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150: Charlie Eklund of Hennessey's Tuner School Feb 11, 2019

Show notes

Charlie 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 he was getting multiple inquiries on how to work on cars and tune them. So, he just decided to meet that specific need and develop a curriculum with various industry experts. The classes are capped at 15 students to focus on providing the best education possible.

149: Richard Tomlin of Apex Auto Works and White Pony Dry Feb 04, 2019

Show notes

Richard 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 spills so that you can clean up and get back to work.

148: Bob Morreale of The Tuning School Sep 03, 2018

Show notes

Bob 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 kept growing and they focused efforts on the teaching side. They offer online courses and in-person teaching. They also provide support to past students to make sure they can be successful in tuning whatever platform they choose. They currently rent a 5,000 sq ft facility in Florida and have 15 people on site and around the world. They specialize in teaching students how to use a particular tuning software and give their students experience in tuning a stock car, basic bolt ons, and forced induction. This gives the students real world experience on the platform they want to tune.

Be sure to check them out at car shows and trade shows as they look for helping more individuals and businesses learn to tune!

147: Dave Carapetyan of Rally Ready Driving School wants to teach everybody how to drive a rally car! Aug 27, 2018

Show notes

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, Dave decided that this was his future and started instructing others on how to drive a rally car. There have been a lot of hiccups and various partners, but he has finally settled down and got things figured out. He now leases 140 acres outside of Austin and holds various types of classes. He has 1, 2, and 3-day classes, personal training, and group events. And there are various types of vehicles including FWD Hyundai's, side-by-sides, Evo's and STI's, and even Ford Raptor events. Dave runs the place on his own but has about a dozen instructors who help when needed.

146: Dan Kahn of Kahn Media started by sending articles about his car to magazine editors. Now he runs his own PR firm. Aug 20, 2018

Show notes

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 he wanted to do, he took classes in journalism and photography, so he could create better content.

Purely by chance, his neighbor ran a business that had several small niche magazines that included a couple car magazines. Dan took the job there during college and worked his way up the ladder to become the editor. He worked at several other publishing jobs in cars and tech. He started to see an opportunity with the new social media growth in the mid 2000's. So, he pitched a large proposal to his boss to begin changing how they do marketing and focus on the new social side. Well, things didn't go to plan, so he made the calculated risk to go out on his own and do it himself!

Since 2008, Kahn Media has grown from his spare bedroom to a 7000 square foot office space and 20 plus people. They offer a full suite of marketing and PR and can cater the package to fit your needs and budget.

145: Joe Gambino of Rogue Fabrication couldn't find a tube bender to meet his particular needs so he went out and made one himself! Jul 30, 2018

Show notes

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 Hummer H1 wheels on other vehicles. 2 years later, he was shopping around for a tube bender and couldn't find anything he could afford that he liked. So, he decided to make one himself!

He slowly transitioned out of a full-time job by moving to part time contracting. This allowed him to ramp up Rogue Fabrication while tapering down the time at his other job. He continued to do consulting part time until finally doing his manufacturing business full time. They continue to bring more operations in house and currently employ 6 people. Their product focus is for chassis fabrication tools that include the tube bender, notcher, dimple dies, drill press reduction kit, and a press brake for taco gussets.

144: Colin McLemore of Mac's Custom Tie Downs is working to become the household name for tie downs of all sorts Jul 23, 2018

Show notes

Colin 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 took a job working for them in advertising and sales. He spent 5 years there while still doing Mac's Custom Tie Downs on the side.

In 2003, he moved the business from Washington to Idaho and was done for personal reasons not business benefits. His new facility is 17,000 sqft which houses all their manufacturing machines, assembly equipment, shipping supplies, inventory, and even Colin's collection of project vehicles. He employs 16 people and have been steadily growing over the years. They make all sorts of products for securing your gear including the Versa-Track systems, ratchet straps, wheel tie downs, tow straps, wheel chalks, and many more!

143: Chris Walters details how they built up a relationship with Jay Leno over years before releasing Jay Leno's Garage Car Care products Jul 16, 2018

Show notes

Chris 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 person to clean the collection. Chris and his partner, Jeremey, jumped on the opportunity and began going out to Jay Leno's Garage once a week to detail the cars.

After being at the shop and helping for a while, they decided to take the leap and pitch their cleaning products to Jay for branding. To their amazement, Jay was all for it and wanted to be an investor! So, they created a legitimate business for the car care products and Jay became the spokesperson for the brand. Jay became the president of the company and put up his own reputation and money to help make the business be successful. The guys are currently gearing up for their second SEMA show and are excited to keep growing the business!

142: Will Baty of Centerforce clutches shares how they continue to innovate to stay ahead of market demands Jul 09, 2018

Show notes

Will 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 allow the business to grow without the cost burden associated with operating in California.

They now have around 30 employees and make clutches for all sorts of applications. They have re-entered the sport compact market as it continues to grow here in the US. They hold 9 different patents and continue to innovate and stay ahead of the curve. They strive to keep the OEM feel for the clutch pedal while increasing the holding capability and not sacrificing driveability and longevity. That is a complicated balance to achieve! They customized an old bread delivery van on a modern chassis with a diesel engine to carry around the large amounts of Centerforce candy that they make. It is a unique marketing goodie that helps bring potential customers to their display and remember their product.

141: Tony Whatley wants you to turn your side hustle into a successful business Jul 02, 2018

Show notes

Tony 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 called 365 Driven and was created to help aspiring entrepreneurs and spread his wealth of knowledge. He shares a lot of content on a couple Facebook pages and just released his book called The Side Hustle Millionaire. He spent a whole year attending Toastmaster events to help him become a better public speaker. This has been extremely helpful in helping him clearly articulate information about his book and get his message across to current and potential clients.

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