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DO IT FOR A LIVING

DO IT FOR A LIVING is a podcast where YOU, the performance racing industry enthusiast and shop owner can hear from the best minds in the performance racing industry talking about business and tech. We discuss new products and services and the best resources used by the big dogs. You can listen on your way to work or in the shop. With new episodes coming out every week, you'll find interesting topics and valuable information you can use to build your performance business. Now take this information and use it to build the next record-breaking car, or the next innovative product.
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Now displaying: April, 2018
Apr 30, 2018

Kris 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 career changed and moved to Las Vegas to dabble in the fitness and then finance industry. He even lived in China for a while! Then he moved back to the states and bounced between Las Vegas and Chicago to help with web development and marketing. Totally shifting gears again, he partnered with a friend and started an app development company in Austin. Sadly, their product didn’t make it and Kris had to switch gears yet again. This time, he headed back to Chicago to do photography with a friend. This is where he got introduced to Powerstop Brakes. They were shooting Powerstop’s catalog for a while and learned that Powerstop wanted to grow their social media presence.

 He has helped grow their online presence by creating videos, taking pictures, and attending events around the country. And right when Kris came onboard, Powerstop was working on their TrackDay product line. These products are geared towards the enthusiasts who drive their track car to the track. They teamed up with the Bondurant Racing School to develop pads for their cars and have been using Powerstop Brakes exclusively for a few years now. They also sponsor the GridLife Time Attack series, the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge, and the new Spec Corvette series.

The off-road market is another segment where Kris is pushing heavily. They organize an event called The Trial where they travel from Chicago to Las Vegas for the SEMA show.

Apr 23, 2018

Gary 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 never lost his passion for cars. So, he began installing parts and tuning in his free time.

He eventually teamed up with MAPerformance to get parts to Panama and worked with tuners and engine builders from the US to grow his business. He also took tuning classes from EFI University to expand his knowledge. Race Lab Motorsports now occupies 8000 sqft and has a dyno, a fab area, a marketing department, and parts sales. There is a second floor in the building where he will be teaching classes on fabrication and installs. He employs 8 people to keep the business going.

Apr 16, 2018

John 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 take the company a different direction. He had a list of parts that he wanted and needed personally for his 05 Mustang GT which he road raced. The first one was to deal with an overheating and front-end lift problem he was experiencing. So, he came up with the Track Spec hood vents by using Magnahelic Differential Pressure Gauges to find the optimum location to evacuate heat and equalize pressure. He now operates the entire business out of a 2-car garage! He has found companies to manufacture his products and focusses his efforts on R&D, sales, and customer support.

Onto his next adventure, John was talking with a racer friend who was reminiscing about racing C5 Corvettes when they first came out. Within a 3-hour drive, they had formulated a plan to create a Spec Corvette series! The idea was to have a very reliable and available car that can be race-ready (including the car) for around $20,000. They have had a few races so far in 2018 and plan on expanding to areas outside of California. They teamed up with a race coordinator called Speed Ventures to actually conduct the race and now have 27 drivers in SoCal and 10 others spread across the country.

Apr 9, 2018

Scott 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 were going to get the first AWD dyno in Colorado.

Scott spent the next few years working at another shop and begin honing his fabrication skills. He built a turbo Eclipse and took it to Mac’s for tuning. They were really impressed with Scott’s work and offered him a job. After working there for a few years, Scott decided he wanted to go it alone and started MoFab. He would do any fabrication work he could get his hands on. He moved the shop a couple times as the work increased and was making a good business at it! But, he was still sending customers to Mac for tuning.

Scott really wanted to grow the business so went through the process to get a loan for a dyno and look for a bigger space. At this same time, Nick said he wanted to join Scott in this new venture. When Nick told his dad about this, Bill offered up to sell him Mac’s equipment. Through a few rounds of negotiation, they decided the best and easiest option was to have Scott just acquire Mac’s and run it as MoFab. He moved into Mac’s space and kept all of they guys. They changed the name over to MoFab and pointed the phone, Facebook, and website to his business. After overcoming a few growing pains, the business is thriving and growing!

Apr 2, 2018

Dennis 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 mechanic and worked his way up the ladder for the next 20 years.

In 1989, he met Jim who was building wiring harnesses for the conversion van market. Jim wanted to expand the business and start making a harness for hot rods and Dennis was perfect for the job! They built a universal wiring harness that could be used for any hot rod. During their first swap meet, they sold out immediately and knew that had a great product! A year later, Dennis quite his job at the tractor company to build wiring harnesses full time.

They got their big break when an editor of Hot Rod Mechanics was building a roadster and needed a wiring harness. The title of the ad was Painless Wiring and this is how they got their name! Over the years, the began making other products to compliment the wiring harnesses and changed the name to be Painless Performance.

Now, they are in a 43,000 square foot facility and have around 55 employees. They do all of their manufacturing, assembly, engineering, and tech support in house. Even though they started with hot rods, the off-road truck market has become their biggest seller. And the C10 truck market is quickly growing.

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