super high-performance transmissions. In this episode Shep and I talk about all the little details that go into building a business including the daily grind, and even the mindset he had when starting out. It’s useful encouragement for any aspiring shop owner!