Throttlecast: Episode 20

In this episode of Throttlecast, hosts Dave Codrea and Grant Brewer interview Marat Pashkevich, an automotive industry veteran who overcame a 1% chance of recovery following a 2009 diving accident. After a grueling recovery involving unconventional protocols developed by his neurologist father, Pashkevich returned to his passion for cars, eventually driving a manual 997 Porsche. 

His career highlights include building drift cars, importing JDM vehicles, and working with elite brands like Mercedes-AMG and Porsche before joining Anaphora, a brand engagement platform. The discussion centers on the intersection of automotive culture and technology, concluding with Pashkevich’s message of gratitude for every second of life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:06

Welcome to Throttlecast, Powered by the Ride Lounge. This is where people pull up, bring their builds and their cars, and tell their story. Let's get into it. So we're back, and uh I've got a good friend of mine, Marat Peshk Pashkovich. I think I said that correctly. I probably messed it up. That's okay. Thanks for joining the pod, man. You've got like such an incredible story, such an incredible journey, you know, uh immigrating to uh from Russia early on in your childhood, and then you know, going through some trials and tribulations and then being in the automotive industry for 20 plus years, you know, doing what you're doing. So hats off to you for uh for making it through. Really appreciate it. Thanks, man. Yeah, appreciate the opportunity. And I think I met you through uh a mutual friend of ours, uh Brian Phillips. That's right. Yeah, we met up uh on some other business stuff at uh in Roswell. Yeah. And uh it was um it was really interesting because uh I think you had departed and uh not to make this like a focal point of our of our podcast, but you know, obviously my wife is paraplegic. And uh Brian goes, you know, he used to be quadruplegic, and I'm like, no way, like I had no idea. Um and uh I just think it's amazing. Like obviously it's been some time, but you're standing up, dude, you're walking. I mean, you're you're somebody's hero out there, man. Can you tell us like a little bit about what happened, like what that journey was like, and you know, I'm sure you're gonna inspire somebody out there.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah, it was um 2009, August 10th, 2009. I was with uh one of my closest friends, uh Daniel, and one of my hockey teammates, Michael. And and prior to to that, I'd played 18 years of ice hockey and spent a lot of time powerlifting. I was in the gym, I was 252 pounds. Yeah, and um it was a week before my last semester at GSU uh in business school, and uh we were at our our hockey teammates uh backyard and an in-ground pool, and I was doing a dive from shallow to deep, misjudged the angle of the dive, and I hit like right at four and a half feet, dead center. Yeah, uh, it blew apart my fifth vertebrae, my neck, so C5 blew apart, cut into my spinal cord. Um, and I remember the whole thing. It was uh yeah, lights out for a second, and then I come back, my vision was blurry, arms were behind my back, body's numb, and I could kind of see the top of the water, so I wiggled my head and realized I'm not getting to the top, so I let two bursts of air out for help. And I I remember that Daniel was on a raft floating on the top of the water, and Michael had just cracked open a beer and was gonna lay down on a lounge chair. I'm like, man, I really hope uh they don't think I'm playing around. So um, yeah, first first thought was my dad's gonna kill me because my dad's a neurologist. I grew up going to the hospital with him. So I kind of knew already that something bad had happened, just didn't know how bad.

unknown 2:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

And then the second thought was my mom is gonna kill me because she's like the general in the household, man. Like Soviet women are just hardliners, man. So um, and then it was it was just like a movie reel. Yeah, you know, and you don't think about whether or not you're gonna die or what's happening. It was just like life flashes before your eyes, and yeah, I guess I spent like close to three minutes underwater, my body sank to the deep end. Sheesh. Mike pulled me to the top, and I woke up to him yelling, Mara, Murat, wake up, wake up. And the first thing I said was just stabilize me at the top of the water. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

So how long of a recovery process was it?

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Um, all in all, like being in the hospital in and out patient about four years. Yeah, that's wow, it's extensive. Um, and then three years on top of that, just like brutal, like PT, yeah, OT, just having to relearn how to do everything. I mean, I was given about a 1% chance for recovery. Yeah. Um, and luckily my dad, you know, being who he is, he came up with a protocol for me.

SPEAKER_03 3:51

A lot of things that throw the book at you, basically.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of stuff like cerebral lysin and placenta engine.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Oh, you had cerebral lysin back then? Wow. I thought about getting some of that for my wife, actually.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Yeah, it's it's pretty incredible. So he did it within the like that really important two-week time frame post-accident where the scar tissue hadn't built up yet.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

What does that do?

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Um, so it's it kind of replicates what stem cells do, only it doesn't cost tens of and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

And that's like, I mean, people know about it now to a certain degree, but back then only somebody like him would know about that sort of problem.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

It was more common in Asia and Europe for recovery, just because Europe's not really ADA compliant. Like if you go around, you see cobblestone streets and there's not a lot of ramps. So their focus is like, let's get people to walk again. That's awesome, man. It's a different discussion.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

But yeah, thank God for your dad, just like being in that world, because had it not been for that, I mean, you know, your prognosis, I'm sure, wouldn't have been as good. But yeah, um, so I guess bring us up to speed. So, okay, you recover from that. Um, you were playing hockey, by the way. I played ice hockey from probably seven to twenty years old as well. I don't know if you knew that or not, but yeah, I was center and right wing, man. Okay, yeah. Yeah, but defense and right wing. Okay, yeah. So, like, you know, all right, you're back on your feet, and then you know, I guess it's the thought is like, hey, I gotta get to work or something to that effect. What did the following years look like after that?

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Yeah, it's um it kind of had to start slow. So when I when I got hurt, I was kind of on the on the tail end of uh working with lethal injection motorsports at the time, which was a big tuning shop. Okay. And Alpharetta, a lot of JDM cars. That was my beginnings. I love that, yeah. Yeah, and uh was helping import a lot of cars from Japan. Sweet. Super fun. Yeah, man. So kind of wrapped that up. Um and then I think my first project after that, there was a forum called L4P Luxury Foreplay. I know L4P, yeah. So I connected with uh Oleg Jagorov, who's the owner of Topcar. Okay, and um, and then the owner of Darts Armored Cars.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

Oh, Darts, wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Yeah, so if you guys seen the dictator movie. Of course, yeah, those SUVs. Yeah, so yeah, so me and my partner at the time, um Drew Hankey, we uh we helped you know put the whole deal together with Paramount Pictures and build all the cars for that movie. I mean amazing hilarious. Yeah, yeah, so that was super fun, man. Yeah, dude. In top car, we built the first Panamera and Cayenne wide body cars in the US. Um so got my feet wet with that.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Dude. Um and how old were you when this all happened?

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Like this was like 22, 23, 24 years old.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

Okay, wow, man. So you're right into it. That's it. You're like JDM, you're doing these Russian darts cars.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

I mean, you're already like super deep into like I started the reality of it was like senior year of high school, I was already super deep into it. I was working for an automotive shop called E Motorsports in Dallas, Georgia, building drift cars. That's insane. You know, taught me what he knew about 240s, and I was helping him out, you know, building engines and is that Hagen O'Brien 240s?

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Yeah, drifting.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Cena, Southeast Drift Association back then. I mean, that was like the beginnings of it all in 2004, 2005. Is that what got you interested in the Japanese cars then? Yeah, I mean, I was I was deep into it. As soon as like drifting popped up in the US, I remember Nopey Nationals, they brought the big X, the orange, big orange team. Oh, yeah. They were sliding, and I was like, this is it.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

My first was uh remember the the grip DVD series? Yeah. With the Signal Auto S15. Oh man, I used to love it. Yeah. I mean, so you're like mid-20s, you're already this deep. I mean, uh for the most part, people I think they they start off doing something basic, and then like five or ten years later, then they find themselves there. You were already there like pretty much out of high school, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah, yeah, I had some awesome opportunities. Um and then right after the Dart stuff and the uh the top car stuff, I had the opportunity to go work agency side for Mercedes AMG at Black Cube. And that was an awesome experience being able to build the AMG private lounge, wow, which um I think even today is probably the largest owners-only community that any OEM has had. So where's this at? So it was based in Atlanta. Okay, yeah. Um I had met the owner, Scott Preacher, um, who also races VLN, uh, or did at the time. So he was super involved with AMG. Um and at the time I'd I'd worked at uh Andretti's in Alfa when they had it. And him at the him and his AMG crew would come up there. Um and it was just wild, man. It it all just kind of connected. I think I saw the job posting on LinkedIn for this, and I was like, this is this is me. That's awesome. Yeah, I want to run this community for AMG. Yeah, and we got to put on some crazy events, you know, go to events at Coda. Um, he took me to the Nurbergering to see the VLN race. That's pretty neat. I mean yeah, like talk about a trip to have, you know, like 23, 24 years old.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

Oh, no kidding, man. Yeah, I think I was in my late 20s or 30s where I finally got to go to the Goodwood circuit, you know. Still want to go back for the uh festivals of speed, that's on my bucket list. Nurburgering would be cool too.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Yeah. Yeah, going to 23 or 24 is like what you're almost like, how did you even get here?

SPEAKER_03 9:09

Yeah, you've I mean you've pretty much already done my entire automotive career at the insight. That's pretty amazing. Yeah, so 22 years, that's a long time. Um what what's kept automotive, I guess, interesting enough to never leave? I mean, obviously you've been in it for a long time, but you're still doing it today.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Yeah, it's just in my DNA, man. I just I'm a huge gear head. Um, I love everything about cars. And uh I'm also like very tech savvy. I've always been involved in tech. Um and mixing the two has become that's that's my area of expertise, I would say.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

What kind of got you focused on like shifting from just like building a drift car to like, hey, what's the technology part? Like, where was that kind of like that transition where you got more interested in the tech side of it?

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Yeah, it was um probably like the the early days of e-commerce online, you know, when all these when all these uh shops started you know selling their parts online and the auto traders of the world started popping up, and then um when we were importing cars, it was modified car trader, and I was like, how do I how do I move a skyline, even though we're not really supposed to have it? But how do we move it? Um and modified car trader was was the way. And yeah, listen, being a mechanic in a shop in Atlanta, Georgia, in the brutal heat of the summer, you quickly realize, you know, like, man, I don't want to be a sweaty mess and every single day working in a 110-degree shop, you know, the guys in at these, you know, really nice dealerships, the Porsche dealerships, where it's everything's cooled and climate controlled, man, they've got it made right way different than working outside with the garage door up.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Yeah, we had those huge, I think they're called like the big ass fans, right? Where they circulate the water into it, and yeah, that's the only thing keeping you cool. So I was like, you know, I think I want to be on the business side of things, yeah. Uh instead of wrenching. And that's that that was where the transition happened.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

And talk to us a little bit about Shift Digital. I mean, that's it's a serious OEM digital training ground. Um I mean, what did those years build in you?

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Man, the future, the future of everything in my career, really. Um I was incredibly lucky to be part of that program. Shift is this massive digital powerhouse in the automotive industry. Almost every single OEM works with them. Every program is a bit different, it just catered to what the OEM wants. And it was the start of the Porsche program. So PCNA had hired out Shift to find uh four consultants for each one of their regions to really build this all-encompassing program on all things digital, both on the sales and after-sales side. And um I was the last guy to get hired. It was like the toughest interview of my life. Um, Dave Kurtz, who's a legend at PCNA, he still heads up Area South. I think he's his maybe 33rd year at Porsche, which is wild. That's impressive. Right? Uh he's seen it all. His interview was like he wanted to make sure it was the right guy. So I got some I got some cheat codes from my guys at Hennessy Porsche at the time on on the status of the industry. And uh I think that definitely helped, but yeah, shift taught me everything about website performance, social media performance, process. I mean, when I started, I was in charge of 56 dealers from El Paso to Virginia Beach down to Miami. And it was travel every week. I think in 2019 I did something like 260 plus days on the road. Wow visiting dealers. It was intense. Working with the GMs, working with after sales directors, and really you know, dialing in the business, and then COVID hit, and it was like, hey, we need to spit up a spin up a digital retailing program to teach how to you know teach dealers how to sell cars online, yeah, you know, off-site completely, like nobody's coming in. Like you gotta make sure that you're first off making these cars glamorous enough, and then what does that digital process look like? Yeah. Video lead management, you know, sales guys answering emails. The customer experience. Yeah, the the customer experience is completely different. They were doing personalized videos right from the get-go, and then doing you know video walk arounds of cars, and I think then it caught on, and you see all these guys now on social media and they're doing walk arounds. You got guys like Alexander De Potter at Champion Porsche, he's got three million views on a walk around video of a GT car.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Yeah, because he has the the knowledge base for it. Like he can go through and like list every single spec. And that guy knows how to build a car too.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Yeah, that's really cool. And then you worked for uh Indigo Auto Group, you know, one of the largest Rolls Royce dealers. What was that all about? How did that go?

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yeah, it was interesting. Um towards the tail end of my shift career at Porsche, they um they gave me a call because one of their stores, um Porsche North Houston, was one of the ones that I had managed for a while on the digital side. And so uh they gave me the opportunity to head up technology and be the technology and sales ops director. Um they're the largest holder of Porsche dealers in the United States, so that was really cool. And they had campuses in uh Marin and Silicon Valley, where we was right at the tail end of them launching a new Ferrari store. So Ferrari Silicon Valley had the opportunity to you know help build um Cavalino Rosso, which is the uh Ferrari store in St. Louis from scratch. Um but again kind of kind of doing the same thing, working on process and making sure that they had the right technology in place, that it was creating a really elevated customer experience, um, really elevating the entire sales game, um, and making sure that we were unique and offered something that no other dealer group did.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Um now you drove in something really cool today, man. I mean, I love this car. So 997, what year? It's 05. 05, yeah. Okay. Uh that's still IMS range, right? Did you get the IMS done? Yeah, yeah. IMS is done. And then you got a nice set of uh JDM advantage. The wheels GTs. I mean, that's just I love JDM wheels on a German car. What made you do that? I guess just the early years in the JDM world. I'm sure there's some viewers out there that share the same sentiment as do I.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

So just a little bit of JDM in you, no matter what it's always, always.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Man, I'm on the hunt for a 34 right now. Really? Yeah, yeah. And uh, I think after that, maybe another FD. I had I had about three FDs that I brought in. Um the sickest one was a 35R build. Oh, yeah. That thing was wild. Yeah, just crazy power. Absolutely. Yeah, it was a it was a high 400 horsepower wheel car.

SPEAKER_03 15:50

Yeah. And at the what what year was this?

SPEAKER_01 15:53

That was uh it was a 94.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

What what uh during what year did you have the car? Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

This so this is one of my builds after my accident, actually. That was what was special, like getting hands-on again. Yeah, that's part of my occupational therapy for the hands, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:05

That was a legendary turbo application back in when that car was around. You know what I mean? A 35 or a 38R. That's I mean, you're pushing serious power at that at that size.

unknown 16:15

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Did you build all three of them when you did it when you owned them?

SPEAKER_01 16:18

The yeah, for the most part, yeah. Yeah. I had help uh one of my buddies who lives out in Cali right now, Marco Lau. That guy was a huge rotary rotary head. He had the most beautiful wide body body RX3, um with a 13 beat swapped into it. Oh yeah. Yeah, just sick car, but yeah, he helped me with a lot of the work on those.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

And then uh shifting gears a little bit, so you're with Anaphora now, correct? Yeah. Explain that to somebody that's never heard of before, just like in plain terms.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Yeah, it's uh it's a CI compliant, corporate identity compliant brand engagement platform for email and events. And um what what happens in the in any sales journey is typically when you uh when you first visit like a website like Porsche.com, they do a phenomenal job at their branding, right? Because they they spend millions, if not billions, of dollars on it to get you to fall in love with their product and experience. And then you have like the second tier, which is the dealer websites, um, and they do mo a a pretty good job at uh transitioning that experience. But then like what happens when you submit a lead on a vehicle, right? You typically get a black and white email from the CRM um from a sales ambassador, and it's a break-in experience, right? And you question like, alright, I was shopping for a $200,000 car, and it just kind of doesn't meet my expectations. So we've created a platform that ingests any brand's design language and spins up a design suite specifically for that brand when it comes to email, SMS, and then events, test drives, and vehicle launches, that kind of deal. Um and empowers everybody in the organization because it's so easy to use. I mean I I can take 15 minutes and train your most basic employee that has very limited technology or knowledge on how to you know work the platform.

SPEAKER_03 18:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

And then uh what are some of the big names that Anaphora uh supports? And Porsche's one of them, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Porsche globally. Every single center in the world has our technology. It's huge. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:23

And who else?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Uh Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Konose, you know, we're working, we're working with a lot of Ferrari dealers right now, and there's something in the works there. Um but a lot of the Higlines that you know, yeah, we've got deep relationships with them, um, either at the OEM level or a large, you know, large dealer group, some of the largest in the world that we're working with, um on supporting them.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

Yeah. And how's it how's it been working for brands like Porsche, Lamborghini, Konexeg? I mean, I see your Instagram feed and I'm just like, man, he's got it made. This is such a cool job, you know, you travel all over. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

So yeah, it's it's certainly exciting, especially when you know that you're helping them with their most cutting edge technology, when you're helping them on the customer experience, which touches tens of millions of people globally. Uming a lot of the things that you know consumers don't know about, a year ahead of time maybe. That's that's probably the unique stuff. The travel with with Anaphora has been incredible. Um I just got done three we three and a half weeks um in Europe and I got to visit places like Zagato in Italy, which is a legendary coach. A lot of people don't know anything about Zagato and what they're all about, but you know the journey there started in the early 1900s for them. Um and they they work with over 48 OEMs and coach building and custom design of vehicles. So I got to tour the factory and you know, see their original cars, see collaborations with Lamborghini in the early days, with um who else was it with um Assin Martin, yeah, for instance, and their their Porsche CGT program is pretty wild.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

Oh yeah, I love those.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah, they had one in-house and they got some new collaborations coming that are insane. Like these builds are so over the top and overthought probably, but man, it's it's hard work. It's hard work. Yeah, it really is.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

Yeah, what's um what's something that Anafor does that maybe they do differently than some of the other brands out there that do s do some of the similar things that Anaphore does? What separates them?

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Yeah, it's it's definitely the attention to detail when it comes to the branding aspect of things. Right. So we've got we've got that branding element down, the customer experience element down better than anyone else because it's embedded into our platform. And now with the AI revolution, right, the the development that we have that's going into our platform focus on brand tonality and enhancing the experience through AI for our end users but also for the customers and how they're gonna be able to engage with the brands we work with. It's it's incredibly special and you know we have to stay on top of the industry and know what our competitors are doing, and there's nobody that does what we do right now, which is great. Yeah, we're a good spot to be. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

Like no one's doing it. It's like that's a good spot to be. So where do you see Anafor in like the next three to five years?

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Yeah, the focus right now is obviously automotive because we know it well, and our team has an incredibly strong network there, but we're gonna expand to Power Sports, to marine. We've got two champagne brands we work with, Hatted Center and Agrapar. They're legendary brands. They work with Michelin Star restaurants. Um and Hatet Center, I mean, they're a partner of Cuniseg, so we did. Did um a collaboration in Semaritz at the ICE and did this champagne bar with them. But I see us we're we're an agnostic, an industry agnostic platform. So obviously we want to expand into luxury retail, work with the LVMHs of the world, you know, be in the in the boating industry, everywhere. I mean, this is uh we want to be just like any other you know technology powerhouse like Salesforce or SAP and be a household name.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

Yeah. Uh and then going back to the travel piece, because you just barely touched on it. You were in Europe for a few weeks there. I mean, you've been to uh the the private Lamborghini office in New York. I don't know if that's proper terminology. What is it called?

SPEAKER_01 22:40

It's called the Lamborghini Lounge. The Lamborghini Lounge. What's that like? Man, it's it's beautiful. It's hidden away on in Chelsea. Um it's where you know, if you're a Lambo VIP, then you get sent there to build out a car. They they host their private launches there for their most valued customers. We've got a beautiful kitchen in the back, and obviously the fitting lounge. Um, but it's cool. We did a collaborative event in January with SAP, who's all also one of our largest technology partners, in a fashion show, uh so in a private champagne tasting. So it's like the certainly didn't suck. Um, but that space is incredibly unique, and they're opening one very soon. Um I don't know if I'm allowed to say, but Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:28

Well then don't want to get you in trouble, though.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

Yeah, there's there's a second one coming, yeah, and it's gonna be equally as amazing, if not better, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 23:35

And then you were in Tokyo uh maybe last year, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Yeah, I was um I was in Japan. I did Tokyo and Kyoto. That was that was not work-related. Oh, it wasn't, okay. No, no, no. But I am actually going back in July. Um this last trip I met um the owner of the Japanese Concorde that is held at Nara. Nice. Um and that gentleman is phenomenal. He's he's got the largest collection in Japan of cars. Really? Yeah, one of the most beautiful. Um so he invited me to a private event at the Mugarigawa Circuit. Oh, that place looks amazing. Yeah. It's so in the side of a hill, like carved in the side of a hill. Carved in the side of a hills out of Tokyo. Yeah. And it's it's it's just crazy how things come full circle because I was watching a YouTube video, you know, what, about four or five months ago, uh on Mugarigawa. And I was like, man, this is Are you gonna get a drive on it?

SPEAKER_04 24:34

I'll snap.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Yeah, it's it's an interesting event. It it's drifting meets classic car culture.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Okay. That's about as far apart as I get. That is a unique, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Yeah, but it's the first of its kind there. Um, so yeah, hopefully I'll get a car to slide.

SPEAKER_03 24:50

I guess that makes sense being in Japan and everything.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Yeah. Yeah. Uh what is the classic car scene in Japan, though? It's it's all over the place. Like they absolutely love American hot rods.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

They do, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Yeah, there's a low rider scene in Japan.

SPEAKER_03 25:03

Yeah, they have like a lowrder Chicano like type of vibe over there.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

Their Chicano culture there is huge, man. It looks legit, too. Yeah. Like they do a better. That's the unique part about Japan, is they take something from another country, whether it's like pastries or pizza or Chicano culture. Yeah. It's like they dissect it and then reformulate it to make it better than it originally was.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

It's like clothing culture, music, everything, or just the car, or the whole package.

SPEAKER_03 25:33

It's really wild. I saw that they have this um, you know, I spent some time in Tennessee. They have like a Tennessee volunteers bar over there that trumps any Tennessee bar that I've ever been to. It's in Japan. It's wild, man. Yeah. Yeah, I definitely have to make a trip over there. Uh what's the most unexpected place your career's taking you? Somewhere like where you genuinely didn't anticipate it happening.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

You know, I didn't I don't think that uh I imagined being part of a Swedish tech startup that um that got me involved with all these brands at this kind of level. And then again, I I think probably this last trip that I just came back with was one of the most uh exclusive ones visiting the roof, which was a childhood dream.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

Insane.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Right? And um you know having like two and a half hours of Aloisa's time, she's uh heading up all the marketing now, she's Alawaza's daughter, right? And she took us through the entire process you know from start to finish of what it takes to build a roof car and seeing, you know, all the behind the scenes access and going to um behind the scenes being in Como for Fuori, Concorso and Villa D'Este and just engaging with the brands there. And um yeah, I got to meet guys like Mark Gambala, um yeah, he's got an awesome project, the the um the Marcion. So that that trip, certainly a lot of unexpected moments. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:14

Um have you been to uh Lanzante yet? No. That would be a cool one to go to.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Yeah, for sure. They do some crazy work.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

You seen that new 720 that they've got with the central seating position?

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Absolutely. Gosh, what an amazing car that is. Yeah, I mean that their their ability to take a full-blown GT race car and make it illegal is the wireless program. It is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

So the 997, uh why that car and what does it mean to you?

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Man, the 997's always been a dream car of mine. I I take it as the last analog Porsche. Um the 991, I think it still has some of those analog moments, but it's bigger, it's got more computers behind it. This thing's a pure driver's car. Yeah. Um, you know, you just have your traction control, and that's it. Um it's still small enough, you feel everything, and then you know, when this car popped up, it was you know, factor arrow kit on it, seal gray metallic, really unique color.

SPEAKER_03 28:19

Love that color.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Um, the extended leather package on the inside was phenomenal, and I was like, I had to have it. Um I'll never give this car up. You know, it's staying. Yeah, it is. It's a three-pedal car, coil over setup, fab speed exhaust setup on it, you know, the duck tail spoiler. I love that. Yeah, it's got it's got that blend of classic, it's it's like it's an understated supercar to me. I mean, with with I think with all the modifications, it's probably you know high 300s to the wheels. And you know, taking up to the mountains for a drive, unbelievable. Pure bliss, pure bliss, man. Yeah, yeah. It just it handles like it's on rails with the coilovers and and the semi-solid motor mounts. Yeah, a little increased vibration, but yeah, you kind of want that though.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Yeah, and the fact that you're driving a three-pedal manual car now is like just amazing to me. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 29:12

It's a blessing. Yeah, that's the biggest blessing. And yeah, um relearn how to heal to downshift. Oh yeah. He probably won't buy a song. No, it's it's great. I think a lot of people that you know, because you see me walk around. I have my good days and bad days. Sometimes I'll walk with a limp um just because of the tightness of my body, and then people are like, wait, did you just get out of that car? Wait, it's a three-pedal car? Absolutely. Hell yeah, yes it is. I wouldn't have it any other way.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

Um What do you think it is about Porsche where this brand just never gets old?

SPEAKER_01 29:48

The culture of Porsche, the heritage of Porsche, and how they've they've done it really well from the OEM level to the dealer level and got their dealers so involved in these like grassroots events. Yeah. Um I mean, case in point with Harper and what they do with Platica, for instance. Yeah. And the fact that I think the second year of Platica, Porsche, you know, PCNA was already involved. They wanted to be involved because they saw the kind of excitement that um Shannon and his team had created. Um and Connor's d has done a phenomenal job of building that up. I mean, I think the second year they had the largest CGT turnout. This year it was the largest 9-11R turnout.

SPEAKER_03 30:29

9-11R, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

And you don't expect that from a dealership out of Knoxville. Knoxville, Tennessee. They're like, they've set the standard. I mean, they're going against like Lufka Cool, right?

SPEAKER_03 30:38

I know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

And it's just that, it's those kind of events that are put on by you know current Porsche guys, former Porsche factory guys, yeah. And you get a great mix of people. You do. Um, and I love that about this brand. No, no other OEM, no other brand, I think, does it to this level with so many events globally, yeah, and is so like wellp welcoming to new people to the brand. Um, yeah, nobody does it better.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Yeah, and a good case in point. I mean, our RS collective event, I mean, we didn't know how many people were gonna show up. We hoped that a few would show up, and we had over a hundred cars. Yeah. And then, of course, we've got our uh thank you, man. Yeah, and then we've got our uh our 2.0 show that's gonna be coming up in September. Details to come. Uh we'll probably have 150, hopefully not 200 cars, but you know, if we can make room for them, we should we certainly will. And uh we're we're in talks with Portia right now getting involved, so we'll see what happens. Yeah. Um what's the most significant car that you've ever driven?

SPEAKER_01 31:40

Man, that's tough.

SPEAKER_03 31:40

Uh, you've been behind the wheel a a ton, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

Yeah, yeah, that's a really good question. Let's come back to that one. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

I really I really have to think on that one. It's amazing. You do have to think about it. It's like there's gotta be some good stuff on that list.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

Alright, uh, we'll just go into um to rapid fire here. You ready? Okay. Best Porsche ever made, no debate.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

CGT.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

Good answer. Uh is 997 or 992. We'll go 997 or 993 if you had to commit to one generation for life.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

997.

SPEAKER_03 32:17

Alright. Uh the car you've driven that genuinely surprised you, something you didn't expect to feel.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

I think I was most surprised by how raw and how crazy the F-12 Ferrari was. Yeah. Yeah. That car just for as how how long that front nose is, um, and how powerful. I mean, it's it's a monster of a car. Sharp. It's super sharp. Yeah. Um, I mean the A12 is the same way. Um, you just don't expect it from that car. You you know how wild it is, but then it's it's just a completely different experience.

SPEAKER_03 32:57

Especially in the winter time when the tires are cold, it's really wild.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

But at the same time, for for the way that car is designed in a front engine V12 like that, it handles like a dream too.

SPEAKER_03 33:07

Yeah. Yeah. Uh a car you've wanted your entire career that you still don't have yet.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Uh CGT. Okay. Yeah. Or Pagani. Zonda. Zonda for sure.

SPEAKER_03 33:21

Oh, that's a good answer. Yeah, I love those. Yeah. Uh Porsche, Lamborghini, Aston, Martin Bentley. You've worked with all of them. Which brand has the strongest DNA from a marketing standpoint and why? I think I know the answer.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Yeah, it's it's Porsche. It has to be being able to get in touch with everybody's Porsche DNA the way that they do and get build up that excitement. Know what true grassroots marketing is like. Yeah. Um nobody does it better. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Most underrated car in the current market that the enthusiast world is sleeping on.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Aston Martin's got a crazy lineup.

SPEAKER_03 34:02

They're doing a lot better than they were back when I was selling them.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Yeah. Yeah. Aston Aston Martin is such a slept-on brand. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:11

Um their help with AMG really helped them a bunch, you know.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Yeah, for sure. But you know, even going back to, you know, some of the rarer cars, like the VA vantage with uh with three pedals. Oh, I'd love a vantage. Yeah. Yeah, and there's there's this again, my my JDM this is kicking in, but there's this there's these guys that that build a really crazy wide body VA vantage in Japan. Um it's one of the most beautiful cars you've ever seen. Um full package, and like that would be easily one of the next cars I would add.

SPEAKER_03 34:47

I'll tell you what else is cool. A V12 Vantage S with the full equal length headers and straight pipes. Yeah. Insane. Uh here's a good one. A belief about recovery that you hold that most people would not or mo that most people would push back on. I'll say it again. A belief about recovery that you hold that most people would push back on.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

Your mind is the most powerful recovery weapon.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

Yeah. Neuroplasticity.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Neuroplasticity, but even the belief in yourself and the power of positive thinking.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

Very good. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Um what does success look like right now for you? Not just work, but just in life.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Being able to inspire as many people as possible, motivate as many people as possible, and give back as much as I can.

SPEAKER_03 35:39

I love it. My last one, what do you want people to walk away from uh this conversation thinking about?

SPEAKER_01 35:46

That uh every second in life is the is like winning the lottery. Yeah. Every single day. It's every single every single second should be valued, good or bad. Um you never know when you're gonna lose it all. And just have an immense amount of gratitude for the fact that you have your independence and you can do what you do. I'll say like just it's always a reminder, just coming here to be able to get in the car, drive it, get out of the car, sit with you guys, have this experience. For me, that's it's one of the most beautiful things. Yeah. And uh it can be taken away from you any single second.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

So yeah, can't take it for granted. Yeah, gotta love every moment. Like you said, good, bad, and different. Yeah. Well, brother, thanks for joining us, man. Yeah, it's always a pleasure. Yeah, appreciate you coming on the pod. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, let's go take a look at this thing. Yeah, let's do it.