Do It For A Living Podcast

Join My Shop Assist at the PRI Show for a free one-hour seminar on production management for performance parts manufacturers: building, tracking inventory, and shipping. Friday, December 11, 1 to 2 pm, Room 207 at the Indiana Convention Center.

Join My Shop Assist at the PRI Show for a free one-hour seminar on the metrics that tell you whether your shop is actually profitable. Thursday, December 10, 1 to 2 pm, Room 212 at the Indiana Convention Center.

Every shop owner has had that month — slammed, everybody exhausted, and the P&L still comes back ugly. That's not a hustle problem. It's a visibility problem. You can't fix what you can't see.

If you build cars, make the parts for them, or sell them — this one's for you. My Shop Assist is the only shop management platform built specifically for the specialty automotive world. Not a repurposed repair-shop tool — built from the floor of a real performance shop, for how you actually work.

QuickBooks quietly added a setting that auto-emails your customers when you import an invoice. Here's how to find it and shut it off.

Most shop owners glance at their P&L once a year at tax time and have no idea what it's actually telling them. In this episode, accountant Jerry Cecco of Cecco and Associates breaks down exactly how a profit and loss statement should be structured for a performance shop – and how to generate accurate numbers from your daily operations. Jerry spent years installing accounting systems for automotive dealerships before bringing that same financial discipline to small motorsports businesses. He's also an HPDE instructor at Eagles Canyon Raceway, so he gets the industry from both sides.

You're doing highly skilled work, working harder than the general repair shop down the street — and making less money per hour. In this episode, Richard interviews Kevin to break down exactly why performance, restoration, and custom fabrication shops struggle financially compared to general repair, and what to do about it.

Unlock the hidden secrets that are transforming manufacturing efficiency worldwide. If you're a shop owner, engineer, or entrepreneur looking to streamline your processes and eliminate waste, this episode is your blueprint to profit and precision. In this deep dive, Richard and Kevin explore the powerful concepts that can revolutionize your production line—from error-proofing and Pokeyoke techniques that prevent costly mistakes, to lean manufacturing principles that maximize value while minimizing waste. Discover how industry leaders are using Kanban boards, standardized work, and just-in-time inventory management to stay agile and cut costs. Plus, learn practical examples—from how to design parts that only assemble one way to organizing complex hoses for faster, error-free installation.

In this episode, Kevin and Richard sits down with Chris Hagen, owner of Inertia Laboratory. Chris specializes in high-performance damper rebuilds, revalving, dyno testing, and sells high end coilover systems. Before starting Inertia Lab, Chris worked as an engineer for a major vehicle manufacturer, and spent time at AST/Moton - so he brings both OEM engineering credibility and real-world motorsports experience to the table.

In this episode, Kevin and co-host Richard Fielder break down the manufacturing systems used by large-scale factories and show you how to implement them in your small shop. Richard is a controls engineer at Peterbilt where he works with the systems that manufacture semi trucks at scale, and he brings that expertise to help small fabricators, tuners, and parts manufacturers work smarter. Whether you're making one-off custom parts or producing small batches, these principles will make you faster, more consistent, and more profitable.

In this episode of Do It For a Living, we sit down for a followup with brothers Alejandro and Pablo Moreno, co-owners of Tandem Offroad. Their shop specializes in off-road truck builds and general maintenance, serving customers who demand both performance upgrades and reliable day-to-day service. The brothers share their journey of building a business together, the challenges of manufacturing their own products, and how they've grown their customer base in a competitive market.

In this episode of Do It For a Living, we welcome back Zach Denny for a follow-up to his first appearance on episode 083. Back then, Zach was running Wholesale Power (WHP), the US distributor for ECU Master, as a one-man operation out of an 1,800 square foot facility, hoping to hire his first employee. Fast forward to today, and he's now importing several brands including ECU Master, Verkline, and Delta ABS, as well as manufacturing harnesses and components to compliment those product lines.

In this episode of Do It For a Living, we sit down with two students from the University of North Texas Formula SAE team. This marks our first video episode and a new format where we explore the next generation of motorsports talent.

Managing an automotive restoration project can get overwhelming, but with My Shop Assist (MSA), you can keep everything organized and ensure smooth progress billing. In this video, we’ll cover two key strategies to help you take full control of your projects:

Discover how My Shop Assist can revolutionize your auto detailing business! In this video, we walk you through the entire process of managing your workflow with ease. You'll see how customer information syncs directly to My Shop Assist, streamlining your scheduling, documentation, and payment processes.

Managing a shop can be difficult to do. If you haven't ever done it before, it makes it even harder. To top it all off, performance and custom work is the hardest to manage in the industry due to the notoriously low margins we have to work with. This is why it is essential to know where all your time is going. This is measured with efficiency, and we show you how to calculate it here.

Most shops just set their hourly rate by choosing a number out of thin air. We want you to use data to determine what it should actually be.

Watch the video to learn how My Shop Assist is used in a performance shop. We walk through Evolution Dynamics with Kevin, Co-Founder of MSA.

High Performance Cult Podcast with Kevin Discussing the story behind My Shop Assist