Turning Passion for Cars into Profit: Taro Koki

Summary

In this engaging conversation, Taro Koki, a prominent figure in automotive media, shares his journey from traditional media to digital content creation. He discusses the evolution of Racer Media, the impact of YouTube on automotive content, and the balance between passion and monetization in creative endeavors. Taro also reflects on his experiences in Japan, his love for cars, and the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in the creative industry. The discussion culminates in insights about the growing popularity of Formula One racing in the U.S.

Takeaways

• Taro Koki emphasizes the importance of collaboration in content creation.
• The transition from traditional media to digital platforms has transformed the automotive industry.
• YouTube has revolutionized how automotive content is consumed and monetized.
• Passion for cars drives Taro's content creation efforts.
• Cultural influences from Japan shape Taro's perspective on automotive media.
• Finding a unique selling point is crucial for success in content creation.
• Balancing passion with economic realities is essential for creatives.
• Tackling challenges in a compartmentalized manner can alleviate stress for entrepreneurs.
• Returning to employment after entrepreneurship offers new perspectives and opportunities.
• Formula One's rise in popularity is attributed to effective marketing and engaging content.

Ready to turn your PASSION into PROFIT?!? Let's get CREATIVE ➡️
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Transcript

Taro Koki | RACER (00:01.44)
Yeah.

Taro Koki | RACER (00:09.697)
Alright.

Taro Koki | RACER (00:13.622)
Okay.

Christian Brim (00:13.73)
We're giving Randy, Randy, the sound engineer something to do. So, well, back to your, back to your, your, your thought you're, you were saying that talking about this community cohort and how razor has to adapt and collaborating with existing content creators. so what does that look like? So you would be, before you sold your company, you would be one of those people that you were trying to reach, right?

Taro Koki | RACER (00:19.028)
Okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (00:28.596)
Yes.

Taro Koki | RACER (00:41.685)
Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah.

Christian Brim (00:43.211)
And so what would that arrangement look like? What does Racer bring to the table for you as a content creator?

Taro Koki | RACER (00:50.837)
Yeah. So it's, it's exactly the same as what we were doing in my previous company. So with GT channel, started the channel and it became a large channel and we saw similar creators doing cool things about cars. we, we thought, Hey, if we gather a bunch of like-minded channels together, maybe we can go to

Christian Brim (01:18.51)
Mmm.

Taro Koki | RACER (01:18.537)
brand A and sell against all of our collective views and engagements rather than just like one channel going out and trying to do, you know, one piece of content. So with the racer, it's very similar with that, right? So as a creator agency now, we can go to the various clients and partners that we work with already, you know, the past 33 years, we have a roster and we have

partners that we've been working with and the creator distribution of their message, the brand message and their content could just be another thing that we can add to our offerings. So that's sort of where I think we can bring value. Also, a lot of

creators are, you know, if they're just starting out, they don't have access to maybe cars or events, or they can't get a media credential to, you know, Formula One, you know, Las Vegas, because no one knows them they're not a, you know, they're not a media company, you know. So those are some of the things that, that we can, you know, I think help out with and bring to the table and just share our, you know, resources with the creators, especially if they don't have them yet.

Christian Brim (02:29.453)
Right.

Christian Brim (02:48.621)
How have they received it thus far?

Taro Koki | RACER (02:51.935)
It's been, it's been very positive actually. Recently, we also acquired MavTV, which is, which was an action sports TV network. Now it is called Racer Network and we're in millions of households and we're, you can, you can access Racer Network through cable and we have a fast channel. We also have an app called Racer Plus. So as a creator, it's also another

It's a different platform. It's a different way to access a new audience that they haven't been able to, just through the social channels that maybe they're on. So now you're, you can have your, your, your show, your podcast show, for example, on the racer network. And we've done that with some of our, podcasts already. There are, they're airing on TV. They're on the app as VOD content.

So we're just offering a different way to expand their distribution, which means potentially more sponsorship dollars or more opportunities to collaborate with different brands and creators.

Christian Brim (04:01.165)
Okay, so why cars? Why did you get into cars? Where'd that come from?

Taro Koki | RACER (04:06.945)
That's a great one. So when I started my company back in 2000, my first company, so I've created several companies, but it's always been about cars. I am a car enthusiast. But when we created our first company, it was back in Tokyo. We set out to build this

you website that featured Japanese pop culture. Right. So we had, we had, we had anime, we had, you know, like J-pop and J-rock and Japanese fashion and all these things are like really common now, like food too. Because like Japan's all over social media now and like everybody's really familiar. But this was like in 2000, like this, you know, there's no, no social media, no YouTube. Right.

Christian Brim (05:04.107)
Right. Right.

Taro Koki | RACER (05:06.837)
So one of the things that just got a lot of hits immediately was cars. Fast and Furious had just come out in the United States. And you're suddenly seeing these Japanese, souped up Japanese cars, right? That people have never seen before, right? So because like, before then, like, in Southern California, there's a little pocket of guys that

you I'm friends with and everything that have been, you know, souping up civics and Supras and, know, RX sevens and things like that for, you know, since the nineties, but that was like a subculture, right? No one, no one knew about drifting. No one knew, you know, like the rest of the United States or rest of the globe didn't know that your people are drag racing civics, right? No, you know, when you think about drag racing, you're thinking about American muscle cars, right?

Christian Brim (05:56.139)
Right. Now you wouldn't expect that.

Taro Koki | RACER (06:03.681)
But that was happening here in Los Angeles. And that's what Fast and Furious was all about. And people are suddenly hungry and thirsty for Japanese tuner culture content. And the website that we launched just had a bunch of visitors really curious about Japanese tuning and Japanese cars. And we call them JDM, but Japanese Domestic Market Cars. like cars that...

We only have in Japan and don't have here like the Nissan Skyline GTR, which is like an icon here now, but there was just no way to get any of that content. So, you know, one of the first things we did, so the website just didn't work because of, you know, many reasons because no one was, no one in the U S was placing ads in a site in Japan. Right. So it was just, didn't, there was no like, you Google.

back then. There was no ad sense back then. So you had to go sell your own ads basically. But well, the first things we did was we went to a Japanese publisher that had all this content and asked if we can create English versions of this content. And it was video content and they had these VHS videos. So we started translating these videos into English, putting in subtitles.

This was before desktop publishing. So, you know, we literally had to go to a studio and, you know, put these subtitles in. And then we, you know, we'd manufacture these DVD, you know, originally VHSs, this is how old I am, VHSs and then eventually DVDs. And we'd go to car shows here in the US and like put up a tent and, you know, sell DVDs out of the back of our, you know, minivan that we rented at LAX and we'd

sell a whole box or a couple boxes or cases and then we'd go back to Japan. And then eventually we started to find distributors here in the US that were interested in carrying our stuff. we started printing the DVDs here in the US and we started distributing and we got our DVDs into all the mass retail stores that...

Taro Koki | RACER (08:24.033)
funny enough, don't even exist anymore too, like FYE and Circuit City and like, know, like blockbusters basically, they're gone too, right? So that happened in 2007 when YouTube came out. So when YouTube hit, you know, special interest DVDs were just, overnight, overnight we lost our business because...

Taro Koki | RACER (08:54.901)
about that. So I have terrible internet here I'm sorry. Yeah so overnight you know YouTube happened and you know kids were uploading their our content onto YouTube and you know no one's buying our DVDs anymore and our distributors are calling us and say well we can't carry your stuff anymore because they know like we're no one's buying your stuff anymore.

Christian Brim (09:01.729)
No worries.

Christian Brim (09:11.158)
Right.

Taro Koki | RACER (09:23.603)
Hey, we're only carrying Hollywood, you know, movie movies. so, you know, you either go home and cry or you just go with the flow. And so what we started to do was we started uploading our, our video content. just started cutting up our DVDs and putting them up on YouTube say where we well, okay. We'd rather build an audience than, you know, just closed shop. So we, we created.

Christian Brim (09:50.22)
Right.

Taro Koki | RACER (09:52.065)
a GT channel and we started uploading our content and you know, we were one of like the first autumn professionally produced automotive channels on YouTube. Cause back in the day, if you remember YouTube was just like cat videos and you know, people just like, you know, we didn't know what to do with YouTube, right? It was, you know, it was just a bunch of

Christian Brim (10:12.951)
Well, initially, was there an advertising platform in YouTube or was there any way to monetize it? Okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (10:17.981)
No, no, no, no, no, At the beginning, no, it wasn't. there were some platforms. There was like this platform called Reverend and things like that where they would share revenue. But, you know, this is early, early days of like online video, right? It's like, obviously not HD, not 4k. The quality of the content was terrible. and you know, we, we couldn't monetize, but, but YouTube purchased

double click and then that became AdSense and then they started inserting ads into videos. So they started, you know, pre-rolling videos and things like that, pre-roll ads. And then YouTube got sued by all the studios. So what happened was that they had to, you know, they got sued and they had to, you know,

settle and develop this program where, okay, the studios can choose if they want to keep that content up or take it down or just monitor it. And so now it's called the YouTube Partner Program, but you get a percentage of the ad revenue that you make on YouTube now. And even if someone takes your content,

It's called content ID on YouTube, but if someone takes their content and uploads it onto their own channel, they don't get that user doesn't get the advertising fee. The owner gets it. The content owner gets it, gets to monetize on it. So we were invited actually by YouTube to this program just because we were uploading professional professionally created car content.

And we was kind of like rolled up into this program as, as, you know, weren't big enough, you know, like, you know, the studios, but we were recognized as a, professional content creator, as a media company. And so they invited us, okay. You know, people are taking your content, right? Yeah, they are. You know, are you losing money? Yeah, we are. Like, what are you going to do for us and say, okay, we got, we got this program. You want to be part of it and said, yeah, of course. You know, why not?

Taro Koki | RACER (12:41.825)
We didn't know how it was going to be, but long story short, why cars? That's why. We started out originally like that, and then it was just a good time, know, Fast and Furious, and the need was there, and we were filling that demand, and it just grew from there.

Christian Brim (13:04.361)
Okay, so are you a self-identified gearhead? I do you work on cars? No.

Taro Koki | RACER (13:09.747)
No, I don't. I'm terrible. mean, I worked during high school. Actually, I did work a couple summers at an automotive repair shop in Houston. So I done some, you know, I worked on cars, but I am not a I'm not very good. I'm not good with my hands in terms of working on cars. I I approach cars more from an aesthetic.

point of view. So I like creating content about cars. So that's what I'm specialized in. I like I shoot cars, you know, I create videos about cars. I interview people that build cars. I like telling those stories. Whether they're, you know, building their cars in their garage, or if they're a legendary, you know, race car driver that has won Le Mans or

Christian Brim (13:38.9)
Okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (14:08.011)
Pikes Peak, those are the kind of things that I like to do with cars. I'm like, live on the kind of like, you know, like what you talk about on your podcast, I'm on the intersection of automotive and creativity. So that's why my, that's why my, my podcast, not racer podcast is called the creative drive. I don't interview, I do interview race car drivers, but I, it's not, I don't approach the podcast from

Christian Brim (14:23.554)
Yeah.

Taro Koki | RACER (14:37.835)
point of view of like how fast were you going, know, and, you know, at, you know, turn five at, you know, this particular, you know, racetrack, you know, or what gear were you in? What kind of like suspension setup you had? We don't really talk too much about that kind of stuff. I talk more about like, you know, how they got started. Why cars, you know.

Christian Brim (14:50.881)
Right.

Taro Koki | RACER (15:04.715)
how they got started into racing, what's the appeal and how are they building their social media following in the automotive world. I not only interview race car drivers, but I interview designers and journalists and creators and car builders. So I keep it kind of broad.

Christian Brim (15:31.433)
Okay, so what was your first car in high school?

Taro Koki | RACER (15:37.375)
My first car was a Chevy Monza. Absolute piece of junk. I bought it for like $500. Yeah, it was worth it. First day I got into it, I still remember I was with two guys. I think it was, your wife would know.

Christian Brim (15:42.689)
I even remember that.

Christian Brim (15:49.015)
Price was right.

Taro Koki | RACER (16:05.429)
Jamie Bragg and Tommy Pamisano, were both, three of us were in the car and I tried to change the gear and the shift knob just like pulled right out of it. But I wrecked that car in like a month. So it was just like a terrible car. was driving down, it did, it did. It fell in a ditch on Sunday morning.

Christian Brim (16:13.601)
Nice.

Christian Brim (16:25.066)
It did you a favor.

Taro Koki | RACER (16:33.089)
And people just came out. It happened in front of a church. So this was like after church, some guy, you know, they all came out and they see this car, you know, this like Japanese kid, like, you know, like in the ditch. Um, and they're like, Hey, you okay? He's like, yeah, I'm fine. But, know, and here he gave me his card and it was like, he was, he had an auto repair shop right down the street and says, you want me to take care of this? Like, yeah, can you, can you? And so basically he took the car and he fixed the car.

Christian Brim (16:37.293)
You

Taro Koki | RACER (17:02.593)
And he said, you know what, if you don't want the, I mean, he just kind of gave me an offer. like, you know, my, my, my kids need a card, you know, it's like, much do want to buy for? And, he said, 700 bucks. How's that? You know, I bet he thought he was getting a great deal. And I said, okay, yeah, sure. So I made 200 bucks. So that was my first.

Christian Brim (17:20.173)
Done. Done.

So did you ever, did you trade cars? Did you like, did you ever get into that aspect of it?

Taro Koki | RACER (17:31.209)
No, no, not really. I've always, you know, I've always owned cars. I've loved cars. Personally, I like, you know, I like off-roading. So I like, so I've had Jeeps and I own a 4Runner now. But the subject of my videos have always been like Japanese tuner cars. Most of them are about, you know, the world we live in.

Christian Brim (17:43.394)
Okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (17:59.475)
is about like JDM tuning and drifting and things like that. So I've done like a lot of videos on like drift cars and, know, GTRs and NSXs. And those are the kind of cars and like, the subjects that, that I've made, you know, videos and, and, and wrote about and things like that.

Christian Brim (18:20.983)
So at what point did you go back to Japan or go to Japan? I don't even know. Were you born here in the States or were you an exchange student?

Taro Koki | RACER (18:28.449)
Yeah, no, no. So I was born in Japan, actually. I was born in Japan. I came here when I was four. And then I went back a couple of times, but I came to Houston for high school and I was I did four years of high school and then I went back to Japan for college. yeah, so I came back here in 2007 to live again. So I was married.

Christian Brim (18:32.064)
Okay.

Okay.

Christian Brim (18:48.524)
Okay.

Christian Brim (18:56.439)
Okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (18:57.909)
and I came here with my wife and, we know she's, she's Venezuelan American. Yeah. American. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So she's a, she's a Venezuelan American. Yeah.

Christian Brim (19:01.824)
Is she Japanese?

Christian Brim (19:06.061)
Okay, all right. Very American, very American arrangement.

Christian Brim (19:15.677)
And okay, so I heard a rumor, and I think my wife asked me to ask you this, about did you play football in Japan?

Taro Koki | RACER (19:28.021)
I did. I did. I played American football. I played college football in Japan.

Christian Brim (19:30.913)
Okay.

So that was a thing. Okay, I never even would have thought it was. Okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (19:35.489)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I played college football for four years in Japan. Yeah, it was like sort of like the heyday of like Japanese football in Japan. we, used to, yeah, they do, they do. They still play, you know, it's not as big as baseball and soccer, you know, but back in the day, it was kind of popular, right? And we played like at the Tokyo Dome where the Yomori Giants play.

Christian Brim (19:49.729)
Do they still play it there?

Christian Brim (20:02.368)
Interesting.

Taro Koki | RACER (20:05.857)
That's the dome in Tokyo where Shohei Otani hit the ball and it just went right through the roof. But we used to play there. Yeah, so it was kind of a thing back then. And we kind of went all over. Our whole team came to play football at Harvard Stadium too, one summer. Yeah, so yeah, we had...

Christian Brim (20:06.453)
Okay.

Christian Brim (20:11.999)
Right.

Christian Brim (20:29.525)
Interesting. Okay. So so I mean, I'm did they play high school football in Japan? Like how do you don't okay? All right, okay

Taro Koki | RACER (20:36.449)
They do. Yeah, yeah, they have high school. Just like here, they start with flag football and then they start playing tackle football in high school. And then, you know, they have have college football. They have a whole semi pro league too. So after college, can you can still play as well. Most of the teams are owned or supported by by companies. So they're they're all sponsored by, you know,

Christian Brim (20:43.425)
Okay.

Christian Brim (21:03.82)
Mm-hmm.

Taro Koki | RACER (21:06.195)
large corporations and they, know, some, most of the players are like employees of the company, but there are some, you know, there's some players that just, you know, they basically get paid to pretty much play football.

Christian Brim (21:13.953)
Interesting.

Christian Brim (21:24.279)
So same rules as American football? mean, exact same. Okay. And what position did you play?

Taro Koki | RACER (21:26.913)
Exactly. Yeah, we follow that. Yeah.

Taro Koki | RACER (21:33.089)
Um, I played, so, you know, I played cornerback when I was in high school, right? Cause I'm, I'm 5'11", you know, not the biggest guys and I was, I was quick. No, but I was quick. So I played cornerback. Um, but as soon as I got back to Japan, they're like, okay, 5'11", is not cornerback size anymore. like every, everything goes down a size. So they're like, okay, you're playing linebacker now. So.

Christian Brim (21:39.232)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (21:45.453)
But not short.

Christian Brim (21:59.937)
Okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (22:03.009)
So I played outside linebacker, like a defensive end, sort of edge position for four years. Yeah.

Christian Brim (22:03.681)
Gotta beef up.

Christian Brim (22:11.307)
I love that. Okay. Stacey said she was going to listen to this episode. So now you have your answer Stacey. She also said you're an avid surfer.

Taro Koki | RACER (22:16.691)
There you go.

I do. Well, I live in Redondo Beach now in California.

Christian Brim (22:25.101)
Do you have to surf if you live in Redondo Beach? So like a requirement? Okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (22:29.073)
No, you don't have to. No, you don't have to. don't have to. But a lot of people do. But a lot of people do. Yeah. A lot of people surf here. So we live, you know, 10 minutes from the beach. So I can go before work. I can go after work in the summer. You know, I'm probably surfing maybe once or twice a week, at least. It's a really nice situation here. And, you know, it's beautiful right now in the summer.

Christian Brim (22:33.431)
But most do, you know.

Christian Brim (22:51.341)
Thanks.

Taro Koki | RACER (22:57.343)
I went yesterday.

Christian Brim (22:57.697)
Yeah. Nice. Okay, so I want to circle back to the business aspect of it. And one of the things we talk a lot about on this podcast and is a challenge for a lot of creatives is that monetization and trading off the passion of creation, what they enjoy doing with how to make money with it. And it seems like you have a lot of experience through

to different obstacles on on how to, you know, actually make money doing what it is that you love to create. What what is your how have you been continually successful? Like, is there are there some principles that you follow or some, you know, words of wisdom that you would share to another creator about how that how to make that happen?

Taro Koki | RACER (23:55.231)
Yeah, mean, that's, I mean, it's always a balance, right? You, as a creative, you want to do the things that you want to do and your passion about. But it's not always the best way to make money. But the other aspect is that if you love it, you can really, you know, go through some hard times and try to...

Christian Brim (24:08.429)
You

Taro Koki | RACER (24:24.149)
you know, try to make it. because you have that drive, right? And that's sort of like this, like, sort of like my podcast, the creative drive is like, what drives you, right? And if it's that passion to create content about cars or, you know, cooking cats, whatever it is, right? Whatever create creative thing you're doing, could be acting, right? It could be painting, whatever it is.

Christian Brim (24:29.1)
Yes.

Christian Brim (24:42.743)
cats.

Taro Koki | RACER (24:54.535)
If you are passionate about it, you do have that drive to someday make it happen. But, you know, there's always a balance though, right? You really always, you also have to be kind of realistic about like where your situation is economically, I think, you know, like, I mean, if you are, if you have the resources,

Christian Brim (25:16.812)
Mm-hmm.

Taro Koki | RACER (25:23.329)
to pursue that goal, go for it, but you also have to think about, am I really good at this? You really have to find your unique selling point, same as any startup, right? What's your USP, right? It's like, why are you different? Why are you unique because...

Christian Brim (25:38.838)
Right.

Taro Koki | RACER (25:48.299)
You know, if you're just one out of a million people that are making the same kind of content, it's like, you're not going to stand out. So you just really have to find that thing that you're, you're, you're good at. And also you're passionate about at the same time and sort of like find your own niche because you really have to be unique in this own, in this, in your own way to, to make it.

Christian Brim (26:13.527)
Was there ever a point in the, I'm guessing 30 years that you've been doing this, that you were like, not for me anymore. Like I, you know, there's gotta be an easier way to make a buck.

Taro Koki | RACER (26:33.417)
Yeah. Yeah. mean, there, there've been times, but a lot of times when I thought, okay, I'm kind of like in this hole and like, not in a good place. it's not, it hasn't been about like me losing the passion for, you know, building the business or, being creative.

Right? That hasn't been the fact. If you kind of like, you know, put all these like problems in a box, the one big box that usually like wears on you is not the fact that, you you've lost your passion for being creative or automotive or, you know, building a business.

Christian Brim (27:02.177)
Right?

Taro Koki | RACER (27:30.283)
For me, at least, it's mostly been pressure from other things. It could be, that guy's not paying me, or it could be like, I'm getting pressure from this person because of that problem, it could be something like, it could be anything else. So if you sort of like,

Christian Brim (27:46.061)
Right.

Taro Koki | RACER (28:01.217)
If you can find that one problem that is really like wearing down on you, if you can like really put that in a box and just like, I like to just go and solve it. Like I just like, put everything aside and try to just solve that problem. Then things will become easier because when like everything is like on your shoulders, it feels like, man, I don't want, I don't think I want to do this anymore. I think I'm just going to pack it up and go home.

I sort of like compartmentalizing those problems and like tackling them one by one is what's helped for me at least.

Christian Brim (28:36.269)
Mm.

Christian Brim (28:42.379)
Yeah, I was interviewing the author Todd Henry for the show and he wrote the accidental creative. His most recent book is the Brave Habit. But, you know, he talked about the Greek word for passion. And I'm going to mispronounce it. It's like paracletos or something like that. But

The Greek word actually means suffering. And he said, know, when you're passionate about something, you're willing to suffer for it. And I think a lot of us as entrepreneurs and creatives have had to suffer for it. But.

Taro Koki | RACER (29:16.177)
Mm.

Taro Koki | RACER (29:33.707)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (29:36.969)
You know, I think that kind of weeds out the people that aren't really passionate about it. Like they just have an interest in it, right? Cause cause you're not going to go through that fire and that, that, the, the pain of having your business collapse overnight because of YouTube. if you're just interested in it.

Taro Koki | RACER (29:42.441)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Taro Koki | RACER (29:54.421)
Yeah. Yeah. I think so. And the interesting thing about being an entrepreneur is, know, a creative is an entrepreneur. A lot of creative people are entrepreneurs, but, you know, you have full ownership of, of your situation, you know, everything from, so the creative is the product, right? And like the, your income,

Christian Brim (30:06.401)
Absolutely.

Christian Brim (30:16.876)
Mm-hmm.

Taro Koki | RACER (30:23.954)
is like the business, right? And those things go hand in hand, right? And it's like, if you don't have both, it's not really sustainable. Yeah.

Christian Brim (30:25.676)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (30:38.443)
No, no, not at all. My I've talked about my daughter, my middle daughter, who's a figurative oil painter. And when she decided that that was what she wanted to do as a career, I started asking those, you know, entrepreneur questions that a dad would ask, like, well, what are you going to paint? Who's going to buy it? How are going to price it? You know, blah, blah, blah. And she finally just threw up her hands and said, I don't know, I just want to paint what I want to paint. And I'm like, okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (30:58.933)
Yeah, right.

Christian Brim (31:09.196)
Which, which.

Taro Koki | RACER (31:09.537)
Wasn't she in LA or is she in LA?

Christian Brim (31:12.503)
She did. She lived in West Hollywood for a couple of years, went screaming back to the heartland. It's funny because she is my most liberal. She was my most liberal daughter. And West Hollywood was too weird for her. she came back. And I swear to God, she came back.

Taro Koki | RACER (31:25.569)
Yeah.

Taro Koki | RACER (31:30.561)
Keep it weird, that's what it says.

Christian Brim (31:37.349)
And she was listening to country music and I'm like what the hell happened to you? Like this is not my daughter. I don't know so What one last question I have so so what's it like going back to work? For somebody else after being an entrepreneur for so long. How has that been different?

Taro Koki | RACER (31:57.813)
well, it's definitely different. but I kind of take it. I approach it the same though, you know, the big difference is that you don't have ownership in the company. Right. So it comes, it's sort of connected to your last question too, but, you know, you don't have ownership to everything, you know, you, you're, you're passionate about and you're passionate about your business. That's why you spend, you know, your weekends working.

Christian Brim (32:05.069)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (32:09.355)
Right.

Taro Koki | RACER (32:27.541)
when you own your company, because you're growing your company and your brand and the returns will, it's all yours, right? You might have some outside investors and things like that, but it's basically you are the company. But when you're working for a different company, you don't own the company, but you do have, there is accountability and you do have responsibilities. So I...

I approach it pretty much the same. You know, I tried to give it the best I can. know, when you give something that is good enough, it really is only good enough. And I don't like good enough. I'd like to give, you know, 100 % of myself to a task. so it's been refreshing though, you know, like when you own a company, everything is on your shoulders, right? Like we were talking about like,

Christian Brim (33:24.244)
Right, right.

Taro Koki | RACER (33:26.241)
from HR to accounting to, you know, legal, making sure the bathroom's clean, right? It's like all of that is like on you, right? And then you gotta go out and, you know, produce and sell. But what's been really cool about working at Racer is that, you know, I have a team now and resources and I don't have to do every single thing anymore, right? So I can go to other people and ask.

Christian Brim (33:28.341)
Yeah, legal. Sure.

Christian Brim (33:33.773)
You

Taro Koki | RACER (33:55.957)
then for advice or I can work collaboratively. I can collaborate with like the sales team to pitch something to a potential brand or, you know, work with the creative director to deliver something for a client. know, it's been, so I'm really enjoying it though. It's been really cool to not have to do every single thing myself. mean, I...

Christian Brim (34:25.111)
Yeah. Yeah.

Taro Koki | RACER (34:25.293)
We did have a team too back, this team is much more bigger too. So I'm enjoying it a lot right now. It's good.

Christian Brim (34:36.077)
Now, did Racer buy your company or did somebody else? No, okay, you sold it to somebody else. Okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (34:39.093)
No, no. Yeah. So I sold it to another company and I was just consulting and just hanging out for a bit. And then I joined Racer. I've known the CEO and co-founder of Racer, Paul Fanner for about 15 years and we've been good friends. And he's been, he's actually sold his company once to a media company.

And I actually called him up one day and said, Hey, Paul, you sold your company to Haymarket years ago. What was it like? Because I'm thinking about selling my company. And then we've just kept in touch. then after I sold my company, said, Hey, what do you do when you're not getting along with the board? How did it happen for you? So he's been a really good mentor and a friend.

Christian Brim (35:21.601)
Yeah. Yeah.

Taro Koki | RACER (35:39.37)
yeah, and we, we just kept in touch and, that's, that's how I, became to be part of the racer team as well.

Christian Brim (35:48.555)
Nice. I actually have one last question. Do you recommend seeing F1? Not being a fan of Formula Racing, so I don't know.

Taro Koki | RACER (35:54.688)
yeah, no totally.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, no, totally. I mean, it's, it is the Formula One. Yeah. I mean, so it's the best time to, become a Formula One fan right now. Yeah. a lot of, I mean, it, it, is the fastest growing motorsport in the United States right now. Right. so I don't know, do you know, do you know a lot about Formula One?

Christian Brim (36:03.307)
Have you seen it?

Christian Brim (36:10.327)
Okay.

Christian Brim (36:25.245)
hell no. I'm from the South down. Well, technically not the South, but like NASCAR, know, drive fast, turn left. That never appealed to me. Right. But I don't know the difference between I don't I don't know what these other racer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Taro Koki | RACER (36:32.384)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Taro Koki | RACER (36:41.905)
Forms of racing is yeah. Yeah, so Formula One did this big transition a few years ago, so basically. A US company bought them. Liberty Media bought Formula One and they made a big transformation. So up until Liberty Media bought them, it was predominantly a European.

Christian Brim (36:57.729)
Okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (37:11.777)
and they didn't market a lot in the US either. was just, they just came to, you know, they had the, they had the, they still have the circuit of the Americas, Dakota and Austin, right? And they had that, but you know, you never saw any shows about Formula One. You didn't see any promotion. You didn't see any like.

Christian Brim (37:31.661)
So is it distinct from Grand Prix racing? It's different?

Taro Koki | RACER (37:36.577)
Yeah, so Grand Prix is just a general term they call these major races.

Christian Brim (37:46.263)
So like the race they have in Vegas, that new one.

Taro Koki | RACER (37:49.023)
Yeah, so they call that the Las Vegas Grand Prix. It's just the name, yeah.

Christian Brim (37:51.807)
Okay, so is it the same cars as Formula One?

Taro Koki | RACER (37:56.607)
Yes, so Formula One is the pinnacle of Formula Racing. Right, so it's like NFL. Formula One is the NFL, right? So in football you have, you know, the college football, you know, NCAA and then they have, you know, NFL. But even under NCAA, you know, in the US they have like high school football and like, right, so it's sort of like the same. like in Formula Racing too, like the bottom of the bottom is like kart racing. It's like the little, you know,

Christian Brim (38:01.941)
Okay. Okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (38:26.303)
like the go-karts that you drive. And then from there, you kind of move up and move up and you'd have like these smaller formula cars. Formula cars means that the tires are exposed. They're not like the stock cars are like, or GT cars, the grand touring cars are like the regular cars that you kind of see on the streets. And those are like the sports cars. Formula cars are like.

Christian Brim (38:27.661)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (38:38.967)
Okay.

Taro Koki | RACER (38:50.283)
They're just built differently. The tires are exposed. The chassis is also very specifically built. And Formula One is the top of the top of Formula Racing. And they go around the world, and they have three rounds in the US right now. They have Las Vegas, Miami, and Austin.

And US is the only country that has three races. All the other countries, they go once. They go once to even to the UK. They go once to Silverstone. go once to, you know, Austria. They go once to the Netherlands. They go, you know, once to all these countries. But they all they come to the US three times because Liberty Media bought them. And, you know, US is the

is the biggest market in the world and they wanted to capture and the one significant move that they made was a Netflix documentary called Drive to Survive. I'm sure you may have seen it on Netflix but Drive to Survive is probably in their sixth or seventh season now and that just changed everything for Formula One. Now, know, Drive to Survive is basically a reality show about Formula One. So it's basically the

know, the Kardashian version of Formula One, and that just exploded the market. So now women and kids know the drivers by name, they know the team principles, and they just follow the teams now because of Drive to Survive. And it's become...

Christian Brim (40:13.911)
Perfect.

Christian Brim (40:29.175)
So so to clarify like the the Las Vegas Grand Prix is a Formula One race. Okay. All right.

Taro Koki | RACER (40:34.325)
Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Christian Brim (40:38.795)
Monte Carlo, is that what they do there?

Taro Koki | RACER (40:40.927)
That is also a formula. they call that the, you know, the, yeah, yeah, that's the formula one race as well. And grand prix is like, you know, like when they go to Japan, they call it the Japan grand prix. It's formula one. and, know, the one in Las Vegas is the Las Vegas grand prix. They're all grand prix. It's just a way of calling it the, the, the, the big, the big race. Yeah.

Christian Brim (40:47.51)
Okay.

Christian Brim (41:00.47)
Okay.

The name of the race. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. distinctly different from drive fast turn left, which I just I don't understand that.

Taro Koki | RACER (41:11.935)
Yeah, but you know NASCAR is still strong though. NASCAR is still strong. still has a really, really passionate audience and fan base.

Christian Brim (41:23.241)
I know that the place they've got down at Texas Motor Speedway, mean, it's the size of the event that they put on is just mind blowing to me. Like the entire infield filled in for the whole week and it's nuts.

Taro Koki | RACER (41:34.005)
Yeah. Yeah.

Taro Koki | RACER (41:37.825)
Yeah, motorsports is making a kind of a comeback right now. mean, you know, there was just the Indy 500 just a couple of weeks, weekends ago. They, it was the largest crowd they've ever attracted at Indianapolis and the largest audience on TV as well. So it's

Christian Brim (41:47.552)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (41:59.531)
Now, now that's a lap. That's that's a track race, correct? Like it.

Taro Koki | RACER (42:03.433)
Yes, so the Indy 500 is, you know, they go around the Indianapolis Speedway. It's sort of an oval. No, that's the Indy car. So Indy cars are, they kind of look similar to Formula One cars because they have open, it's an open wheel as well. So technically an Indy car is also a Formula car because they are open wheel cars, but they're designed and built way different than.

Christian Brim (42:08.833)
But it's not a NASCAR race?

Christian Brim (42:21.526)
Right?

Taro Koki | RACER (42:31.455)
than a Formula One card. They're just different regulations. it's sort of like, it's very like, if we use a football analogy again, it's kind of like rugby and football, It's a lot of similar, know, there's 11 players on the field, but it's different. You can't mix them together and race them together. It's just like,

Christian Brim (42:50.131)
Okay, same but different, right?

Taro Koki | RACER (42:59.627)
The rules are different, the cars are different, the people grew up different racing. Some people go back and forth, it hasn't happened too much. Some Formula One drivers have come in, like Juan Pablo Montoya and a bunch of people have come from Formula One and raced in IndyCar, but that back and forth doesn't happen too often.

Christian Brim (43:25.069)
Taro, very much appreciated this conversation. Thank you for educating me on on cars. I appreciate it and Japanese football as well. Listeners, if you like what you've heard, please rate the podcast, share the podcast, subscribe to the podcast. If you don't like what you've heard, shoot us a message and tell us what you'd like and I'll get rid of Taro. But until then, ta ta for now.

Taro Koki | RACER (43:30.145)
No problem. Thank you.

Taro Koki | RACER (43:50.721)
Thanks.