PODCAST · leisure
DO IT FOR A LIVING
by Todd Earsley & Kevin Dubois interview the big players in motorsports and pr
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 Monday, 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 innovative product.
Episodes
-
217 - Stop Guessing: An Accountant Explains Your Shop's Finances - With Jerry Cecco
Most shop owners glance at their P&L once a year at tax time and have no idea what it's actually telling them. In this episode, accountant Jerry Cecco breaks down exactly how a profit and loss statement should be structured for a performance shop – and how to generate accurate numbers from your...
-
216 - Performance Shop Owners: You're Working Harder for Less Money. Here's Why.
You're doing highly skilled work, working harder than the general repair shop down the street — and making less money per hour. In this episode, Richard interviews Kevin to break down exactly why performance, restoration, and custom fabrication shops struggle financially compared to general…
more -
215 - Mastering Manufacturing in Performance Automotive: Lean, Kanban, and Error-Proofing Explained!
Unlock the hidden secrets that are transforming manufacturing efficiency worldwide. In this deep dive, Richard and Kevin explore the powerful concepts that can revolutionize your production line—from error-proofing and Pokeyoke techniques that prevent costly mistakes, to lean manufacturing...
-
214 - Rebuilding shocks with Chris Hagen of Inertia Laboratory
In this episode, Kevin and Richard sits down with Chris Hagen, owner of Inertia Laboratory. Chris specializes in high-performance damper rebuilds, revalving, dyno testing, and sells high end coilover systems. Before starting Inertia Lab, Chris worked as an engineer for a major vehicle…
more -
213 - Manufacturing Systems for Small Shops with Richard Fielder
In this episode, Kevin and co-host Richard Fielder break down the manufacturing systems used by large-scale factories and show you how to implement them in your small shop. Richard is a controls engineer at Peterbilt where he works with the systems that manufacture semi trucks at scale, and he...
-
212 - Pablo and Alejandro Moreno Update us about Tandem Offroad
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....
-
211 - Zach Denney of ECU Master USA returns
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...
-
210 - Emily and Zach from the 2025/26 UNT Formula SAE Team
In this episode of Do It For a Living, we sit down with two students from the University of North Texas Formula SAE team. This marks our first video episode and a new format where we explore the next generation of motorsports talent. Emily Gooden is the Operations Manager and Zach Warren is the…
more -
209 - Peter Agapoglou of Autosport Fabrication
In this episode of Do It For a Living, I talk with Peter Aggapoglou, founder of Autosport Fabrication, about his deep roots in the motorsports industry. Before launching his own shop, Peter built his expertise working for several high-end European and race shops, honing his skills in fabrication,...
-
208 - Joseph Potak with HP Cult
In this episode of Do It For a Living, I sit down with Joseph Potak, host of the new HP Cult podcast. We talk about his journey in the high-performance world, including his history with Texas Speed and how he became an expert in LS engine building. Joseph shares insights from the several books he...
-
207 - Adam Hammer of Hammer and Dolly Restorations
In this episode of Do It For a Living, I sit down with Adam Hammer of Hammer and Dolly Restorations to explore his journey into the world of classic car restorations. Adam shares how he got started, the challenges of building his own business, and the processes he uses to manage complex…
more -
206 - Brandon Piper of BSP Motorsports
In this episode of Do It For a Living, we sit down with Brandon Piper from BSP Motorsports to hear his journey from supporting a Dodge Viper race team to building a thriving business. Brandon shares how creating and executing a solid plan enabled him to triple his business growth in just three...
-
205 - Sasha Anis of Mountain Pass Performance
In this episode of Do It For a Living, we sit down with Sasha Anis, founder of Mountain Pass Performance, to discuss his journey in building a cutting-edge performance business. Sasha shares insights into starting and scaling Mountain Pass Performance, managing production and sales, and pushing…
more -
204 - Richard Fielder with Evolution Dynamics and Scaling your Business Discussion
In this episode of the Do It For a Living Podcast, I'm excited to introduce a new voice to the podcast: my business partner at Evolution Dynamics, Richard Fielder. Richard will be joining us as a cohost for future episodes, where we'll dive into the ins and outs of running a business. We start by...
-
203 - Adam McCreery with AFR Autoworks
In this episode of Do It For a Living, I sit down with Adam McCreery, founder of AFR Autoworks, to explore how he built his business using data-driven decisions. Adam shares how tracking shop hours, billing accurately, and managing overhead have been the keys to his success. We dive into the...
-
202 - Kevin Emr of E-Muscle Cars
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...
-
201 - Season 2 Intro and Matt Beenen of Builtright + Mountech Followup
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...
-
163: Stewart Waliser of Stews Self Service Garage
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…
more -
162: Nathan Cicio of Cicio Performance
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.…
more -
161: Chris Riggs from Speed by Design
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...
-
160: Ben Silcock and Andre Simon return to discuss HP Academy
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 needed to hire some extra help. They have grown to 7 people and really helps generate content. Andre and...
-
159: Bryan Thompson of Powerhouse Racing
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 because of his love for cars. He then followed a friend to Dallas to begin working at Dinosaur...
-
158: AJ Hartman returns for an update on AJ Hartman Aero
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 49% of the business. They changed the name to RHR Composites, hired 2 people, contracted some…
more -
157: Matt Beenen returns with BuiltRight Industries
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 that allow you to drop the Ford F-150 back seat down to access some secret storage. To his surprise, a...
-
156: Alejandro and Pablo Moreno of Tandem Automotive
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, and went back to school to get his MBA. In the meantime, Pablo was an auto mechanic, went to flight…
more -
155: Theresa Contreras and Sara Morosan of LGE-CTS Motorsports
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 family auto body shop and worked in the front end. She taught herself how to pinstripe and paint and...
-
154: Vadim Belogorodsky from CANtrolls
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 that! Vadim taught himself to program at age 13 and has since worked on medical devices, oil rigs…
more -
153: Reid Lunde returns to discuss his interconnectable relay entered in the SEMA Launch Pad Competition
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 weatherproof. solid-state relay that can handle heavy current and is interconnectable. This makes it very easy…
more -
152: Johnny Cichowski of Nine Lives Racing
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 and going autocrossing. He worked a short stent helping at a friend's shop and then got a job at PFC…
more -
151: Jonny Mill of WheelWell.com
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 advertising and marketing. He always enjoyed cars, but things really took off when he developed The E-Stopp...
-
150: Charlie Eklund of Hennessey's Tuner School
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...
-
149: Richard Tomlin of Apex Auto Works and White Pony Dry
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...
-
148: Bob Morreale of The Tuning School
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...
-
147: Dave Carapetyan of Rally Ready Driving School wants to teach everybody how to drive a rally car!
Dave grew up in Austin and has lived there his whole life. During middle school, he played in a punk rock band (look up The Snobs – Schools Out, Let's Skate) in the early 2000's. They organized a tour on the east coast and recorded a couple 7" records. While touring and playing shows, he got…
more -
146: Dan Kahn of Kahn Media started by sending articles about his car to magazine editors. Now he runs his own PR firm.
Dan lived in a house of car enthusiasts in southern California. Both his dad and grandfather owned their own businesses, so Dan was kind of groomed to have his own business as well. In high school, Dan bought a 1968 Mustang Fastback and spent 2 years restoring it with his dad. Once they finished...
-
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!
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…
more -
144: Colin McLemore of Mac's Custom Tie Downs is working to become the household name for tie downs of all sorts
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…
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
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...
-
142: Will Baty of Centerforce clutches shares how they continue to innovate to stay ahead of market demands
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...
-
141: Tony Whatley wants you to turn your side hustle into a successful business
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…
more -
140: Bret Voelkel of RideTech explains how his company emerged from the 2008 recession stronger than ever
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 circuit. A few years later, he started working for a company in California to work for Blower Drive…
more -
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
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 wanted. This even includes Steve attempting to build a submarine as a kid. He ended up getting drafted to...
-
138: Jason Gauci of Lund International talks product development, marketing, and patents for their products in the off-road truck market
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 for an auto company in Detroit but he just couldn't commit to the cold weather. So, he moved south to…
more -
137: Brent Picasso of Autosport Labs discusses the process of using crowd funding to make RaceCapture and Podium
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 the computer lab in the mid 80's to code and tinker however he liked. He went to college to get a…
more -
136: Dave Rowe of EPS Motorsports travels all over the world tuning various race cars using his MoTeC expertise
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 dealership. During that time, he began racing go carts to satisfy his need to race. Once he finished his...
-
135: Lance Stander, the owner of Superformance, tells how he moved from South Africa to the US to pursue his passion for cars
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 decided to make the move to America and attempted to continue with the auto salvage business. He came…
more -
134: Jim Ring shares how he and his brother Mike expanded RingBrothers to include manufacturing billet assemblies and specialty body panels
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 family back home to Spring Green, WI (2 hours west of Milwaukee). He saw a 1969 Camaro Indy Pace car for...
-
133: Kris Miller has helped Powerstop Brakes increase their brand's recognition through strategic sponsorships and by creating excellent content
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…
more -
132: Gary Carbono left his job as a lawyer in Panama to pursue his passion for cars and founded Race Lab Motorsports
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…
more -
131: John Nguyen quit his day job to pursue Track Spec Motorsports and has parlayed that into the Spec Corvette racing series
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...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
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 Monday, 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 innovative product.
HOSTED BY
Todd Earsley & Kevin Dubois interview the big players in motorsports and pr
CATEGORIES
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does DO IT FOR A LIVING have?
DO IT FOR A LIVING currently has 186 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is DO IT FOR A LIVING about?
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...
How often does DO IT FOR A LIVING release new episodes?
DO IT FOR A LIVING publishes regularly with 186 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to DO IT FOR A LIVING?
You can listen to DO IT FOR A LIVING on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts DO IT FOR A LIVING?
DO IT FOR A LIVING is created and hosted by Todd Earsley & Kevin Dubois interview the big players in motorsports and pr.
URL copied to clipboard!