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Episode 216: Rich McClellan, Elite Customs
Episode 216: Rich McClellan, Elite Customs
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About this episode
Rich McClelland, founder of Elite Customs, shares his inspiring journey from a troubled youth to a successful automotive customization entrepreneur. He discusses the importance of customer service, creativity, and evolving in the industry. Rich reveals how he built a loyal clientele, including notable figures like Jelly Roll, and emphasizes the significance of mentorship and community in fostering the next generation of builders. With insights into his creative process and business philosophy, this episode highlights the blend of artistry and entrepreneurship in the automotive world.
Topics:
automotive customization
customer service
mentorship
creative process
business growth
community building
inspiration
entrepreneurship
next generation builders
celebrity clients
Rich McClellan, Elite Customs
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"...you're working out of your garage or outfitting a Raptor R for jelly roll. From humble beginnings in elect..."
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"... created the relationship. Then we did his wife's G wagon and I remember standing in the back of the parkin..."
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The automobile is one of the most important inventions that revolutionize the modern world.
In America, the rich history of car culture runs deep.
As technology continues to shape the future of the industry,
Jason Stein is here to share the stories of people passionate about cars,
from industry leaders and innovators to car-obsessed celebrities.
Buckle up as Jason takes you inside the boardroom, onto the track,
and around the bend, on Cars and Culture, on SiriusXM Business Radio.
Welcome to episode 216 of Cars and Culture with Jason Stein and SiriusXM Business Channel 132.
Great to have you along with us for the ride.
Today's guest didn't just build a business.
He built a brand, a lifestyle, and a loyal following,
with a wrench in one hand and a vision in the other.
Rich McClelland, the founder of Elite Customs,
is proof that with grit, hustle, and raw creativity,
you can build something unforgettable,
whether you're working out of your garage or outfitting a Raptor R for jelly roll.
From humble beginnings in electronics and alarm installs,
Rich has become one of the most respected voices in automotive customization.
His builds blend West Coast flair with Southern Soul,
wrapped in matte gold, tuned with care, and delivered with true customer service,
a vanishing art in today's world.
Today on the show, Rich opens up about building cars and building character.
How an arrest at 18 helped redirect his life,
how a customer complaint became a moment of growth,
and why your success is only as good as your ability to evolve.
We'll talk about forging wheels, filming pilots, and forging connections
with clients, teams, and the next generation of builders.
And he's built over 30 cars for a single client.
It's not just a shop, it's a culture.
And it's not just work, it is his calling.
Rich McClelland on Cars and Culture.
Hi, I'm Richard McClelland, and this is Cars and Culture with Jason Stein.
Today's guest didn't just build a business.
He's built a movement with a grinder in one hand and a vision in the other.
Rich has turned his childhood passion into one of the most
respective custom shops around.
And it's my great pleasure to have him on the program.
Welcome in.
Thank you for having me.
I mean, that was a great introduction.
I don't even really know how to follow that up.
You could you could follow it up by tell us what you're up to these days.
What are some exciting projects that you're working on?
What is in the mind of Richard today?
Well, I'll be honest, my mind is kind of all over the place.
I get inspiration from my guys, my wife, home decor,
YouTube, TikTok.
I mean, I get inspiration from just about anywhere and everywhere
that I can imagine.
I get different color schemes from looking at other things.
And I'll be honest, the fashion industry, I get most of my color ideas from.
And and then those usually translate into home decor
and then translate into cars.
That seems to be the common trend.
You know, right now we're trying to do, you know, trying to do that,
trying to follow a lot of the metals and the brasses and the gold.
Seems like gold is kind of coming back,
but it's not your traditional like bright gold.
It's like a gold, you know, kind of modern.
But it's it's really good.
You know, we always have a really eclectic mix of cars, old school, new school.
Stuff in the middle.
And if you walk into the shop, it's just it's all over the place.
There's not like one set thing.
Yeah. If we walked into the shop, how many vehicles
would you be working on at any one time?
Right now I just walked back from the shop
and there's there's probably 12 going on right now at this moment.
But there's probably another 12 or 15 out in the parking lot,
you know, in line or in different stages.
You know, because our projects range from the simple, say, audio job
or a radar install to a full blown custom, you know, year and a half project.
You know, and they're just kind of all over the place.
And and that's that's what we focus on.
But like right now, go ahead.
Sorry. No, no, go ahead, please.
So right now we just got in a month, I say, sorry, Thursday,
got dropped off Jelly Roll.
He just bought a brand new Raptor R.
And then you get the call and you're like,
hey, I want this wrapped Matt Black and the wheels done
and some lighting and course window tent.
And so you pull it in and drop it off.
And it's in the middle of getting wrapped right now.
So. All right.
So Rich, you can't just drop that into the conversation.
It's just Jelly Roll brought his Raptor R in.
I don't know what I'm more intrigued by Jelly Roll or the Raptor R.
Well, wow.
That's fun. How did you meet him?
So I rock. It's a weird, weird story.
So I've known of Jelly Roll for 15, 20 years.
I've listened to his music forever growing up in Nashville.
He's he's a Nashville native as well.
I've listened to all of his rap music.
He was, you know, he was a big time rapper before that's right.
That's stuff.
So I've been a huge fan of his forever.
And one day we were sitting in our break room,
me and the guys eating lunch and I get a message.
You know, I missed a phone call and I get a voicemail
and listen to the voicemail and I have this weird look on my face.
One of my guys is like, what, what, who is it?
And I was like, that was Jelly Roll.
He just called my phone and left me a message.
What did he say?
Well, he was like, he was like, hey, man,
well, he calls everybody Bubba.
Hey, Bubba, I got your phone number from one of our other clients, Kyle.
He was like, I got your phone number from Kyle
and I need some work done in one of my trucks.
And he was like, he said, you're the guy to go to.
So I was wondering if you were free today.
And so I get off the phone off of listening to my voicemail
and my guy is like, who was that?
And I said, oh, it was Jelly Roll.
And he called a couple of guys.
They were like, who the hell is that?
You know, and one of my guys, he's about my age.
And he was like, are you serious?
Like, like the rapper Jelly Roll.
I was like, yeah, he's I call him back.
So I called him back and he was in the area still.
And he swung by, you know?
And this is before he's like super popular.
Yeah. What year was that?
It was about five years ago.
OK, so he's just he's not broken through yet.
But you know of him because of the rap music, obviously.
Matter of fact, he hadn't even he hadn't maybe
as close to six years ago.
He had he hadn't released his country out.
Matter of fact, he hadn't even made his country yet.
OK, all right.
So we we did his truck.
A previous shop had done some work on it.
He wasn't super happy with.
So we went in and fixed it, fixed it,
did some other upgrades to it and stuff like that.
And that created the relationship.
Then we did his wife's G wagon
and I remember standing in the back of the parking lot.
We were talking about another car he was wanting to do.
And he said, I said, so what's what's going on?
What are you working on?
And he goes, I'm getting ready to release a country album.
And I just no way I was like, what?
Like is not like at this point,
country really hadn't gone country pop per se.
It was it was still country country.
Yeah, no Morgan Wallen yet.
Or yeah, exactly so I was alone.
I was like, what? OK.
Well, you know, good luck.
And I had never heard of singing boys.
I didn't know it existed.
All I ever heard was the rap.
And sure enough, probably six or seven months later,
he released this first one and it just took off.
Yeah, yeah, rest is kind of history.
And he is we've been very fortunate to stay with,
you know, build several cars for his wife.
We built one for his daughter when she turned 16.
We built several for him that went to the CMAs a couple of times.
And it's it's been an incredible ride.
And he's introduced us to several other people,
not necessarily artists, but like music industry guys
and friends of his that, you know, he sent our way.
So it's been that's an amazing story, Rich.
That's amazing story.
And there you are on the ground floor of an artist.
And there are, you know, millions of them
trying to do what he ultimately did.
And he's got this great loyalty to you because you knew him when.
Right. You would hope so.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I know he is so busy and so popular now
that I don't I don't get too much of a chance to talk.
I think last time I talked to him,
he stopped by right before Christmas.
He stopped by the shop and I didn't know coming.
But he's so busy and, you know,
he has very little time for his family now.
And so when I think when he gets that time,
he spends it with his family, which rightfully so,
I think anybody would.
But yeah, he's a he's a great guy.
I deal with his wife a lot.
My wife deals with her a lot as well.
And she kind of handles that stuff for him.
But yeah, you'd hope so.
But you can see the grind, you know,
because I knew him years and years and years prior to that,
you see the grind.
I worked on other things like he's the base
to travel in these little fans.
And I used to go and put GPS systems
and radios in these vans.
Oh, wow.
And yeah, his name would be like on the side,
wrapped on the side and with 20 other artists
and they'd sell CDs out of the back of these vans.
And so I mean, he put the work in, you know,
he put the work in and and he's reaping the rewards of it.
Well, he this is serendipitous.
I mean, he he did and so of you.
And let's get into a bit of your story.
It you've been described West Coast Roots and Southern Hustle.
And you've gone from a young car enthusiast
to really customizing all of these luxury vehicles.
But there are a few main things here, Rich,
fueled by grit, vision
and a relentless commitment to craftsmanship.
That's that's pretty accurate description of you, isn't it?
I would say yes.
Yeah, that's my wife from the outside looking in, you know,
doing it to me.
I just love the cars, you know, I just love building the cars
and and I was very fortunate enough to make a business out of it
and continue to do what I love to do.
Even the entrepreneurship part of it, you know,
where it gets tough and hard with all the other stuff.
At the end of the day, when I build the car
and the customer comes and picks it up
because their mind can't wrap around exactly what I see.
And they most of them kind of somewhat cut me loose.
You know, they give me some direction
and then when they pick it up and they just love it,
it just resets everything for, you know,
any kind of aggravation or pain that I've gone through
or dealing with, you know, employees or anything else
kind of just goes away.
Melts away, melts away.
When did you first realize that cars were not just a hobby
for you, but that they were actually your calling?
When I was about 15 years old.
So I started in my first car, I got up 15.
I had an alarm system put in it
and they couldn't figure out the locks.
And I had kind of a complicated car.
It's called a one wire lock system, got into it.
Guy couldn't figure it out.
Had it for two days.
I said, hey, can I have the schematics for it?
He said, sure.
But I don't think you can figure it out.
I took it home two hours later.
I brought it back and said, here, I figured it out.
This is how I did it.
He goes, great, you want a job?
I said, sure.
You know, I enjoy doing this stuff.
So electronics was my start.
I understand them very well and I enjoy it.
Like I don't have to think about it too much.
It just comes to me.
What were the first cars or bills
that you really got your hands dirty with
that you remember?
How did this all get rolling from the start?
And was this what you were going to do
or what would you have done otherwise?
Well, I tried all the other stuff.
You know, when you're young, you kind of bounce around,
especially as a man, you know, you bounce around.
I've done electrical work, home electrical work.
I've done construction work.
I've done, I built prisons when I was 17, 18 years old.
Wow, really?
I actually, so I was actually expelled
from high school when I was 17.
And so for kind of some stupid things,
I was stupid, you know, stupid.
You learn a lot of lessons.
And so I went to build in prisons
and I realized real quickly,
I still worked on cars on the side
and I learned real quickly
that this was not the job that I wanted to do.
I didn't want to wear pants,
jeans in the middle of summer at 100 degrees.
I didn't want to, you know,
use porta-potties for days on end
I just didn't like that anymore.
And so I started to hone in
and made money where I could,
but I also always worked on cars on the side.
So my very first project that I ever built
that I realized that I could do something with
would have probably been,
we did one from Michael Orr long time ago,
right about when the blind side came out,
we got transferred to the Titans.
Yeah, right.
I don't even know how we got his contact
but we built one from Michael Orr
and right about the same time
we built one from Michael Griffin
who was part of the Titans
actually became really good friends of Michael Griffin
and he's still a friend of mine.
That was when we started,
then I started to realize that
I can make a living out of this.
You know, I can do this permanently.
And at the time I worked for another shop
and realized that I had more charisma
and more information than say the shop owner, right?
The shop owner was just the owner.
He didn't know how to install.
So he would bring me out to talk to them anyways
and they would call me and text me and ask me questions.
So it was like, why do I need somebody in the middle?
And with $3,000, I got my own shop and started it.
Wow.
Wow.
How did growing up on the West Coast shape your style?
Do you think?
I mean, it's such a cool culture, right?
I mean, you spend any time in LA
or surrounding areas or California in general
and it's just different than other parts of the country.
We've talked about that a lot on the show
that design influences that come
from different parts of the country
but how did it change you or I guess shape you?
The customizing culture started in LA.
Right.
Right, yeah.
You know, the first chop tops
and custom paint jobs and stuff like that.
And it's funny.
We were actually talking about this yesterday
and me and my guys,
guys that work on cars the way that we customize cars
not just audio, but the way we customize cars
we all have this certain kind of look and aura
and carry ourselves a certain way.
We usually wear like Dickie pants, Dickie shorts,
have tattoos and we all have this way about us, right?
And I think California, when I was born there
and I was there until I was about 10-ish
and then I moved to Las Vegas
and it was there until I was about 15-ish, 14-ish.
And so I got to experience a lot of that, right?
I got to experience the people.
I got to experience the cars.
I always loved cars
and my grandfather built cars, loved cars.
And I think that gave me a different flair
than it did out here.
Because when you come out here, I mean,
not to stereotype the South,
because I love the South,
not to stereotype it,
but you're talking about the jacked up trucks
and the jacked up jeeps
and the mud and all that, right?
That's what is known out here.
And so when you come from California
you don't really know about that.
They don't mud out there.
And maybe they do now,
but back then they didn't mud and do all that stuff.
So you bring this whole different type of culture here
and I can marry them together
and create something right in the middle
that everybody can appreciate from both sides of the coast,
you know, kind of.
So.
And elite customs, I mean, the formation of it,
did you always have a plan
or was it more about adapting kind of in real time?
Because I mean, there are a lot of custom shops
that are out there.
Very few at your level, Rich.
So what was the plan or did it just evolve?
There's not much of a plan.
The plan was to just get into it and start doing it, right?
And I think you have to reinvent yourself all the time
because new things come out, new cars come out,
new designs come out, new styles come out.
Things change so much, so rapidly.
Like, you know, the big thing right now is black wheels.
You know, everybody wants black wheels.
Yeah.
Well, it's starting to evolve from that
and people are now going back to Chrome,
which went away for a long time, you know?
Yeah, it did.
You have to be able to evolve
and I think if you don't evolve,
I tell my guys all the time,
and you guys can teach me stuff too,
even though I've been doing this 25 years
and some of them, my guys are two years in,
three years in, I can still learn stuff
because they see stuff at a different angle.
So I really, we have morning meetings every day,
every month, morning,
and I let my guys speak on what we're doing,
what we're building, and I hear them.
I don't just shut them down, you know?
I wanna hear what their side sees
because some of them are younger than me, you know?
And they might see a different thing
that I just can't see because of my age
or block or whatever it might be.
But that's, you have to evolve.
You have to be able to bend and move
and you cannot say, you can't stay static, you can't.
And how do you balance?
I mean, this is on business radio on SiriusXM
and a lot of business owners out there,
leaders who are always balancing creativity
with the demands of running a business.
You're in the most creative business in automotive.
I mean, you take it, you mold it,
you sculpt it, and you make it
into a beautiful product,
but you gotta run a business.
And usually both sides of the brain
don't work in that way, right?
It's a tough dance, isn't it, Rich?
Oh, God, by far.
It's, I'll tell you, the hardest thing for me to do
was to realize that I'm only good at a few things.
And the business side of it per se,
like the paperwork and the taxes
and the, you know, this and the that,
I'm not the best at that.
You know, when you first open a business,
you kind of have to wear all the hats.
And the hardest part for me
was to let go of some of those things
because of trust and, you know,
are they gonna do it as good as I can do it?
Do they have my best interests at heart?
Do they have the best, you know,
the business's best interests at heart?
I'm so fortunate, one, to be in such a creative platform
that I can release my creativity,
but I'm also very fortunate that my wife,
my wife, her mind thinks that way.
So I'm able to go,
here you handle all this stuff
and you take care of all this stuff
and I'll take care of the customers
and the consults and the projects,
you know, and I'm, and we're good.
We make the best team ever.
Now, did we butt heads?
Oh God, did we butt heads?
You know, it's hard working with your wife.
But I think you can find,
if you can find those people
that really have your best interest
and understand those things
and you're able to let go a little bit,
to let go of some of those responsibilities
and realize that you can't be good at everything.
You're just not good at everything.
That was a hard pill to swallow for me, big one.
What's something that you wish you knew
when you were starting out
and building this brand that you have now?
I think more structure, more,
so I just had a situation about a month ago
where I had to call an old customer of mine
because I found out that he was taking his cars
to another shop and me and him had a long relationship,
four or five years of building cars and stuff.
So I called him up and, you know, we were friends
but I had never heard anything negative
or positive or whatever and I called him up
and I asked him and said, hey man, what's going on?
Did I do something, you know,
that rubbed you the wrong way or whatever?
And he goes, well, to be quite honest with you,
he's like, I felt like the changes
that you made in the shop in the front side
didn't align with what they were originally
and I just felt like my business wasn't appreciated.
So I tried to listen to my customer
and see what he was saying and, you know,
I said, man, I really apologize
that I made you feel that way
and that it was, I had to make these changes
in the front of my shop because basically what was happening
is guys like that that I've known for 10 years
or five years or 12 years would just stop by
and stop in the back of the shop
and then we'd sit and talk for 15, 20 minutes
and it'd take me away from doing the business
that I had to do.
Sure, sure.
So I had to start setting consults
and appointments and things like that
which works great for me
but the old guys that are used to the old ways
didn't adapt very well
and they felt like I was neglecting them per se.
And so I had to explain that to him
and he owned his own construction company
and stuff like that
and I explained it to him in a way that he could understand
and he goes, you know what, I apologize.
He was like, you're right.
I understand things change.
And he came in last week,
him and his son, he bought a son a new truck
and we're building a $20,000 truck for him now.
And I think again, another pill to swallow is
is being able to not just start your hands up
and go, oh well, you know, to listen to your customer,
take the little bit of time
even if it's a shot at your ego.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
I mentioned the word brand
and I think that that applies to elite customs
and how did you position elite customs
to attract premium clients
as you worked your way through
the growth that you went through?
Well, several of the projects that we built,
you know, get a lot of attention, especially who they're for.
I really try to befriend the majority of my client base
if I have the opportunity,
especially if we do multiple, multiple projects.
So when I befriend them, they have zero problem
come and represent me at a car show
or drop in the car to let me take it to a car show
or posting on social media about us, things like that.
And of course, you know, their friends that are high profile
follow them and ask questions,
hey, where'd you get that car built?
And they have zero problem going, oh yeah, yeah,
go see my guy at elite customs.
Matter of fact, that's how I met Jellywell, right?
So I think that's how I did it.
Most of my businesses is word of mouth.
We do have social medias and stuff like that
that my wife runs, but that's only been
in the past three years, three years or so.
And I've been open for almost 11.
My sign, I have a little sign out front
and I don't advertise much about anything else.
We park our cars in the back.
I try to keep a low enough profile
where people don't just stop in
to see Jellywell's car, per se.
Right, right.
Yeah, the other clients, high profile clients
that we have, but it works well for me.
It works well.
The word of mouth works well.
Like I said, I try to treat.
Do I get it right all the time?
No, but I try my best to treat
all any customer that comes in,
whether they're famous or not, treat them the same.
And I think it's worked very well for them.
When you scale a niche business,
like you've done over the last nearly 11 years,
why is that customer experience and detail,
why are those two elements so key in the scaling process?
And how are they, and how are you doing that,
I guess, as a follow?
Tennessee is weird, but I don't think it's so weird.
This is a big, small world.
I could travel, just a few months ago,
I traveled to Michigan and I ran into two people I knew
from Tennessee in Michigan.
You know, it's this big, small world
and you run into people and if you have
negative things to say about somebody
or they have negative things to say about you,
and that'll hit 10 people before
a positive thing will hit one, you know?
And it's, so again, do I get it right every time?
No, absolutely not, but I think having those,
swallowing your pride a little bit,
having some of those hard conversations
with some customers that may be upset with you
or whatever and trying to understand their point of view
from also your point of view,
I think allows you, it gives you tools.
It gives you tools to adjust, adjust your business,
adjust your customer service.
I also think the world has lost a lot of customer service.
Yeah, that's so true, isn't it?
Yeah.
A lot of connections.
People don't even wanna really talk
on the phone much anymore.
That's one reason we have the consoles, you know?
People email in with inquiries
and some of them, you can't just answer.
They're not that simple, you know?
And so we have to set them up a console.
We give them, I give them an hour
of my undivided attention and I sit with them
and I show them options on the computer
and hey, we can do this, we can do that.
I try to learn their style quickly, efficiently
and give them exactly what they're looking for
that they don't even know they're looking for, per se.
Hmm, yeah, for sure.
After the break, I'll continue my conversation
with Rich McClellan.
To see the interview with Rich,
go to the Cars and Culture YouTube channel.
Subscribe, comment, check out hundreds of conversations
with creators, collectors and culture makers
who are driving the industry forward.
The automobile is one of the most important inventions
that revolutionized the modern world.
In America, the rich history of car culture runs deep.
Technology continues to shape the future of the industry.
Jason Stein is here to share the stories
of people passionate about cars
from industry leaders and innovators
to car-obsessed celebrities.
Buckle up as Jason takes you inside the boardroom,
onto the track and around the bend
on Cars and Culture on SiriusXM Business Radio.
Welcome back to Cars and Culture on SiriusXM Business Channel 132.
I'm your host, Jason Stein.
Now, here's the continuation of my interview
with Rich McClellan.
To see the full interview with Rich,
visit the Cars and Culture YouTube channel.
Subscribe, comment, and check out hundreds of conversations
with creators, collectors and culture makers
who are driving the industry forward.
Let's talk about your team and also the second half
of the title of this program,
which is culture.
What kind of team culture have you built at Elite Customs?
And what do you look for
when you're bringing someone into the fold?
To be honest, this could be an unpopular opinion,
but I like to bring guys in
that don't really know a lot about my world
because I want them to learn a certain way,
my way, per se.
I want them to learn a certain way
what I think is the correct way.
And breaking bad habits in people
that have been at shops for years
has proven to be very difficult.
Now, I have a couple of guys that are experienced
and they more or less per se fall in line,
but two or three of my guys are fresh.
They're green, they've been with me two years,
they started with me only,
and they do it exactly the way I do it,
but I give them enough freedom
to explore ideas, right?
To explore, hey, if I did it this way instead of your way,
it might be more efficient, might look better, great.
But if it fails, now you do it my way, okay, no problem.
So I give them enough, per se, enough rope to hang themselves.
Right.
And I think that works out very well.
We have a really good culture,
something I started years ago,
my wife, you know,
mentioned it about, hey, maybe we should do this.
So every Friday, if we're here on Fridays,
we, everybody sits in the lunch room together, we buy lunch.
So we buy lunch every Friday,
we all sit together and eat lunch.
And we pay for it.
And I think it brings in something
that probably most places don't do.
And my guys seem to appreciate that a lot.
Even if they have to say it's like,
during the summertime, you know, the kids are here.
We don't mind kids being here, it doesn't bother us.
So they bring their kids, the kids eat lunch with us too.
You know, we throw, we throw barbecues and stuff at the house
and we invite all of our guys and we swim
and, you know, throw a cornhole
and, you know, just have a good time.
And it's, it creates this family environment.
You know, and I know a lot of businesses
talk about, you know, a family, but most don't follow it.
Right, right, exactly.
No, you're, you're, you're following it in more ways than one
and on every Friday.
If you think about the mentors that you had along the way,
who would those be?
Or did you just prefer to learn by doing?
Most of what I've got, I've learned by doing.
I do have a couple of my friends
who I've learned by doing.
I do have a couple of clients that have become sort of mentors.
I wouldn't call them, they don't actually like that term.
I don't know why, but they have become kind of that.
I kind of follow leads.
One of my really good friends, his name is Roger
and we've built probably 35 cars for him over two or three years.
Wow.
Wow.
Yeah, but we've became, and I'm talking high profile,
$1,000 plus builds on top of his expensive cars,
but we've become such good friends when we travel.
Like we go to Florida with him and his wife.
I was in his wedding.
Me and my wife were in his wedding.
I mean, we, we do things all the time together
and he is a very savvy businessman, a very good man,
good father, good husband.
And he is a huge inspiration to me of how to act.
This man is worth hundreds of millions of dollars,
but you would never know it because no matter who you are,
how you're dressed, how much money you have,
he treats everybody exactly the same.
And he is a very consistent person.
And I, I enjoy that so much.
And it's a huge inspiration to me.
Sounds like a great show guest here.
That's great.
That's great.
Just in the final 10 minutes that we have,
let's talk a little bit about with the future and maybe what
you're thinking is, you know, what's the next step?
Would you ever consider bringing your work to TV
or streaming platforms?
We've had numerous guests on this program who are
designers or who are in your world who also have some
more high profile things on the side,
custom car shows, documentaries, behind the scenes,
storytelling.
Would you ever consider things like that?
Yeah, absolutely.
So we actually filmed a pilot a couple of years ago,
a year and a half ago, when we built the Lincoln Continental
for Jelly Rolls that went to the scene.
So we actually paid out of our pocket to film this.
And it is being pitched to people more of a,
not a car building show, you know,
there's tons of car building shows,
but more of the way me and my wife interact and
our families interact.
And my sister-in-law works for us as well.
She's a front-end manager.
And so the way that all that acts,
it's more of like a family that happens to be
set in a car world, you know.
And it's really good.
And then since then,
we've added a couple of more businesses.
Like we actually opened our own powder coat company,
which is in-house as well,
just because we got tired of sending it out
and not getting the quality product back.
So we just bought the equipment and did it ourselves.
So now we own, I think, total four businesses,
me and my wife together,
and she runs them all and manages them all.
And I managed the labor part of it back in the back.
And so that's kind of our future of building that up,
of building those companies up,
and letting them drive
and potentially selling them or not,
or having somebody else run them eventually.
We own our own REM company too,
so we make and develop and design our own REMs.
And they come in, they're very, very strong,
and we design them each one.
We sit down with the customer and design it,
and then have it cut and made,
and we get it within 60 days built.
What does growth look like for elite customers?
Let's say over the next five years.
Is it more builds or is it new locations maybe?
We are working towards that.
We're looking for our own land.
The building that we're actually in, we lease it.
And we've been in this building about eight years,
and the owners are friends of ours,
and they're great, great people.
But we are looking for our own land to build our own building,
just so we have that.
I mean, I think it's a really smart business move
to own your own building,
because then you have that as well, right, to fall back on.
But yeah, I mean, that's our building plans
for the next five years is to own our own building.
Not necessarily more projects.
We've got enough projects on our hands already, as it is.
I would say more higher profile projects,
not people, but bigger builds,
like larger time-consuming builds
that put us on the map more, right?
They're not just your everyday G-Wagons
or your everyday cars driving around town.
These are cars that only get taken out of a weekend
that go to shows and really turn heads.
Right, right.
Do you feel a responsibility, Rich,
to inspire younger builders or creators coming up behind you?
Are you looking to that next generation?
Absolutely, absolutely.
So, you know, I started when I was 15 years old
in this industry, per se,
and it evolved from there.
Some of our young guys that worked for us,
one of them was 18, one of them was 22,
and they started with us years ago,
and I love to be able to teach that knowledge,
because one day that knowledge might be obsolete,
and it might go away,
but I love to pass whatever knowledge that I have
down to the younger generation,
and me and my wife have actually talked about that.
I talked about going into either technical schools
or even high schools, for that matter,
because I went down a little bit of the wrong path
as a young man.
I got arrested at 18,
and God saved my life,
and I didn't serve any time
or catching any felonies or anything like that.
I was able to get myself out of it and realize quickly
that, hey, this is the wrong way to go
and turn my life around.
Some of these kids don't necessarily have that,
they don't have that opportunity,
and I'd love to present that opportunity.
Hey, there's something more you can do.
You don't have to be a construction worker.
You don't have to work at a desk.
You can get your creativity out on a car.
A lot of young guys, especially guys, love cars.
We are starting to see more females
like their cars customized,
which is a big direction that me and my wife
are headed in right now.
As a matter of fact, we deliver one today.
It's a G-Wagon for Aaron Forsberg
that is her husband's place for the Prez.
We fully customize it,
but we sat down with her and she designed the whole thing.
A little bit of our help,
but she designed the caliper color, the wrap color.
She designed our custom forged wheels.
We did the whole build with her,
and this is her project.
It's really cool to see a female
come into a male-dominated industry
and produce something that men would drive to.
They'd be like, that's bad.
That's a problem.
We really want to run that direction as well,
because I think females are...
Well, there's a big stigma.
There's a big stigma in the automotive industry with females.
Of course.
They're going to get taken advantage of.
Yeah.
Long ago, we had Ferrari custom mechanic,
Victoria Bruno, on this program,
who's done extremely well.
She was one of only 10, I think, or 12,
supreme Ferrari mechanics customizers
who worked on that brand.
It was just an inspiring story.
There are so many other young people out there like that.
Let's talk to the young person who's out there
who's 15 years old or 18 years old
and maybe building prisons instead of sitting in one.
What advice do you give to the kid
who loves cars and wants to build something
but maybe doesn't know where to start?
Sure.
I started working on my own car.
If I broke something on my car, it was my car.
The pull-up, the pull-part yards, they're great.
They're great.
Great places to go.
You can pull parts.
You can work on parts.
You can work on cars.
When I came up, Google wasn't available to me
and YouTube wasn't available to me.
They have a lot of information at their fingertips
that they can utilize.
Also, don't be afraid to come into some of these shops,
some of the custom shops that are around and go,
hey, listen, I just want to learn.
I want to intern.
I want to know about this
or can I pay you guys to install this
but can I help or can I watch?
We have done that several times
with younger guys that want to come in
and just kind of know about it, right?
Learn about it.
I take a lot of pride in that.
I have three sons.
Our oldest son just started driving
and we bought him a BMW on purpose
that needed work, needed a door hole
and needed brakes and tires and all this stuff.
I made him learn how to do it all.
I taught him but he did all of the work himself
and he has so much more pride driving his vehicle
and telling people about his vehicle
because he put his hands on that vehicle.
Amazing.
How do you continue to overcome doubt?
Well, maybe daring to do what others say is impossible.
My wife.
My wife.
Well, that's a great answer.
I doubt myself or I get down on myself
or something's just kicked me in the teeth.
My wife usually bring me back up.
She'll be like, listen, you've got to focus on these things,
these positive things that you're doing already.
You can't focus on those negative things
because the positives far outweigh the negative
and that usually, you know,
I have a few minutes to sit with myself
and she's right as much as I hate to admit that.
She's right.
That helps me.
That brings me peace and joy and, you know, clarity.
What are you most proud of as you reflect back on a decade
and more and the journey to get from prison building to here?
My kids, my family, you know, I mean, I can't,
I couldn't do any of this without it.
You know, my wife, you know, a lot of times
if I have to work late, she's at home making dinner,
taking care of the kids, taking care of the animals, whatever.
And, you know, I'll work late.
I can work late.
I can work 9.30, 10 o'clock at night
and make sure the job gets done to provide for my family.
But if my family's not there or being taken care of,
then that just puts a whole different level of stress on me.
I know I don't have to worry about my family at home
because they're taken care of.
Yeah. Yeah. Wonderful answer.
A final thing for the audience who, you know,
members who may not know,
what sets elite customs apart?
Why elite customs and not others?
The honest answer, I believe personally,
and this is from,
this is from customers testimonials,
is customer service, you know.
And we don't get it right every time,
but we're from customers,
we're inviting our places, inviting it's not,
it doesn't put off a lot of masculine energy per se.
It's softer.
It is inviting to them to come in here
and not have all the knowledge and all the answers.
I'll sit down and educate them.
I have no problem educating somebody on,
even if they don't do the build with me,
but at least you go somewhere and you have some education now
and they won't screw you over potentially.
Yeah.
Because that still runs a little rampant in this industry.
Whether it's a customer industry.
It's a lost art form.
Sorry to say that, but customer service,
as you said earlier in the interview,
whether it's talking on the phone
or just dealing with people one-on-one,
we seem to have lost our way as it relates to that.
As a society, you're putting it back in.
I'm trying. Every day, I'm trying.
Every day I try my best to put on the best face I can
and the best information that I can
and give the best I can do.
The girls up front, they're fantastic.
My sister-in-law and we have another reception
at South Front Crystal Sheet. They're great.
I mean, they talk to these customers like they're their best friends
and make them feel so wanted and comfortable.
I mean, they just take their time with them
and I think that's what people are missing,
especially our generation per se.
You know, I'm 42 years old.
That's what we kind of came up.
We're used to that, you know, and when it goes away,
it's like, man, where did this, where did it go to shit?
You know, and I want the younger generation to see that too.
And I think communication is a big, big key,
not text messages.
Text messages give misconstrued a lot
and it bothers me.
Yeah, for sure. For sure.
I'm that guy, I'll pick up the phone and call you.
And my sister-in-law gets mad at me.
She's like, you got to have some kind of paper trail
to go back on what's said.
And I was like, I get it, but you can't relay
what you need to relay.
Right, right, right.
Your story really blends entrepreneurial, savvy,
creative artistry and your own take on car culture.
And we really appreciate you sharing that with our listeners today.
And I think whether you're a gearhead or a business owner,
you learn something from this conversation.
So for that, we thank you and let us know the next time
an artist is going to pivot hard in a certain genre
because we'll get on board that artist before he does it
because your track record is phenomenal.
Well, thank you, Jason.
I really appreciate you having me on here
and I appreciate your listeners a lot.
It has been a wonderful interview
and I look forward to talking to you in the future.
Wonderful, thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thanks again to Rich for sharing his journey
from setback to startup, from prison construction
to car perfection.
To watch this interview with Rich,
head to the Cars and Culture YouTube channel.
Like, subscribe and dive into our growing library
of more than 200 episodes
where the road always leads to the people
who are shaping the ride.
That's episode 216.
I'm your host, Jason Stein.
We'll see you down the road.
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