Podcasts by DO IT FOR A LIVING

163: Stewart Waliser of Stews Self Service Garage from 2020-03-03T16:25:18

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 ac...

162: Nathan Cicio of Cicio Performance from 2020-02-17T17:11:11

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 pu...

161: Chris Riggs from Speed by Design from 2020-02-10T09:30

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,...

160: Ben Silcock and Andre Simon return to discuss HP Academy from 2020-02-03T09:30

Its 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 n...

159: Bryan Thompson of Powerhouse Racing from 2020-01-27T09:30

Bryan 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 ...

158: AJ Hartman returns for an update on AJ Hartman Aero from 2020-01-20T09:00

Back 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 ...

157: Matt Beenen returns with BuiltRight Industries from 2020-01-14T12:22:37

Since 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 ...

156: Alejandro and Pablo Moreno of Tandem Automotive from 2020-01-06T09:30

Alejandro 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, an...

155: Theresa Contreras and Sara Morosan of LGE-CTS Motorsports from 2019-10-14T18:16:50

The 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 fam...

154: Vadim Belogorodsky from CANtrolls from 2019-09-03T08:30

On 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...

153: Reid Lunde returns to discuss his interconnectable relay entered in the SEMA Launch Pad Competition from 2019-08-05T08:30

Reid 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 weatherp...

152: Johnny Cichowski of Nine Lives Racing from 2019-07-22T21:01:13

Johnny 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 an...

151: Jonny Mill of WheelWell.com from 2019-03-11T08:30

Jonny 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 adve...

150: Charlie Eklund of Hennessey's Tuner School from 2019-02-11T09:30

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 f...

149: Richard Tomlin of Apex Auto Works and White Pony Dry from 2019-02-04T09:30

Richard Tomlin owns a paint, restoration, and fabrication shop south of Houston, Texas called Apex Auto Works Listen

148: Bob Morreale of The Tuning School from 2018-09-03T13:24:11

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 ...

147: Dave Carapetyan of Rally Ready Driving School wants to teach everybody how to drive a rally car! from 2018-08-27T08:30

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 ...

146: Dan Kahn of Kahn Media started by sending articles about his car to magazine editors. Now he runs his own PR firm. from 2018-08-20T08:30

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 scho...

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! from 2018-07-30T08:30

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 spe...

144: Colin McLemore of Mac’s Custom Tie Downs is working to become the household name for tie downs of all sorts from 2018-07-23T08:30

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 fr...

143: Chris Walters details how they built up a relationship with Jay Leno over years before releasing Jay Leno’s Garage Car Care products from 2018-07-16T08:30

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...

142: Will Baty of Centerforce clutches shares how they continue to innovate to stay ahead of market demands from 2018-07-09T08:30

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...

141: Tony Whatley wants you to turn your side hustle into a successful business from 2018-07-02T08:30

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 st...

140: Bret Voelkel of RideTech explains how his company emerged from the 2008 recession stronger than ever from 2018-06-18T08:30

Bret 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 cir...

139: 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 CarBahn from 2018-06-11T08:30

Steve 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 wan...

138: Jason Gauci of Lund International talks product development, marketing, and patents for their products in the off-road truck market from 2018-06-04T08:30

Jason 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 fo...

137: Brent Picasso of Autosport Labs discusses the process of using crowd funding to make RaceCapture and Podium from 2018-05-28T13:47:29

Brent 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 th...

136: Dave Rowe of EPS Motorsports travels all over the world tuning various race cars using his MoTeC expertise from 2018-05-21T08:30

Dave 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 deale...

135: Lance Stander, the owner of Superformance, tells how he moved from South Africa to the US to pursue his passion for cars from 2018-05-14T08:30

Lance 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 d...

134: Jim Ring shares how he and his brother Mike expanded RingBrothers to include manufacturing billet assemblies and specialty body panels from 2018-05-07T08:30

The 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 fam...

133: Kris Miller has helped Powerstop Brakes increase their brand’s recognition through strategic sponsorships and by creating excellent content from 2018-04-30T08:30

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 Fl...

132: Gary Carbono left his job as a lawyer in Panama to pursue his passion for cars and founded Race Lab Motorsports from 2018-04-23T08:30

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 importanc...

131: John Nguyen quit his day job to pursue Track Spec Motorsports and has parlayed that into the Spec Corvette racing series from 2018-04-16T08:30

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 ...

130: Scott Molitor of MoFab takes us through the process of acquiring a performance shop to grow his business from 2018-04-09T08:30

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...

129: Dennis Overholser, co-founder of Painless Performance Products, takes us through the ups and downs of growing his wiring and accessories company from 2018-04-02T08:30

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 maintenan...

128: 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. from 2018-03-26T08:30

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 wi...

127: Tim Palazzolo of GAP Racing earned his reputation as a world-class builder by paying attention to the little details from 2018-03-19T08:30

Tim 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 modi...

126: Trevor and Travis Hill of TWOth Autosport want to take novices and turn them into professional racing drivers from 2018-03-12T08:30

As 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 an...

125: Dirk Starksen from Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT) tells how he got started and how he continues to innovate from 2018-03-05T09:30

Dirk 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 clut...

124: Doug and Brad DeBerti build crazy vehicles, race trucks, and have a new show on Discovery called Twin Turbos from 2018-02-26T09:30

Description: 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 wa...

123: Glen Reid of Futura Trailers brought his innovative idea of a lowering trailer to reality from 2018-02-19T09:30

Glen 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 hi...

122: David Schardt of Forgeline Motorsports continues to push the envelope with their carbon+forged wheels from 2018-02-12T09:30

David 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 ...

121: Bob Boileau discusses how he became President of Pikes Peak International Raceway and how they have outlasted the previous owners from 2018-02-05T09:30

Bob 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...

120: Paul “Scooter” Brothers shares his experience at Comp Performance Group, the SEMA board, and how they look for companies to acquire from 2017-12-11T09:30

Scooter 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, h...

119: Larry Chen works every single day to capture stunning automotive pictures from all over the globe from 2017-12-04T09:30

Larry 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 professionalis...

118: Chris Stewart took his knowledge of marketing&design and combined it with his love of music&racing to create the GridLife festivals from 2017-11-27T09:30

Chris 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 runn...

117: John Whalen of Whalen Speed R&D details how he has built up his business over the years from 2017-11-20T09:30

John 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 so...

116: Trevor Doelling of Texas Speed quit installing parts to focus on online sales. Now, they are machining and manufacturing their own parts. from 2017-11-13T09:30

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 ...

115: Howard Anderson of AR Fabrication and Darton East believes that slow and steady growth is the best way to ensure success from 2017-11-06T09:00

Howard 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 ...

114: Three friends - Jeremy, Ben, and John - teamed up with different skill sets to start Fathouse Fabrications from 2017-10-23T08:30

Jeremy 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 othe...

113: Jason Whitfield of Whitfield Fab has built his business by doing everything he can in house, including manufacturing weld-ready cages for drag racing from 2017-10-09T08:30

Jason 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 b...

112: Chris Stephens, the co-host of Discovery Channel’s Garage Rehab, helps shops improve operations and turn a profit from 2017-10-02T08:30

Chris 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 joine...

111: Tim Suddard of Grassroots Motorsports explains how the magazine got started and how it has changed over the years from 2017-09-25T08:30

Tim 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...

110: Ian Baker of World Time Attack set out to create the ultimate time attack racing spectacle and continues to improve his event from 2017-09-18T08:30

Ian 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 T...

109: Eric Hazen explains how he and Paul Lucas use their engineering knowledge to design products at Verus Engineering from 2017-09-04T08:30

Eric 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 grad...

108: Mike Lewin of Professional Awesome shares how they are transforming their racing hobby into a real business from 2017-08-28T08:30

Mike 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 intro...

107: Victor Alvarez took his love for Supras and turned it into a business with Induction Performance from 2017-08-21T08:30

Victor 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 lo...

106: Rory Connell has leveraged his network to become more successful and recently became Chairman of the SEMA YEN Select Committee from 2017-08-14T08:30

Rory 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 Penns...

105: Dom Tucci is expanding the family business of building hot rods with his design firm Dom Tucci Designs from 2017-08-07T08:30

Dom 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 we...

104: Ben Horst of Eddy Motorworks epitomizes the term “hot rod” with his Tesla-powered Exocet from 2017-07-17T08:30

Ben 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....

103: Sasha Anis of OnPoint Dyno is positioning himself as a leader in electric car performance from 2017-07-10T14:48:34

Sasha 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 se...

102: Susan Johnson of Moore Automotive takes a deep dive into proper accounting practices from 2017-06-05T08:30

Susan 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 seve...

101: Andy Fritts explains how he helped expand Seibon by creating Anderson Composites to go after the domestic market from 2017-04-24T08:30

Andy’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...

100: Reid Lunde returns as a guest for Episode 100 and tells us about Kaizenspeed and KS Tuned from 2017-04-17T08:30

Episode 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 ha...

099: Ron Sledge gives some insight on how King Engine Bearings operates in the US. from 2017-04-10T08:30

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 Eng...

098: Kenny Tran of Jotech Motorsports says passion and focus are the keys to success from 2017-04-03T08:30

Kenny 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 o...

097: Sam Barros of Nostrum Energy saw a need for aftermarket direct injection injectors and is meeting the demand. from 2017-03-27T08:30

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 ...

096: Thad Norman of Hypercar Development has lofty goals for their McLaren and wants to break a whole bunch of records from 2017-03-06T09:30

Thad 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, whil...

095: Hear how Chris Rhoad started StudioRhoad.com to build beautiful websites and create engaging content for businesses from 2017-02-27T09:30

Chris 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...

094: Jim Liaw tells us how he helped bring drifting to the US with Formula Drift from 2017-02-20T09:30

Jim 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 col...

093: Dave Vasser used hard work and determination to build Nitrous Outlet into a powerhouse in the nitrous market from 2017-02-13T09:30

Dave 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 co...

092: Ken Anderson has helped many companies grown their US presence. Hear about his latest venture with Mountune USA from 2017-02-06T09:30

Ken 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 ...

091: Mike and Rossy Welch tell us how they met and built Road Race Engineering from 2017-01-31T04:17:11

Mike 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 off...

090: Hear what it takes to start a performance shop with James Siebert of F&S Motorsports from 2017-01-23T09:30

James 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 Mitsub...

089: Marty Staggs of Turbosmart USA explains how he helped bridge the gap between Australia and the US from 2017-01-16T09:30

Marty 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 l...

088: Frank Rehak tells how he transformed his family auto shop to Driveshaft Shop over several decades. from 2017-01-09T09:30

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 ...

087: Cody Loveland of LoveFab and Affinity Aero shares how he went from Honda’s to NSX’s to tube-frame carbon-bodied race cars. from 2016-12-19T09:30

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 an...

086: Franco Ganino of Alliant Insurance talks about their Garage Keepers insurance plan called Installers Edge from 2016-12-12T09:30

Franco 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. A...

085: Gidi Chamdi exposes the real truth about what it takes to chase the 6 second quarter mile with his GTR. from 2016-12-05T09:30

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...

084: JP from Radium Engineering tells how he concentrates on design and outsources the manufacturing. from 2016-11-28T09:30

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 ...

083: Zach Denney explains how he brought ECUMaster to the United States from 2016-11-14T09:30

Zach 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 ...

082: Matt Beenen tells us how he climbed the ranks to become President of GrimmSpeed from 2016-10-31T08:30

Matt 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 get...

081: Jud Massingill, founder of School of Automotive Machinists, tells us how he built the coolest vocational school around! from 2016-10-24T08:30

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 ...

080: Jason Dienhart details how he created Global Time Attack from 2016-10-17T08:30

Jason 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, Jaso...

079: Louis Gigliotti focuses on efficiency and tracking metrics to keep GSpeed on a path to success from 2016-10-10T08:30

Louis 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...

078: Cole Powelson of LYFE Motorsport shares his journey to building the fastest Time Attack R35 GTR in the world. from 2016-10-03T08:30

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 ...

077: Jens von Holten shares his story of sailing from South Africa to the Americas and eventually purchasing Fuel Injector Clinic. from 2016-09-26T08:30

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...

076: Ryan Basseri from Rywire details how he grew his custom wiring business from 2016-09-19T08:30

Ryan 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 S...

075: 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 machines from 2016-09-12T08:30

Brain 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 programm...

074: Brian Mack from Lathrop&Gage talks patents! from 2016-09-05T08:30

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-3...

073: JJ Jabaji used to flip cars to make a buck. Hear how he transitioned into building billet Subaru blocks at IAG Performance from 2016-08-29T08:30

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 ...

072: David Buschur holds nothing back and details his 25-year history modifying cars from 2016-08-15T08:30

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 19...

071: Terry Fair of Vorshlag Motorsports exposes the hard truths of purchasing CNC machines from 2016-08-08T08:30

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 fri...

070: AJ Hartman details how he transitioned from working at a body shop to manufacturing composite aero parts from 2016-08-01T08:30

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 ...

069: Greg of GSC Power Division shares his path to manufacturing billet camshafts. from 2016-07-25T08:30

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...

068: Steven Aghakhani tells us how he manages being an 8th grader who also races supercars! from 2016-07-18T08:30

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 cart...

067: Jay Payson shares his experience of growing HP Tuners over the past decade. from 2016-07-11T08:30

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 ab...

066: Ravi Dolwani shares how he created the performance division of CSF Radiator from 2016-07-04T08:30

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 exp...

065: Lee Sweitzer details the steps he is taking to open up his shop, Sweitzer Performance from 2016-06-27T08:30

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 ...

064: Carlos Tirado explains how he leveraged forums and friendships to create Tirado Custom Coatings from 2016-06-20T08:30

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 Carlo...

063: Jack McGee of Jacks Transmissions shares how he has improved his business by working smarter, not harder from 2016-06-13T08:30

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’...

062: Jeremy Gerber of Roadster Shop says the keys to success are hard work and improving the operations at the shop from 2016-06-06T08:30

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...

061: Don Herring Jr gives us an insight into how successful dealerships are operated from 2016-05-30T08:30

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...

060: Justin Miller of Force-Fed Performance explains the difficulties of running a small business from 2016-05-23T08:30

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 te...

059: Round table discussion - System for certifying shops, tuners, and engine builders from 2016-05-16T08:30

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 owne...

058: David Localio tells us how he built Headgames Motorworks from humble beginnings in a 200 square foot room from 2016-05-09T08:30

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 ...

057 Part 2: Extra conversation with Andrew Brilliant from 2016-05-05T08:30

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 yo...

057: Andrew Brilliant of AMB Aero shares some secrets to improve the aerodynamics of your race car from 2016-05-02T08:30

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,...

056: Eric Leichtle gives us an insider’s view of a professional racing team from 2016-04-25T08:30

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 ...

055: Alex Soto explains how he made Sheepey Built into what it is today from 2016-04-18T08:30

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 ra...

054: Kyle Shelley from Turn14 explains how they are trying to protect margins for brick&mortar shops from 2016-04-11T08:30

 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 becom...

053: Dale Heiler of Castle Hill Performance explains how EFI tuning and turbos are changing the domestic drag racing market from 2016-04-04T08:30

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 hi...

Steve Ciabattoni of 360 Payment Solutions explains the ins and outs of credit card processing and how it affects your business from 2016-03-28T08:30

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 an...

051: Jim McIlvaine explains how he manages Optima Batteries’ online presence from 2016-03-21T08:30

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 whe...

050: Peter Blach turned his passion for Supras into the TX2K event we know and love today! from 2016-03-14T08:30

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 i...

049: Chris Raymond of Garage40 debunks marketing myths and provides insight into brand management from 2016-03-07T08:30

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.c...

048: Tim Bailey of Cobb Tuning explains how they control and protect their dealer network from 2016-02-29T08:30

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 actua...

047: Chase Lautenbach&Justin Keith tell us how they made Street Car Takeover a success from 2016-02-22T08:30

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...

046: Peter Tarach&Dave Pratte from Speed Academy discuss how they transitioned from print media to producing online content from 2016-02-15T08:30

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...

045: Rhys Millen explains that hard work and focus are the keys to success from 2016-02-08T08:30

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 ...

044: Lucas English says the reality of getting your car sponsored is not cheap from 2016-02-01T08:30

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 ...

043: Mark Jager explains the level of effort needed off the track to be a sponsored racer on the track from 2016-01-25T08:30

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 t...

042: Jimi Day from FM3 Marketing discusses how to get the most out of attending events from 2016-01-18T08:30

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...

041: Todd Earsley from My Shop Assist discusses the importance of working ON your business, not IN your business from 2016-01-11T08:30

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 i...

040: Kevin Dubois from My Shop Assist discusses the importance of accurately tracking your builds from 2016-01-04T08:30

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 Evolu...

039: Damian Borroto from Belak Industries says “you’re not gonna win if you don’t play!” from 2015-07-24T07:00

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 worki...

038: Chris Jewell from Competition Clutch gives a no BS interview about mixing business with friendship from 2015-07-20T07:00

Chris Jewell has been around the import performance industry since the beginning with multiple different companies. He currently owns Competition Clutch, a clutch company focus...

037: John Veloso is the founder of K-Tuned, and like most entrepreneurs, he wasn’t handed his success, he had to work for it from 2015-07-17T07:00

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 focus...

036: Brian Gillespie from Hasport Performance on building and maintaining a performance business from 2015-07-13T07:00

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 ...

035: Nick D’Agostino from Wiseco Pistons is here to discuss pricing strategy and customer value from 2015-07-10T07:00

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...

034: Bottle and Nero Deliwala from Titan Motorsports talk racing, business systems, and lessons learned from 2015-07-06T07:00

“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 ...

032: John Shepherd the legend from Shep Transmissions shares his goals, his daily grind and what it takes to be the man from 2015-06-05T07:00

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?...

031: Are the odds stacked against you!? Eric and Marc Kozeluh from Twins Turbo Motorsports tell their rags to - fabricator’s story from 2015-06-01T07:00

Marc 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...

030: Jeremy Allen the engine builder at Inline Pro talks about engines, drag racing, and family from 2015-05-29T07:00

Everyone in this industry has at some point asked themselves “why am I doing this?” Jeremy Allen has been working at Inline Pro for a career since his early 20’s. Like a lot of...

029: Autonerdz founder Tom Roberts is a tech guy who’s assembled a top-notch team with top-notch service from 2015-05-25T07:00

Everyone has had an experience where they say “if I was the boss, I would do things differently!” Tom Roberts spent most of his career working for someone else and in the proce...

028: Cobb Tuning’s founder Trey Cobb built an industry leading brand, and he’s here to offer his advice from 2015-05-22T07:00

If you’re into Subaru, GTR, BMW, or Mazdaspeed then no doubt you know all about Cobb Tuning. Or so you think! Did you know that Cobb Tuning’s first shop was a single bay in his...

027: Kyle Loftis from 1320 Video really is living his dream! from 2015-05-18T07:00

Kyle offers up his experience in social media marketing, building a brand, and how he built his audience. It’s important to note that 1320 Video has millions of Facebook fans, ...

026: David Hsu (Part 2) from Group A Engineering, Skunk2, Kraftwerks, and Grams Performance calls it how he sees it from 2015-05-15T07:00

Part 2 of 2: The remainder of the interview is David talking about the performance industry and shining a light into some of the dark corners. It’s a killer episode because we ...

025: David Hsu (Part 1) from Group A Engineering, Skunk2, Kraftwerks, and Grams Performance talks business! from 2015-05-11T07:00

THIS IS PART 1 of 2: This episode is about business, and how David built and is continuing to build his businesses. David Hsu is an unapologetic capitalist who believes in free...

024: Andre Simon and Ben Silcock from HP Academy offer a unique approach to EFI Tuning from 2015-05-08T07:00

All the way from New Zealand! Andre Simon and Ben Silcock are partners in HP Academy, a company that offers web-based EFI tuning instruction. They’ve created a unique approach ...

023: Dave Arce from Arce Racing Engines offers his experience selling quality services when customers are price driven from 2015-05-04T07:00

Dave Arce is one of the nicest and most honest guys that I’ve had the pleasure of talking with. In this episode I had the chance to talk with Dave about his upbringing, and how...

022: Chris Carey from Modern Automotive Performance has three unique differences from 2015-05-01T07:00

Modern Automotive Performance is a unique performance parts distributor that focuses on Mitsubishi EVO, DSM, Subaru, and Ford Ecoboost Mustang (among others). With 38 employees...

021: Scott McIver from Kaizen Tuning is creating new customers with a killer strategy from 2015-04-27T07:00

Scott McIver owns Kaizen Tuning, (Kaizen, what a killer name right!?) in Boxborough, Mass. He specializes in GTR and EVO X and services a full list of other cars as well. We ta...

020: Nate Silveri and Jason Slater from TPG Tuning partnered up and opened up shop from 2015-04-24T07:00

Originally from different shops, Nate and Jason came together to create TPG tuning. A service shop specializing in Subaru, Mitsubishi and now certain BMW platforms. Their story...

019: Steve Nichols from Dyno Dynamics USA offers advice to help you avoid mistakes from 2015-04-20T07:00

Steve Nichols is a stand-up guy from Lexington, Kentucky. He’s been involved with Dyno Dynamics since the early 2000’s and he’s got a hell of a story to tell. He originally wor...

018: Matt Wright from Haltech Engine Management gives killer insight into the performance business from 2015-04-17T07:00

Matt Wright is an Aussie with 12 years in the biz. He works as the brand manager for Haltech Engine Management Systems and moonlights as an instructor for EFI University. Matt ...

Episode 017: Chris Delgado and Dave Donnals from D3 Performance Engineering in Houston, Texas from 2015-04-13T07:00

If you’re looking to open a performance shop then you need to listen to this episode! Dave Donnals and Chris Delgado speak from experience. Dave runs the business and works on ...

Episode 016: Todd Lewis from Mainline Dyno expands on his journey from mechanic to business-owner from 2015-04-10T07:00

Todd 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 ...

Episode 015: Jordan Watson from National Speed is building a scalable, systematized speed shop! from 2015-04-06T07:00

The performance industry is largely driven by people with little to no business experience. This is especially true at the shop level. That makes the barrier to entry very smal...

Episode 014: Scott Kuhner from Emtron Australia talks about the struggle of working with outside engineers from 2015-04-03T07:00

Scott Kuhner has created Emtron Australia, an ECU manufacturer that focuses on creative engine control functions and close dealer relationships. Having owned multiple businesse...

Episode 013: Jason Siebels from Pro EFI talks about the business of engine management from 2015-03-30T07:00

Jason Siebels has been a gearhead his whole life and he started his company Pro EFI in the late ‘90’s. Then in 2000 Jason began working at AEM, developing their plug-and-play l...

Episode 012: Martin Musial from AMS Performance tells the story of AMS and Alpha Performance from 2015-03-27T07:00

Martin Musial is the President of AMS and Alpha Performance Products. His company builds hard parts and complete platform installations for Nissan GTR and European vehicles suc...

Episode 011: Ever built your own ECU? Andy Wyatt from Adaptronic did when he was 19. from 2015-03-26T07:00

Andy Wyatt is an Australian mechatronics engineer and the founder of Adaptronic. Andy was determined for this episode to be 100% technical but I managed to talk business and we...

Episode 010: Robert Young from Forced Performance discusses keeping customers happy and billet turbos! from 2015-03-25T07:00

In the 90’s Robert Young fell in love with the power potential of the Mitsubishi 4G63 and started creating Frankenstein turbos. Because of his engineering background and resour...

Episode 009: Jay Meagher from Real Street Performance talks pricing, tuning and competition from 2015-03-24T07:00

Jay Meagher created an online performance retailer by working elbow-to-elbow with his team. He took a $17,000 line of credit and jumped in head-first with no option but to succ...

Episode 008: Shane Tecklenburg is the EFI Calibrator behind the first ever 5-second import from 2015-03-23T07:00

Shane Tecklenburg talks about nitro-methane powered lawn-mowers, and using modern ECU’s to save lives! From the age of 14 Shane has been involved in engine calibration, and he ...

Episode 007: Todd Berk from Push, Inc. talks about integrating hardware and software for his new motorsports product from 2015-03-20T07:00

Todd 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 Gauge...

Episode 006: Joel Levy from RaceSpec talks motorsport wiring, and surviving Hurricane Irene from 2015-03-16T07:00

Joel Levy is the artist behind Race Spec LLC and he builds some of the most impressive wiring harnesses in the performance industry. But Joel went through some serious struggle...

Episode 005: Chris Harris from Xenocron.com tells his entrepreneurial story from 2015-03-13T07:00

Chris Harris owns Xenocron.com, a company offering online retail, wholesale and dyno tuning services out of Hillburn, NY. He built momentum for himself being a contribu...