From the Shop Floor to the Fast Lane: How Racing, Technical Skills and Workforce Strategy Collide - Justin Mondeik, Owner & Driver at Mondeik Racing

By day, Justin Mondeik applies his technical skills in engineering; by night and weekend, he races Super Late Model cars.

From racing snowmobiles at age four to competing just one level below NASCAR, Justin has built a career on technical skill, hands-on passion, and relentless drive. In this episode, he shares how a technical education prepared him for success on and off the track—and how motorsports can help manufacturers reach the next generation of talent.

In this conversation, Justin takes us inside the highly technical world of racing—from chassis dynamics and car setups to the conditioning and precision it takes to win.

We explore how manufacturers are using racing sponsorships not just for brand exposure, but as a creative workforce strategy to recruit skilled, hands-on talent. It's a conversation that'll get you thinking about how education & industry can leverage ultra-creative ways to engage the next generation of workforce talent.

Listen to learn:

• Hear what it's like to be behind the wheel of a race car, and all the unseen work that goes into winning
• Why hands-on experience and technical training give racers an edge
• The science—and occasional mystery—behind setting up a winning car
• How educators can leverage students' hobbies to engage them in hands-on learning
• How companies can tap into motorsports to recruit the next generation of talent

3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:

1. Technical education can give students an edge—on and off the track. Justin’s background in mechanical design from Northcentral Technical College and Michigan Tech gives him a competitive advantage in racing—from car setup to real-time problem-solving. That same hands-on, systems-based thinking is exactly what manufacturers need in their workforce today.

2. Motorsports audiences are filled with future skilled workers. Fans who show up at the track tend to be mechanically inclined, hands-on, and deeply interested in how things work—traits that align closely with careers in manufacturing, machining, and engineering. These are often the same students who thrive in tech ed programs.

3. Industrial employers can benefit by getting creative with their workforce outreach strategies. One of Justin’s manufacturing sponsors used his car and race-day presence to launch a targeted hiring campaign—and successfully recruited new employees. Since there's so much overlap in racing fans and technical talent, it's a creative place for manufacturers to immerse themselves and engage with a potential workforce.

Resources in this Episode:

Connect with Justin Mondeik Racing: https://www.justinmondeikracing.com/

Connect with Justin on Social Media:

Facebook  |  Instagram  |  X  |  TikTok

Instagram - Facebook - YouTube - TikTok - Twitter - LinkedIn

Transcript

Matt Kirchner: 0:00

Matt, welcome into The TechEd Podcast. I am your host. Matt Kirkner, this is the number one podcast in all of STEM and technical education, and to be honest, it isn't even close. Why is that? Because we have listeners from all over stem and TechEd to join us every single week and join us for all kinds of reasons. We talk about things like careers in manufacturing and how we find our way into STEM manufacturing and TechEd type careers. So that's one topic we cover all the time. We love to talk about how we can get more people, more young people, especially into STEM and particularly advanced manufacturing careers. And from time to time, we'll get into a specific topic of human interest. One example might be auto racing. And today we're going to cover all of three of those things. We're going to talk about the world and a new topic here on The TechEd Podcast of auto racing. We're going to talk about how we can use that particular sport to get young people excited about manufacturing careers, and talk about how that relates to stem and technical education. We are doing all of this with a great new friend of The TechEd Podcast. His name is Justin Mondy. Justin is with Mondy racing. Hey, Justin awesome to have you with us.

Justin Mondeik: 1:22

Yeah, we're definitely really excited to be on The TechEd Podcast. Your racing

Matt Kirchner: 1:26

career in general has kind of an interesting story behind it. So let's start with What first got you interested in racing in the first place? Yeah,

Justin Mondeik: 1:35

I first started racing when I was extremely young. I'm 28 years old now. I started in racing when I

Matt Kirchner: 1:40

was you're still extremely young. If you're 28 years old, yeah, I

Justin Mondeik: 1:44

hear you. I started when I was four. So it was just at our local ice track, main Gleason Gleason International Raceway is what we called it, man. My grandpa and father at the time were racing snowmobiles and go karts, and I just kind of grew up at the race track throughout the winter time, mainly, I just kind of wanted to follow in their footsteps. So when I was four years old, my parents got me a kitty cat snowmobile, which is a small snowmobile, of course, and we kind of did traveling around Central Wisconsin. That's how I started to get my feet wet into racing. And then when I was five, we got into go karts just at our local track, low five horsepower factory mini carts, and then from there, kind of progressed up through larger framed go karts and micro sprints on ice, and then continued into larger snowmobiles, and then got into the stock car world when I was 16. So definitely very family oriented on the back side, that was definitely my passion right away, and definitely the reason that I got into racing. Well, it's

Matt Kirchner: 2:38

so amazing that you started that all the way back when you were four years old. I think that really speaks to our interests a lot of times as young people, certainly not generally before we're in kindergarten, for instance, but certainly going back through our lives, how those experiences early on in our lives can spark a lifelong interest, and certainly that interest that was ignited by both your father and your grandfather. Super, super example of that. Now you started out doing things like racing, go karts, racing, mini snowmobiles, watching your father and your grandfather engage in racing in the winter time, and now here you are in the world of super late model racing. So tell us a little bit about what is that. What is super late model racing? How does it compare to other types of motor sports that our audience might be familiar with, like NASCAR, yeah,

Unknown: 3:23

of course. So when I was 16 at the time of the ISO world track, I was very successful at what I did. I was brought up in it, and we were very successful. We had good equipment, and I was able to gain my craft over a number of years and really help that as time went on, I had a few sponsors and private people that said, if you really want to ever go somewhere in racing, you need to get on circle track, you know, asphalt. So we went out, we purchased my stock car, and started off, I'm at the lower levels, and now we've progressed up to super late models. So super late model is the highest level caliber of racing before you would get to the professional level of like the NASCAR craftsman truck series, the XFINITY series and the cup level. So we're as high as what you can get before you would go into the three tiers of NASCAR. So our cars are the best of the best technology that you can get. I do this as a second full time job. Of course, we'll get into that later. I have a primary full time job, but there's teams and organizations that we run against that that's all they do is race and they're at a professional level. We go and compete at that on a national level and also regionally across the US. So

Matt Kirchner: 4:25

speaking of that spirit of competition, and you talk about being 16 years old and being successful as a 16 year old, and you talked about the value of the equipment that you had, you had success as a 16 year old. What do you attribute that to?

Justin Mondeik: 4:38

Well, I think really just having a ton of laps. No matter if you're on dirt or asphalt or ice, any type of racing that you go to, there's never bad seat time. I feel anytime you're behind the wheel, it's good. So even though it's a different platform, a different type of vehicle that we were getting in, I still had a ton of laps in the past. So I just think it kind of came natural. Of course, there was a huge. Learning Curve, just with the equipment and different type of machine, but we were able to develop and grow that fairly fast, and then kind of progress through the ranks and different divisions. And we started out in a lower class and went to pro late models, but now we're in super late models. But like said, super late model is the highest you can get before you start going into the three NASCAR tiers. Got it.

Matt Kirchner: 5:19

I think it was Malcolm Gladwell, the author, if I'm not mistaken, that talked about becoming an expert at something takes 10,000 hours, and whatever that is, whether it's being a violinist or it's being really good at math, for example, or in your case, being awesome and being incredibly successful at racing. And you said, part of what it takes is a lot of laps. All those laps lead up to tons of races. How many races these days are you competing in every year? Justin every year?

Unknown: 5:45

Right now, we're averaging anywhere from 25 to 30 events per year. So the bulk of our schedule in the Midwest region is from May till the end of October, and then in the off season through November through March, we'll venture down to the Florida, Alabama areas, and kind of get a lot. So before that, when I was just doing ice years ago, that was only five events a year throughout the winter time, so that, of course, was a lot less. And then probably about three, four years ago, we were doing, you know, 50 plus races a year that just kind of dependent on funding and where my life was at and just what the priority was. And of course, I have, you know, full time jobs, and I just got married and and life changed a little bit. Welcome to real life, right? Well, exactly, but still, at our level, 25 to 30 events, that's still on the higher end, even in the Midwest, for what people do per year. So we're definitely still on a higher level.

Matt Kirchner: 6:33

So mid October, 25 to 30 events is, is it that, like every weekend that you're I mean, that's five months of the year that many events is how many in a week? Or what does that kind of

Justin Mondeik: 6:42

feel like? Yeah, it varies from week to week. Like our Memorial Day week this year, we have races Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. So we have four days in a row, and then we have a stretch, or we don't race for two weeks. But for the most part, it's at least once a week, if not two days a week. Normally it's a Friday, Saturday, or sometimes just a Saturday. It just really depends on what specific track we're running at that time, or if it's a regional or national touring series. It just kind of depends on the schedule that we're running. So

Matt Kirchner: 7:09

a little bit of everything I have to ask you this question. I'm certainly not an auto racer, but I did a lot of cycling and a lot of bike racing in my day. I had a good friend of mine that was also a bike racer, but before he was a bike racer, he was an auto racer, and he told me this, he said, and as you can imagine, bike racing is grueling. I mean, we did what we call century rides, where you're going out and riding 100 miles. I did several double centuries in a day, where you're literally going out and riding 200 plus miles on your bicycle in a day. And he said that being in a race car was every bit as grueling physically as bike racing, which really surprised me. I mean, I think about how beat I was at the end of a bike race or a long ride. Is it really that physically taxing on the driver himself? Yeah,

Justin Mondeik: 7:53

so, I mean, a lot of our races are weekly tracks that we go to, those are anywhere from like 50 to 75 laps. Those aren't too bad, but quite of our few races now, at the level that we run at in the series, they're anywhere from 200 to 250 laps with pit stops. So you could be in the race car for upwards an hour and a half to two and a half hours to three hours. You're going extremely fast. It's extremely hot in the race car, it takes a ton of upper body strength and just arm strength. Even though you have power steering, if you have a car that's, we'll call it on rails, that's a really good car, and it does exactly what you want it to do, then it's more of an easier race, because it's doing what you want to do. But if you're dealing with the ill handling car, then it really starts to fatigue you even more, and then you need to be physically prepared as much as you can for that you're just

Matt Kirchner: 8:38

absolutely spent at the end of a race. Is that right, when we

Justin Mondeik: 8:41

win and the adrenaline goes, Yeah, then it's not as bad. But if we have a rough race, and you run, say, 10th to 15th, and it's not a great car and depending, it just really comes down to the temperature of outside and kind of how long the race is. So when it gets to the the 8080, plus degrees and the humid, then, then it starts to get bad. Most of our races are at night. So it's not the end of the end of the world because it starts to cool off, but when we have our day races and the hot beating sun, that's when it really starts to get taxing. Got

Matt Kirchner: 9:09

it and is there conditioning you have to do in addition to being in the car, or is like the practice in the car enough to kind of condition your body to be able to handle the rigors of a race?

Justin Mondeik: 9:18

That's quite a bit. But I try to lift weights when I can and do some conditioning and cardio, fitting in with my busy schedule, but we get stuff to balance it all. But definitely I feel staying in shape, you know, within the race car, just because we do it so often. And of course, you know, you're working in the shop every night, so you're washing haulers and you're changing tires, and you're doing this and doing that. It's just it's very easy to stay in shape, absolutely.

Matt Kirchner: 9:39

So all this physical preparation that you do, both intentionally and unintentionally along the way preparing for a car race. What about technically? What are some of the technical aspects that go into making sure you're ready for race day? Yeah,

Justin Mondeik: 9:50

so there's so much body templates. All our bodies are identical in our class, except for the noses. So you have a Toyota nose, a Ford nose, and a Chevy nose. And the Dodge nose, but the rest of the body is the same. So you have a series of aluminum templates that they'll set on the race car at the race track, and that body has to contour to that template. So we have those in the shop. That's preparation every race. We have what's called a referee. So the car will physically roll through this device, and chains hang down, and the car has to be at a minimum or maximum height. Based on that, the car has to be a minimum overall weight with the driver in it. So we scale and prep that every single week in the shop, the car can only have so much overall left side percentage. So that's where it's a perk of myself being a smaller driver, because you can place then the lead on the race car where you want. So let's just say, if I, if I'm only 135 pounds, compared to a 300 pound guy, you have all that weight in the driver's seat, you can't move that weight around where you want to, because, of course, you want a certain corner to be heavier. You want this wheel weight to be different. There's certain percentages on the race car that you want. Well, if you just have all that weight, there's not a whole lot that you can do with that. So our cars, we build them as light as we possibly can, but then there's about 350 pounds of lead on them as well. So makes a whole lot of sense when you spend all this money to have everything light and then you just add all this lead balance, or at least, you can control where you want it. Tire sizes are huge, so throughout the week we have practice tires. We'll prep those as far as circumference an overall tire stager, so our left side tires are smaller than our right side stagger. So the bigger that split is from right to left, it'll make the car turn more. You can tighten it up with less stagger, etc. All our shock packages. Cast your camber bumps to your toe, a ton of front geometry work that we have to do and change throughout week to week, and every different track that we go to. So I could spend the whole hour podcast here talking about the technology behind it, but there's definitely a lot of variables and a lot of different areas that we have to cover week in a week

Matt Kirchner: 11:51

out. But of course, being technical people ourselves, that whole aspect of it fascinates us, and how much of that is like experience and gut feel and intuition, and how much of it is is just a ton of science that goes behind the physics of racing and being successful. I

Justin Mondeik: 12:08

would like to say 100% of physics is behind it going to school and going through the tech trades. You understand technology, and you understand engineering and forces and how things go together and how things should react and mechanisms and moment of inertia and everything behind it, but at the end of the day, we'll make changes at the race track and and we know that in the engineering world, if you do this, it should react a certain way, and nine times out of 10, it does, but there's always that one time that it's like, Okay, it's done this for how many times, and you can't get it to work out. And then you do something theoretically that should not work, that should not help at all, and then you make that change, and then that car is dominant that night. So for the most part, physics help it behind it, but you do have those kind of anomalies once in a while that it's the wild card. Yeah,

Matt Kirchner: 12:58

life is a little bit like that, right? We can do all the preparation, all the studying, and have all the data behind us. But in the end, sometimes it does come down to a little bit of intuition and some good fortune and a combination of all that to be successful. But interesting to hear how important that technical part of what you do is you mentioned your education and having a STEM education. So I want to dive into that a little bit, because I don't know if that's unique in the world that you're in, or not just in. But you went to Michigan Tech, which is a revered stem and engineering school, but you didn't go directly there. Tell us how you started your academic career post secondary after you were out of high school. Yeah.

Justin Mondeik: 13:33

So just a little bit in high school, I worked with an employer in town. Did a lot of youth apprenticeship through that way. I already had the job before youth apprenticeship, but I used Youth Apprenticeship so I could, you know, work during school hours, and then from there, I just knew I wanted to be in the engineering world. I really enjoyed the design aspect of it, but also being hands on in that world. So I decided to go to NTC and get my two year mechanical design, engineering technology degree, mechanical design. I chose to go to NTC just because of what our right does for the stem route. Of course, it's cheaper job placement right away. You can stay close to home, you can stay working. It's honestly a no brainer. So I was able to do that for two years, and then at that time, and they still currently have it, you could transfer out of NTC to any UW school for engineering hood, as well as Michigan Tech. And I had a technical excellence scholarship at that time that if you stayed at a tech school, you would get so much per semester. So at that time, the agreement was you could stay at NTC for an additional semester, and then you would only have to go to Michigan Tech for a year and a half. So I was able to get that scholarship for another semester, of course, stay at home, stay working, etc, and then I only had to go to Michigan Tech for a year and a half to come out with my Mechanical Engineering Technology degree. But we moved up into Houghton in the middle of winter. Not sure that was necessarily the right thing to do, but we made it through. So

Matt Kirchner: 14:57

let's dissect that a little bit. The whole youth apprentice. Upside of it, and we've got that. You and I both live in the state of Wisconsin. Wisconsin has a great ya program across the state to the point that you just made it enables students to spend some time both going to school and working while they're still in high school. So talk a little bit more about that. What youth apprenticeship program were you in while you were in high school? Justin,

Justin Mondeik: 15:18

it was pertaining to manufacturing, mechanical design, but the youth apprenticeship, there was a ton of different ones that you could go into. You could go into automotive, electrical, really, anything in the trades world. So I went into the manufacturing side and the mechanical design. I just really enjoyed it. I was kind of doing some mechanical design and CAD work offline before I even had classes in high school, and I continue to just do every TechEd class that I could in high school, and I wanted to continue to do that for a job. So it definitely made sense, because you got high school credit for it, so you didn't have to take other classes, and then you also could get work release through youth apprenticeship, so you didn't have to be at school as much. And you're also getting paid on the job to do it, to also progress your career. So it definitely was a no brainer, very thankful everything what the youth apprenticeship did for me, and it kind of catapulted me into North Central Technical College for my two year degree, and then progressed on from there. So

Matt Kirchner: 16:11

do you have a tech ed teacher while you were in high school? Sounds like you gravitated into that programming while you were in high school that really stands out to you and had a huge impact on your life? My

Justin Mondeik: 16:20

cat instructor in high school was Mr. Shield. Was his name. He was just so passionate about it. But he was just, you know, he was just a normal guy, right? He was definitely caring, normal guy, outdoors man, you know, would do anything for you. You had the personal relationship, but then you also had the respect of that it's a professional relationship as well. So he was just one of those guys that would kind of go above and beyond to make sure that you're adapting to what you need to and you're getting what you need out of the curriculum. Just really thankful for the relationship I had with him.

Matt Kirchner: 16:49

That's awesome. I'm glad you had an opportunity to shout him out. It's it's amazing how many people we have on the podcast, especially those that were in STEM and TechEd programs, that'll point back to a high school teacher or two that just had a huge impact on on them and on their career pathway. So so awesome that you were able to have that, have a person in your life that had that kind of an impact. And as you were thinking about in high school Justin, what would come next? Were you always planning on going to a technical college? Or how did you settle on that route? Obviously, the economic side of it sounds like that was an important factor in the you know, the ease of being able to transfer so many credits would put at what point kind of in your high school career? Did you say that Technical College is that next step was the right one for you? Yeah,

Justin Mondeik: 17:30

I wasn't always like, Yeah, I'm definitely gonna go do it a two year school. Of course, my family backing and support is very big into education and the technical world. So of course, I heard it at home, but at the end of the day, it's my life, and I needed to figure it out and live what I wanted to live. But when I was going through high school and just figuring out what I wanted to do, I was never that kid, thankfully, that struggled to know what they wanted to do in life. Just growing up through racing and being involved with putting things together and always being in the shop and being hands on. I know I wanted to do something in the trades, dabbling in high school throughout different classes. And I mentioned, you know, the previous my cat instructor, I just kind of fell in love with mechanical design. And then, of course, it just it made sense to keep my job, save a bunch of money not going to a four year school right away when you're just taking your gen eds anyways. And then you can stay at home. You don't have to pay rent, and then you can, you know, keep your job. And just, it made a lot of sense. So really happy with the route I went. I still hear of people, you know, it's like they'll go to, you know, a four year right away, and it's like, I get it if they want to go off and do what they want to do. And everybody has their own reasons for doing what they want to do, but it makes sense to do at least a year and a half, two years at a tech school, get all the gen ed stuff all out of the way that you kind of and just you save a bunch of money, and I feel like you have a better knowledge base because it's more hands on right away, smaller classes, et cetera.

Matt Kirchner: 18:53

Absolutely. And for as long as you mentioned your family, we might as well let our audience know if your last name sounds familiar to any of the folks in Wisconsin. Your mom, of course, Dr Shelly Mandy, who is the president of mid State Technical College, and actually a great personal friend of mine as well. So for as long as you brought that up, we might as well let your mom have a little time in the limelight here. And obviously, raised an incredible son and a really sensible son in terms of how you planned your your career, both professionally and and the education path to get there. Let's finish off with a little bit on Michigan Tech. How far along did you get at Michigan Tech? And tell us a little bit about this study that you did there?

Justin Mondeik: 19:26

Yeah. So we had a really good environment at NTC. So there was about eight to 10 guys that was really in our core group of friends. We really had a lot of fun. But there was a couple that went on to Platteville, couple went on to Milwaukee, and then a couple went on to Michigan Tech, for

Matt Kirchner: 19:40

our audience that isn't here in Wisconsin. So UW University Wisconsin, Platteville, University Wisconsin, Milwaukee, or Michigan Tech, which, of course, is up in the up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. So go on. Yep,

Justin Mondeik: 19:51

I actually my best man for my wedding, and I was also the best man for his wedding. He was my roommate. Mitch rosenski. Is his name. We met at NTC and just became. Great friends, and now he really helps me a lot with my racing, and it's just a great relationship. But he was one of them that we went to Michigan Tech together. Were roommates. It just was great to have that relationship throughout NTC, but also to continue that up north and Houghton, to continue the relationship and just have someone that you trust and someone that you know. Because of course, you could work on schoolwork together, projects or anything under the sun that way. So I studied Mechanical Engineering Technology up there with Mitch together. But it was just cool being in that atmosphere together. But then you could go snowmobile riding whenever you wanted. Of course, you had tons of snow. And when they say it literally snows every day, like it's not like it snows a dusting, it's like two to three inches every day. At least I was up there, so just pretty crazy environment, but it was just great to see the different level of instructors and just the vast variety of the engineering capabilities that they had there, man, the technologies, and just the industry backing at that time from various companies. It was a great eye opening experience for me, and I gained a lot of valuable relationships from it. And

Matt Kirchner: 21:02

I suppose if you grew up on ice ovals, then going up to the just again, for our audience that may not be familiar with that geography, Houghton, Michigan, is way up on Lake Superior in the upper midsole in Michigan. And it does get just huge lake effect snow. Just gets absolutely pounded some years, hundreds of inches of snow in that area, which we you wouldn't expect in the Midwest, but we get that here. And so it really, yeah, it takes a tough and unique person to persevere through, especially four or five years, as some some students do, the year and a half that you were up there, certainly takes a certain amount of toughness. But the education you get there, the technical background and the understanding that you gain from an experience like the one that you get at Michigan Tech invaluable in your career. We're going to get into that, I would imagine, invaluable in racing as well. We talked a little bit about some of the technical aspects of racing, but But talk to me about how that formal STEM experience and your education pathway feeds into the work that you're doing in the racing world.

Justin Mondeik: 21:58

So I've always been, like said before, just very passionate about racing and the industry as a whole, but just grew up in the shop here, I've just always been extremely hands on and willing to work. So I think just that passion for wanting to be hands on and to learn from my dad and others of how stuff goes together and what makes things tick, necessarily, that really helps. I think our program, because there's a lot of teams now that we run against, a lot of drivers that I personally race against that don't necessarily work on the cars whatsoever. They're more pay to play. So they pay other teams like I if I had a team like what I do here, if you had a son or daughter, you could pay me and they could drive my stuff right. So they could just hop in and drive right. Sure those kids and adults, they necessarily don't have that hands on experience. They don't have that feel. They don't have the appreciation for what it takes to put these cars together and how much work it truly is and the technology behind it. So I think that's where it sets us apart, because I'm a big help and putting them together, seeing how they go together. I put the setups in them. I do all the shock packages so I know how stuff should react, so I at least know what to anticipate when we get to the race track. And then from there, obviously take good notes, and you can go back and you can say, this, did this. And of course, it's a mental note. It's a feel in the seat. Then from there, you go from race track to race track, and you kind of learn over time what works and what doesn't work. And sometimes you stumble across a great setup that doesn't make any sense, but it's bad fast, and you continue to go on. But I feel like having the engineering background and the stem behind it just helps us unload at the race track and be a little more on pace right away,

Matt Kirchner: 23:36

that engineering background and stem that you had in a formal sense and in your education path, and also, in an informal sense, being around in working on things with your dad and others as you were growing up. Really important. We have a lot of students that are like that, right? A lot of young people, they like building things. They like things like engines and how do we power car and and so on. You know, all kinds of kids are wired that way. Talk a bit about how, you know that technical education opportunity in high school and beyond might be able to open some doors for them professionally that they haven't really thought about or considered as they were growing up. Yeah,

Justin Mondeik: 24:10

I feel like it's just the opportunity and the relationships you gain in the industry. So you I've always been in the manufacturing world, but just the relationships that you gain because of that. It might be other electrical subcontractors, or it might be plumbers, or you name it. And you might, you might come across this great relationship, and it might open another door, and you never know where it can take you. So I just, I truly feel like it's just a great avenue to go down, and it opens a lot of doors, because you're not necessarily this stem is so huge right you can be on the way left side of it, or the way right side of it, as far as industry. So really, there's so many opportunities that you can go down, and you really never know where that path is gonna lead. But so far, it's been leading me down a great path, and been very fortunate to meet a lot of amazing people,

Matt Kirchner: 24:56

leading you down a great path, for sure, a path, by the way, that doesn't. Come for free, right? I mean, just looking at all those things, but all that and all that equipment behind you, obviously, there's a tremendous amount of funding that goes into running a program like mondeck racing. So let's talk a little bit about that funding. I don't know if you can tell us what the annual budget looks like. Would be interested in in that, but also, where do you go to find sponsors? How do you do you fund all this out of your own pocket. Do you get some help? How does that all work? Yeah,

Justin Mondeik: 25:23

I definitely do not fund all of this out of my own pocket. When we started in the stock car world, my parents, we kind of brainstormed and how can we do this? And we started off at a very small level, as far as operation. I think my first car that we bought was like $3,000 compared to our super late models. Now, if you would build one from the ground up, there over 100 they're over$100,000 just to show that the difference, it's amazing. But when we started, my parents, you know, they said, We'll do whatever we need to do, you know, we already had the shop. So my dad's like, you know, you can have the shop and I'll always work for you. But at the end of the day, it's like, you're gonna start a business, but you're gonna go and find out your own partners and your own sponsors. And that really drove me to work hard, because, of course, the harder that I would work on the back side, the more partnerships and sponsorships that I would be able to get. And of course, the better people that you can get around you, and the better equipment, and then so on. And at the end of the day, at what we do, everybody has the best of the best equipment, and it comes down to the knowledge in the driver's seat, and then knowledge, as far as tire specialists and crew chiefs and so much behind the scenes that that goes into it to make a successful operation. And it truly is a full time job for me. But at the end of the day, it's a business as well. So we're here to make money, but we're here to have a hell of a good time. Yeah,

Matt Kirchner: 26:36

absolutely. Well, that's what life is all about. If you can wrap both of those into one career and, or in your case, two careers, because you've got multiple things that you have going on in your life, all the better. So as far as the sponsors are concerned, I know as we're warming up and kind of learning a little bit about the work that you've done, some of your sponsors have found some really, really unique benefits to being part of the racing scene, particularly manufacturing companies. Yeah, you would think that maybe there's, there's just brand awareness and making people aware of whatever a company's brand is. And certainly that's one reason to sponsor, you know, a racing program, but lots and lots of others. And tell us a little bit, as you were telling our producer about this, what one of your sponsors discovered as they were out doing work with you and found some unexpected benefits. So talk about that.

Justin Mondeik: 27:21

Yep. So everywhere now, of course, is struggling for employees, especially good and talented employees, no matter where you are, everybody's crying for more. So we did a HR hiring campaign with the company. We had stuff on the car all year. We had a QR landing page on our hero cards, which are autographed cards. If you would scan the QR code, it would go right to Justin mondack racing.com but then it would also push it to their landing page for their hiring area. But then they would also come to the race track and have kind of a hospitality booth. They'd hand out free stuff, of course, get everybody talking. And then from there, they were able to get a couple hires and new hires out of it. So it was successful. So it's definitely a great opportunity to get companies in front of the racing world, because at the end of the day, you're always trying to get new fans into the racing world, but it's a lot of blue collar, hard working men and women, hands on, that come to the race track, right? So of course, in the manufacturing setting, it's definitely a hot bed for opportunity with employees. And

Matt Kirchner: 28:21

is that what sponsors are finding that the motor sports fans tend to be the kinds of folks that would excel and would enjoy careers in manufacturing? Yeah,

Justin Mondeik: 28:28

it definitely comes down to the hands on the passion for engineering and manufacturing. And just at the end of the day that they're crazy about the sport and they're they're gear heads, right, absolutely.

Matt Kirchner: 28:40

So is that, I mean, if you think about a young student or a young person that has an interest in motor sports, did those skills and those interests? Do they they span, and I know you've spent time in manufacturing, do they port over pretty well to manufacturing as far as skills and aptitudes are concerned, yeah,

Justin Mondeik: 28:56

it comes down to simple math and understanding procedures in a manufacturing facility or a shop. I mean, today's world, if you have the knowledge with what you're gaining in the STEM world, that translates so well to the manufacturing world. And of course, just training on the job, you can't beat that.

Matt Kirchner: 29:14

So we have a lot of employers that listen to this podcast every week, people that are running small to mid size manufacturing companies. We've had a lot of guests from Fortune 500 manufacturing companies on the podcast over the years, so lots and lots of folks are tuning in and tapping into The TechEd Podcast for all kinds of ideas, including, how do we inspire this next generation of STEM and workforce talent into careers like advanced manufacturing? So let's say that I'm a manufacturer, small to mid sized company, and I'm listening to this podcast, you know, what advice would you have for them of how they, both companies and educators can use platforms like motor sports to get a hold of and get excited this next generation of manufacturing talent?

Justin Mondeik: 29:54

Yeah, it's just the next generation that's going to the race track and being a part of it. So of course, that. Say, reach out to myself at Justin Monday Grayson, in reality, just getting in front of different teams or organizations, also you can team up with the series or the tracks, whatever that might be, because there's a lot of partners that we work with that necessarily don't want to partner with an individual. Maybe they want to do more of an organization or a track. And a lot of our partners, they've sponsored us on the personal level, but they've also gave back and sponsored series or tracks as well. So there's definitely a gateway, and I would love to express all the various opportunities that we can go down

Matt Kirchner: 30:33

just a Monday, if just a Monday, racing is our guest in this episode of The TechEd Podcast. We've got enough time for two more questions here, Justin as we close out our time together, it's been a real fascinating conversation. The first one is this, we all have our own journey through education. You referenced a little bit earlier, a specific teacher, a TechEd teacher that had a particularly important influence on your life and your career and so on, and so glad that you had that experience, and such a great example for our teachers in terms of the impact that they can have on people's lives, but we all have our own journey through education. Education works in different ways for different people. And would love to know if there's something about education that you learned along your path through education that would surprise some people, is there something you believe about education that not too many other people would believe? If

Justin Mondeik: 31:19

you want to take a minor in something, if there's something if there's something else that you're interested in, do it while you're in that school mode, while you're there, or if you want to do continuing education to get your MBA, or your master's or your doctorate, if you can afford to do it, and at the time in your life, continue to do that, because at the point you know where I am now, it's just life goes on and life gets busy, and there's never a good time to truly go back and do it. But I know how I was at the end of the four years. You just wanted to get out and work full time and you wanted a little relief. But now looking back at it, it's like you kind of wish you would have just went on, but that would be my advice well, and I do

Matt Kirchner: 31:56

want to extract something from that last answer that I think is interesting when you talk about, you know, maybe consider a minor that something that is, something that interests you. You think about so many people go into their education post secondary, and they pick a major because it's something that's interesting. Or sometimes people say, follow your passion. And my answer is always, yeah, follow your passion, but you better make sure that there's a job available to you at the end of that passion, or you're going to spend a lot of money getting a degree that doesn't necessarily help you along professionally. So here, what I hear you saying is, hey, we can pick a degree that has a job at the end of it, and that's exactly what you did, but along the way, it doesn't mean you can't take some classes or even explore a minor in something that's really interesting to you, that may or may not lead to a professional career, but but you're exploring this interest at the same time you're gaining competencies in whatever your field of study is, your primary field of study that will probably lead to your primary career after you complete that education journey. So I think that's really, really a pointed thing for our young people to think about. It's okay to major in something that leads to an awesome career, but also pick some interests and some clubs or a minor or other academic endeavors that may interest you a little bit more. I think that's really, really good advice. Speaking of good advice, Justin, we want to give you an opportunity to give some good advice to your 15 year old self. No, I'll be honest with you, at the age of 28 a lot of the people we posed this question to are quite a bit further along from the age of 15 than maybe you are. But turning that clock back 13 years ago, you're a 15 year old, maybe sophomore in high school growing up there in central Wisconsin. And if you could go back and give that young man one piece of advice, what would it be

Justin Mondeik: 33:37

my words of advice to the 15 year old self was, take that $10,000 that you bought that snowmobile with and invest it in stocks or something like that. That would be my words of advice. There

Matt Kirchner: 33:49

you go, and that's pretty good. And looking at the stock market has done over the course of the last 13 years, that might not have been bad advice. On the other hand, with this, this passion that you managed to garner throughout your life, so far toward toward racing and motor sports and so on, you never know if maybe your life would have turned out a little bit different. But really, really interesting advice to take that money that you spent at the age of 15 and invested in the stock market that I think there's a lot of us that probably, if we had life to do it over again, might have spent a little bit more time focusing our assets on that particular endeavor. So really, really good advice. There Justin great advice across the board, and a great conversation that we've had here about Justin Mondy racing and the great work that you're doing, all the expenses that go into running a great racing team, all the technical aspects of it. With that, I found that particularly interesting, and then this opportunity for companies to reach out to young people that are in the motor sports scene, that are fans of motor sports, probably a little bit bent toward hands on, a little bit bent toward technical maybe a little bit more bent toward a non traditional journey through education. So I think all of that just had a great time exploring all that with you. Justin and can thank you enough for. Coming onto The TechEd Podcast and sharing all that with us here.

Justin Mondeik: 35:03

Absolutely, I appreciate you letting me be a part of it, and everything that you do, just for stem and the TechEd area all across the board and except just really appreciate you letting me come on here and telling a little bit about myself and Justin monk racing. Well, it's

Matt Kirchner: 35:17

a perfect example of how we secure the American Dream for the next generation of STEM and workforce talent. Frankly, we talent. Frankly, we do it for people like you or the people that you were 10 years ago. All these great opportunities in manufacturing and in STEM and in technology, you've managed to pull that all together into two separate careers, and really had fun talking about that. So what a great episode we've had today on The TechEd Podcast with Justin Mondy. Want to point everybody to the show notes. You'll see all kinds of resources there. We'll make sure we point you to Justin's website as well, so you can learn more about Justin Mondy racing if you choose to do that, any of the resources that we talked about here on The TechEd Podcast today, we will link up in those show notes. We do have the best show notes in the business, and you will find them for this particular episode at TechEd podcast.com/mandy that is TechEd podcast.com/m. O, n, d, e, i, k, when you're done there, of course, we talked about social media. Justin's use of social media and his team's use of social media. We make great use of social media here at The TechEd Podcast as well. So check us out. We are all over social media. You will find us on LinkedIn, you'll find us on Instagram, you'll find us on Facebook, you will find us on Tiktok, wherever you go to find your social you will find The TechEd Podcast, and you'll find us here again next week. Looking forward to seeing you then thanks for being with us. You