The Old Fashioned Car Audio Podcast Mar 23, 2026

Episode 49 - MasterTech EXPO 2026 Recap

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110:42

Term

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless connection that lets your phone talk to your car stereo without plugging in cables. It’s often used to play music and make calls through the car speakers.

Car

Master Tech

“Master” here doesn’t clearly name a car. It sounds more like a name for an event or a topic that the podcast plans to cover later.

Part

amps

Amps are the power boxes for your car’s audio. They help the speakers play louder and cleaner, especially for bass.

Part

Speakers are the audio drivers that convert electrical signals into sound. Swapping speakers is a common first step in car audio because it can dramatically improve clarity, imaging, and overall volume without changing the rest of the system.

Concept

road noise

Road noise is the background sound from tires, wind, and suspension that competes with music in the cabin. Installers often test audio with road noise present (or try to reduce it) because it affects perceived clarity, bass impact, and how well you can judge speaker upgrades.

Concept

demo tracks

Demo tracks are pre-selected songs used to evaluate and showcase an audio system’s performance. They’re chosen for specific qualities—like tight bass, wide stereo imaging, and clean vocals—so installers can quickly hear improvements or problems.

Term

Toyota adaptive cruise control

Adaptive cruise control helps your car keep a steady speed, but it also slows down if traffic is close. It helps you drive more easily because you don’t have to constantly adjust your speed.

Term

30 foot screen

They mention a huge screen—about 30 feet wide. It’s likely used to show what’s going on with the car audio build so everyone can see it clearly.

Concept

backup camera

A backup camera is a rear-view video system that helps drivers see behind the vehicle when reversing. In older installations, early camera systems were often analog and less integrated than today’s factory digital setups.

Term

VHS or Beta

VHS and Beta were old ways of recording video on tapes. They’re bringing it up because the video/camera setup reminds them of that era.

Term

laser machine

A laser machine is a tool that uses a focused light beam to cut or mark materials very precisely. It’s useful for making custom audio parts that need to line up cleanly.

Term

2D CAD

2D CAD is a computer program for making flat, accurate drawings. People use it to plan parts—like brackets or speaker box pieces—so they fit correctly the first time.

Part

fiberglass

Fiberglass is a strong material made from glass fibers mixed with resin. Car audio shops use it to shape custom parts like speaker mounts or enclosure pieces that fit the car.

Concept

3D printing

3D printing makes parts from a computer model, building them layer by layer. In car audio, it can help create custom pieces or prototypes that fit the vehicle.

Part

sub box

A sub box is the enclosure that holds the subwoofer in your car. The size and shape of the box change how the bass sounds, so it matters a lot.

Concept

3D CAD

3D CAD is CAD software that lets you build a full 3D model of a part. Instead of drawing only on a flat screen, you can shape it in space so it looks and fits like the real thing.

Concept

demo car

A “demo car” is a car prepared for an event so people can hear and see the audio setup. It’s usually built to look good and sound impressive.

Term

CNC

CNC is a computer-controlled machine that cuts parts very precisely. In car audio, it helps build speaker boxes and brackets that fit better and are easier to reproduce.

Company

Alpine

Alpine is a well-known car audio company. Here it’s mentioned because they got a CNC machine, which helps make audio parts more accurately and consistently.

Concept

build boxes

“Build boxes” means making the enclosure that the speakers sit in. The box design affects how the speaker sounds, especially for bass.

Concept

car audio

Car audio is the sound system in a car—speakers, amps, and related gear that you add or upgrade. The host is saying that seeing really impressive builds is what got people hooked.

Concept

Fishman and the Yado build

This sounds like a famous car audio build that inspired the host when they were younger. The host is saying it looked so wild and futuristic that it made them think, “this is insane.”

Concept

That's life, that's love, that's what all the people say

You're riding high in April, coming down in May

But I know I'm gonna change that dream

When I'm back on top, back on top of you

I said that's life, that's life

We're only like an hour late starting this recording due to technical difficulties

Yeah, that's what I do

I mean, I guess that's what happens when we go a long time without recording

I looked, I didn't think it'd been that long, it's only like three months

That's pretty good for us these days

I think we're dedicated to fixing that this year though

I will say though, it's been long enough for our sponsor to get pretty upset

Because we signed a brand deal and we only hit one ad for them over the past year

By we, you mean you

Yeah, so with that being said, I feel like I should help them out real quick

You're just jumping right in with it, huh?

I gotta tell y'all something real quick, man

Back when I grew up, we didn't have performance issues, we just had confusion

You know what I'm saying? Like, you'd be 22 years old, just sitting there like

Is it me or is it my body just taking a union break right now?

Oh my gosh

Nobody talked about it, you just kind of stared at the ceiling fan like it owed you money

But now we got science, baby, we got options, we got Bluetooth

Yeah, Bluetooth, not a street name, not a band, that's a real deal

It's an online service, you hop on there, you talk to a licensed medical provider

No awkward waiting rooms, no eye contact

With a dude named Gary who's just there for, you know, reasons

They prescribe you chewable tablets, same active ingredients as Viagra and Cialis

But in a chew man, like you just snacking, you're way into some confidence

And I like that, I like anything where you don't gotta explain myself to a receptionist named Linda

You just go to the website, fill it out, boom, shipped right to your door

Discrete like a ninja with a pharmacy degree

And I'll tell you this, confidence is a wild thing

You ever walk into a room feeling like you got your life together?

That's what we're talking about right here

This ain't about being somebody you're not, it's about showing up as the version of you

That's like, yeah, we're good, we're operational

So if you've ever had one of those moments where your brain's ready

But your body feels like, let's circle back next quarter

Bluetooth might be your guy, try it out, go to Bluetooth.com

Use promo code, Old Fashioned Car Audio Pod

And you can try it for free, just pay shipping

That's Bluetooth.com promo code, Old Fashioned Car Audio Pod

Get your confidence back, man, don't let your body ghost you

I wonder how many listeners we just lost right there

Onward, MasterTech Expo Recap

I will say that was a tough read

MasterTech 2026 is in the books

It is, year five

It's crazy, right?

Five years, yeah

Five good years, this year was no exception to that

Yeah, it was a fun time

It was, you got there, we all got there Wednesday?

Wednesday, yeah, last year I got in like a day early and I told you

I fucking saw tumbleweeds just blowing by

Nobody was in town

I went by myself to that bar 12 place that we went to the first night

That kind of kicked off the whole direction of our MasterTech

I believe it changed the direction of all MasterTechs for years to come

100%

MasterTech Expo will never be the same

Yeah, so we show up, it was me, Aaron Crooks, my co-worker

We did a class together, Tom Miller and Mr. Gary Bell

We showed up, wanted to get a meal

We wanted to talk about our class that we had

We're all doing kind of classes together

So it was a good point

And for those of you that don't know

The first time that like, I feel like at least us

Where we don't live close to each other

The first time that we can really talk about our class

And really do some sort of a dry run

And try and figure out what we're doing

Is kind of at the event, right?

We kind of spend the first full night

I mean, there's preparation, don't get me wrong

There's plenty of preparation

We have outlines in

The first time that we can really review it together in person

Is that first night, right?

So yeah, I don't want to say that it's not prepared

Because it is prepared

Obviously we get together for the first time in person

And can kind of run through the entire course outline

Right?

Because we can do video chats

But like I said, nothing's like the same of doing it in person

So doing it in person

That was kind of why we went out and got together that night

So we were away from everyone else

And we sat down, got some drinks

Some old-fashioned, some Manhattan's

Tom and I fucking zipped darts

We played some cricket

And then you and Aaron were just playing the big version of Connect 4

Yeah, just for three-year-olds

And for all the people that were at MasterTech

This is all starting to make so much sense at this point

Because I'm busy trying to wipe the floor with Tom with darts

And the full version of darts

I've never played real darts before

So when these guys are like, you've got to go around the board

And you've got to get this one and that one

And I'm like, that's too much

You've got to close out some numbers

And meanwhile, you're rocking Connect 4

And I appreciate it

I love it, I respect it

And I never even knew this about you

And we've known each other for so long

That you are an avid Connect 4 player

By avid, I mean, in the last year

My wife and I have started to add Connect 4

Somehow we pulled it out one night to play it

And then it just kind of stayed on the kitchen table

And it's been there for, you know, five, six months

Probably seven months

And it's in our rotation of games that we play with each other

And I never took it too, too seriously

But when the opportunity arose

That I might have had a little practice

And, you know, Connect 4 seems pretty basic on the surface

And, you know, challenged Aaron to a game

And may or may not have led on

That I might have played a few games in the past six months

And I love that too

Because, like, coming out of that, you know, Aaron was just like

Man, Gary's really good at Connect 4

And in my head, like, I've always played Connect 4

With, like, my daughters

I don't know if that is giving me a false privato

Because I'm playing younger people

But I feel like I'm the Chris Kyle of Connect 4

I feel like I'm the American sniper of Connect 4

So when you start kind of getting a little swagger to you

And you're like, you know what, bitch

I will wipe the floor with you with Connect 4

I believe those were your words

I was going to eff you up is what you told me

Yeah, it piqued my interest

And I was like, let's go

Right

For the record

For the record, how many games did Aaron and I play?

Uh, I mean, I don't know

That's your story to tell

I was too busy throwing darts

I was going to say somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 games

Okay

And how many did Aaron win?

He got a goose egg

So you just undefeated

Undefeated against Aaron

At that point

He did beat me later on

I mean, you probably felt high on your horse at that moment

But it piqued my interest

It piqued my interest

And it got you to order

Not Connect 4

Overnight

Overnight through Amazon to the hotel

It got you to order a game called Foreign Align

Right

Which if you know anything about Gary

He's going to go the budget route

As long as it works and it performs

He's going to go the budget route

For all intents and purposes

This game was going to become property of the hotel

When we were done that night

Did you not bring it home?

No, I did

I did

Okay, yeah

I feel like you had to

It's historic now

Yeah, it's historic

Yeah

But the game's called Foreign Align

But it plays just like Connect 4

For those of you who might have just

Become confused listening

It is the same exact game as Connect 4

There's the same grid, same everything

But it's called Foreign Align

And it was like a Chinese dupe of the game

Right

You know how like Chinese

Especially in our industry

A lot of guys will know this

I think we're apt

I would say

I think that's a good word to use here

We're apt to use

Sometimes some Chinese knockoff brands

And for the installers that actually read the manual

Which I think is few and far between nowadays

If you actually read the manual

You will always get a kick of the Chinese

Translation when it comes to

Installation manuals, right

They often don't really know how to convey the message

So I think this was perfectly defined on the box

Of Foreign Align

Where it said it was a game of wisdom

That was one of their taglines

To let you know what this game was about

It was also a funny game

Right

I don't know where funny game comes into play

Just because I'm not sure how funny it ends up becoming

But I think that was a funny tagline

That they just were like, yeah, it's a funny game

I'm not sure how that translated

It's amazing

I may try to work that into an audio control manual

At some point

Yeah, it became a very inside joke

Of the weekend because every single night

We just go back to the hotel

And we play Kinect 4

And I think it's even more funny too

Because you're at a trade show

It's male dominated

You have all the people out there

I'm sure all the spouses are like

What do you guys do at a trade show?

Just all men

You guys go into strip clubs

What are you guys doing?

No, we're just in the hotel lobby

Silent

Mind you

Concentrated

Silent Death Stare

Playing Kinect 4

I have one of the blurbs from the box

Pulled up because I posted it to Instagram

I'm gonna try to read this

You thought your read was tough

Let the children

Mentioned ability

To cultivate quick thinking ability

And improve self-planning ability

To create more fun

That's a great translation

Good stuff

Yeah, we will get to Master Tech Expo stuff

At some point

But we're just kind of

Setting the scene here of how

This Master Tech 2026 came to fruition

Yeah, it ended up with a lot of

Good solid Kinect 4 games

And our bet was

I, talking trash to you

Said I could beat you 75% of the time

Which the quick math was 6 out of 8

And to be fair

In our first 9 games

I went 6 to 3

Yeah, I think that's around accurate

When you mentioned that

I immediately gave you the

Decembe Montumbo finger wag

And I said you will not beat me 75% of the time

I can bet that

But yeah, it created an evolution

Of the math behind Kinect 4

And the strategy behind Kinect 4

Yeah, I mean it turned into people like

Chat GPT'ing and Googling

And YouTubing videos

On how to get better at it

And I will tell you

Don't mess with Drew Jones

Do not mess with Drew Jones

It's not just the beard

He came in hot

He, like, I don't know how much he studied

But, like, I don't know if you heard it

When he went off and it's like

You know, there's 36 ways to win

32 of them go through here, blah, blah, blah

He's just rattling off all the specs

And then the first game he played

You guys had all gone to bed

It was Drew and I in the lobby

And he whooped me the first two games

Like, I was not, you know

Typical overconfident like

Okay, this is his first time

I'm playing him, whatever

And let's put this way

We both, when we left it for the night

We had gotten to the point where we were tied

And we were both ecstatic about it

So, yeah, definitely

I did see a moment at one point

I'm not sure what night it was

Where he was just kind of lurking off in the corner

And he was just examining the game

Right, just silently watching

I could see how this happened

How it came about

Yeah, and Aaron, I mean

Went from getting his tail whip the first night

To really, you know, most improved

I'm golf clapping for Aaron as most improved

Yeah, no

I mean, it's a funny game

Let's be honest

It's a funny game

So what else?

So that was first night

And then...

Yeah, so first night

We go out, we get drinks, we come back

Did we actually play Connect 4 the first night?

No, no, no, because it hadn't shown up

It didn't show up until the next morning

Yeah, so first morning

Thursday

How was your drive into any stories?

No, nothing crazy on the drive-in

Wednesday my drive-in from California

I was, you know, we had redone the Prius

To bring out there, changed out the speakers and the amps

And wanted to kind of bring something a little different

Even though it was the same car

But I had put together a playlist for last year's MasterTech

And have literally been demoing that same playlist

For an entire year

And I was so sick of all the songs that I had spent

The entire six-hour drive-out

Just testing and finding new songs

And so I put together just a ton of music

To then filter through once I could listen to it

Without road noise and pick out new demo tracks

So there were all new demo tracks for this year

In the Prius

And that was the majority of my drive

And then my, you know, every time I drive to

Phoenix or Tempe or Mesa

On the 10 in Goodyear

There is a Rudy's Barbecue

Which is the closest thing I can get

To some real decent Texas barbecue

So I always stop on the way in and the way out

So, just my Rudy's stop

And lots of music

And, you know, great Toyota adaptive cruise control

To help with the driving

I think while I focused on music

And good times

Yeah, so much better of a commute

Than what I have flying across the country

Yeah, how was your flight out?

Yeah, I mean, it was easy

I mean, there was, I don't...

I had some good stories last year

If you listen to the last expo recap

I feel like there was a funny travel story

But, I mean, it was bland, boring

We got there

I think the only wrinkle in our story was just

We were supposed to have a rental car

So we land

And

Go to the shuttle where all the rental car services are

And come to find out that

Whatever rental car that was booked for us

Was not in this

40 company area of rental cars

It was actually offsite in the city somewhere

So, what you're saying is you got the

Four in the line of rental car companies

Yes, yeah

And I was just like, well, this is great

Because we got there a little

Later in the afternoon on Wednesday

To which there was like a

Unit in training thing

Kickoff party thing

That we were supposed to attend

And we just got there towards the tail end of it

Which the second we walk in

We see you

We're greeted by you

You're kind of like sitting there at the door

I say hello, then we hop in the unit and thing

Yeah, then shortly after that

Our whole night got started

Yeah

Yeah, I think next was

The Wayne Harris and the Terminator

Yeah, so Thursday

Then Thursday happened

I feel like no commitments in the morning Thursday

So kind of got to sleep in somewhere

Yeah, I got that out of order

That was before we went to dinner that night

On Wednesday, right?

Yeah, that was Wednesday you got in

Unit and stuff

Then we went to dinner after

And then the next day was actually

You guys had radar

You taught a class?

Yeah, yeah

What class was that?

Me and Aaron taught a radar laser integration class

Which was great

And it's funny too because like

You know, I told Brian this

Every year we try and change up the classes

And make it different from last year

You know, if we're doing the same class

Like you and I have done the 2D class

For years in a row now

We always try to make it different

And change it up a little bit

I would say for the people listening

My recommendation

For people who can pick tracks

Is whatever one that you

Really, really, really, really want to go to

If there's a track one like

Day one and then day two

Make sure you try and switch it

So like you do the day two track

Right

All the instructors get better the second day

Yeah, yeah

I feel like everyone's class is going to get

Way better the second time

That they do it, right?

Because the first time we do a track

It's the first time we're doing the track

If we've made it new, right?

If it's not the same recycled content

Which the whole idea behind

This expo in these classes is like

Every year you're not

Even if you signed up for the same track

It's going to be different, right?

It's not the same recycled content

Over and over and over again

So with that being said

Like Aaron and I's first radar class

We had so much content to go over

And you just really don't know how to pace it

Because you haven't done it before

You haven't done it in a real life

Interaction with people

That first class gives you a lot of feedback

And idea of how you can make it better

Or pace it better for the second class

For the people listening

Installers or owners

If you're doing classes here

And you're really excited for a certain class

I would always make the recommendation

That you make that fall on your

The second time that person would be doing that class

If they're doing it in repetitive days

Just my opinion

But yeah, our first class was good

Right after that we had

I had to run over to the Wayne Harris

Terminator live podcast

Q&A thing that we did

Last year we did it with Fishman

And it's Fishpedition

This year we did it with Wayne Harris's Terminator

Which was really cool

It's big upgrades from this year

Because now it was inside

Versus outside

Which I feel like there's just a lot more attention

Given in the moment

Because it's not outside

Where you feel like you can kind of congregate

In the sides

When you're inside you feel it's more like a presentation

So there's not a bunch of random talking everywhere

And people weren't trying to eat lunch

I think we did it right after lunch or dinner

Last year with Fish

And so there was still a lot of table conversation going on

And those sorts of things

This environment with the ballroom was really cool

Really cool to have the car inside

And there's a big ass 30 foot screen in there

Which was really cool because everyone could really see

Everything that was happening

So that was super cool

To kind of get the whole run down with that

And finally see that in person

Yeah, hopefully we can get Wayne on here for an episode

And run through a lot of that stuff

There's a lot of good content there I think

And he did so much work

This car for those that don't know

The Terminator was a very early build

Done in the 80s

Before I was born

Yeah, it had been updated a couple of times

And Wayne has had it the whole time

The last time I think it was out was around 01

He brought it to DB Drag Finals

And it's basically been sitting

And he went through the whole car

And just kind of restored things

And brought it back up to date

And kind of kept the heritage of it

And did a lot of cool stuff to it

So we're happy to be excited to get him on

And tell that story to you guys

And let you hear all about it

But it's definitely a piece of car audio history

Which we definitely love to talk about here

Yeah, and I really appreciated that

It was still like a super blast from the past

Like it was still like all original

Like when I asked like is there anything that you like

Kind of re-updated

I mean the answer to that is pretty much no

I mean most of it is almost identical to how it was

Yeah, very few small things

Yeah, it's so awesome

Like the first backup camera

And it's like a old school

I don't know if it was VHS or Beta

Or what it was

But it's like a full-sized like 80s handy cam

Pointed out the back of it

And it's still there and working

So that's pretty cool

It's not a boy-o license plate frame

It looks like a rig that

The great Gatsby was filmed on

That's funny

No, it's super cool

And it's on like this like stand-up tripod

Like mounted right where the window is

And you're just like this is so rad

Because I mean it's so ahead of its time

Yeah, there's so much in there that's ahead of its time

But we'll let Wayne tell that story when we have them on

Yeah

So after the Wayne Harris interview

Yeah, then it was party time

The kickoff

We had the kickoff dinner

Yeah

Kickoff party

So that was outside again

Throwback to year one

Right?

That was a year of your wife game, right?

I didn't see it

I was thinking that was year two

But maybe it was

Might have been year two

I feel like we only did the outdoor thing one year

Or maybe I'm wrong

Maybe it was year one and year two

And she came year two

I'm trying to pace it because we went

We were indoors the previous two years

And then was the year before

So that would give us three

Then the year before that was the outdoor amphitheater

That was four and then the year

Yeah, so it was year one

Yeah, I think that lines up

Year one, outside, year two, the amphitheater

Year three, four, indoors

And then year five, outdoors again

Yeah

Kickoff was fun

I feel like I wasn't even out there that long of a time

Because we had a tea time that night

Which sounds insane to say

You guys are crazy

Because this is also

Which is also why we had to get together that first night

Because we had no time together

Until our first class on Friday

But Thursday night after the kickoff party

It was me, Alan Lindgren, Tom Miller, and Phil Cantu

We all went golfing

And we were there also with the Sony guys

So Tazzy was there

But we went golfing at this place

Called Grass Clippings in Arizona

Which is a nighttime golf 18 hole

It's like a par three course

They do have some par fours

But I think they only activate those during the day

Because they're not lit up at night

But the 18 hole par three

It's like a legit par three course

So for all my golfers listening

Definitely do this one night

Next time you go to MasterTech or in Arizona

It was super cool

Everything was under stadium lights

So I feel like you had more visual

Than you would during the day when the sun's out

I mean it was so well lit up

And all the holes were a par three

But they were legit par threes

They weren't all like 120 yards in

They were like 140 yards, 160 yards, 170 yards

So they were like legit par threes

And I'd say the only weird thing is

We were in a foursome

And the golf cart is a foursome cart

And I've never seen some shit like that before

So two people sit in the front

Two people sit in the back

And there's a spot for four golf bags on the rear

Which is kind of weird

I made the analogy

It's almost like peeing in a urinal

Where there's no dividers

It just felt awkward

Right?

You're just like this is kind of weird

But whatever

I can do it for one night

So that was fun

We golfed

We got some good content

We had a lot of laughs

We ended our round

We started at nine

We ended around at 1.30 in the morning

Can you imagine being done golf at 1.30 in the morning

Which I'm on the east coast

I'm on east coast time

I just ended my round at 3.30 in the morning

Wait, that's four

No, 4.30 in the morning

That's crazy

That's insane

I don't think you guys saw us

Because I did not go golfing

I'm not much of a golfer

But I did see you

And Tom come back in

And hit the elevators

And you didn't see us in the corner of the lobby

Playing Connect 4 at 1.30, 2 o'clock in the morning

When you guys came in

Yeah, so you already had your head start

Because we did not play Connect 4 that night

But super fun

Obviously we had our training

In the morning next morning

Brighton Early, 8am

Which that's kind of the other thing

Is like the morning of your first class

Like that

Because you don't really have access to all those rooms

Before the trade show really starts

So for the people behind the scenes

Of the instructors

Is you got to wake up super early

Right, like super super early

To get to your room

Make sure the power works

The mic works

Make sure you have whatever material content

You know, just everything laid out

And ready to go

Because again, you just don't have the time to do the dry run

Because a lot of that stuff is not open at that point

Which is again, going back to my rationale

Of like, hey, if you really want to do a class

Do it the second day

Of that class being there

Because all of that stuff has already worked through

Whereas like that day

It's kind of like a grind

To figure out how to make everything perfect

Right, so you got to get up there super early

Run through everything

We do our class

Everything went well

Yeah, and I got lucky

I had left my mouse

I used a very specific rollerball mouse

And Wednesday night after we got back to the hotel

We were sitting down with the computers

And I'm like, oh no

I think I left my mouse at home

And I overnighted one to get there for Thursday

Had plenty of time

And it did not show up

So I overnighted another one

And luckily it showed up at 7am

Like 6.59am on Friday morning

Before the training it showed up

And I was able

I could not imagine having to teach a 2D CAD

Using the track pad on my laptop

Terrible

Absolutely terrible

Yeah

That turned out okay

Yeah

Yeah, but that class was good

I feel like we do it every year

That class

Different variations of that class

Which I feel like

Is a very impactful class

Because for a lot of reasons

I think we really show a lot of tricks of

How you can utilize

Like a laser machine

In ways that most people still

In our industry don't use it for

Right

You know, there are so many very useful tricks

That can just make you

Make the stuff that you're producing

So much more advanced

Than people even assume

That the machine is used for

You know, especially like

Apostry techniques and lighting techniques

There are so many tricks

In which you can design things

Around that specifically

To get very production outcomes

You know, and I think we

You know, and it's also kind of tough too

Because like, you know, for the people listening

You know, some people listening

Might be, never have done 2D CAD

Some people might have done the class

And have never drawn anything in 2D CAD

Some people might be super advanced

So you have to engineer

And construct a class

That is going to give every single

One of those people value

And you have to give value

To the people who've never done anything before

Teach them a lot of tricks

That they can walk away with

And be like, I'm super confident

That this is like, you know

Something that I really want to include

In our daily workflow

And then also, you're going to have people

Who are super like

They've been doing 2D CAD for a long time

And they're just there for all the tricks, right?

So like, you really have to do a good job

Of trying to take the amount of time

That you have with all three classes

And give a lot of value to people

Who have just drawn, but also

Have enough small tricks in there too

For those people that are going to take

The advanced people and be like, oh shit

That is going to save me a lot of time

Because I didn't even know

That was something you can do in the program

Right?

But then also go to the advanced side

As you go further on in your classes

And then not lose the first people

Who are like, well this is just

Beyond my pay grade at this point

And then just entertain the advanced crowd

Because you still have to keep

The basic crowd with you, right?

So it's a very delicate line

To draw

To keep everyone interested

At the same time, right?

Yeah, I think we both

Worry that, you know, we cover

A lot of the same stuff year to year

There's like some very key points

That I think we both, you know

Really want to make sure that the students get across

And last year we had the project

With my drawing my Prius

And this year we focused on your Cayenne

And the builds kind of

As the focus of it

But I had more than one student

Who were in the class last year

And were in the class this year

And those are the ones I worry about the most, right?

Like are they bored because we showed

A lot of these same, you know, tools

The program doesn't change that much

From year to year, the programs

That we're teaching don't change that much

So I'm always worried about

If they're still learning

And how that's going, and I got the same feedback

From three people, which was

I was in the class last year

And I don't know what it is

But I took so much more away

This year than last year

And in chatting with them, it sounded

Like that we had

Given them the basics, they had gone

Home and played enough to like

Get going in it

Actually made more sense to see it

The second time around, you know

This year, it connected all the dots

That they didn't realize they

Should have focused on the year before

But it started to make sense

So that makes me feel better

And it makes me feel good that

We'll be able to continue to develop

Those people and get them better and better

Each year that they come back

Yeah, that makes sense because I can only imagine

People who are

Dabbling in fusion for the first time

This year, right? They might know

Some simple commands

They, you know, go to the

You know, Charles and Kat's class

And take all that in

But you're just seeing the

Holy shit version of you

Right, that dash

That dash they did was stunning

Yeah, like they can kind of

Understand what's happening

But also they haven't drawn enough

To even take it in

And really understand

The tips and tricks that they're

Actually being taught, right?

So I would assume all those people

If they spend a year in fusion

And they're just continuing

Their education and progression

That if they saw the same version

Of the class next year, it would make

So much more sense, so I can

You know, probably understand

Where those people are coming from

From last year to this year

Another thing that I'll just kind of piggyback on

Is like, sometimes it does help to see

Multiple projects being created

Right, because you see one

And it's like, well

You know, what if something changed

There's so many variables in our industry

When you're making something

That nothing's the same

You don't use the same techniques

Every time, you don't use the same procedure

Every time because

Part of what we teach is efficiency

And there are so many ways

To do something, but there's

One most efficient way to do it

Right, you know

You can lay fiberglass, you can

Stack fab something, you can

You know, 3D print something

Like one of those is going to be the fastest way

And

We have all the knowledge of all the different ways

To do it, but when are you going to use

That certain procedure?

So like when you see your truck

Your trunk being built, and then like

My sub box being built

And some of these other various projects

And you see them in real time

Of being broken down of all the parts

They're not all the same

Every time, as long as

You don't show the same project over and over again

You're going to start understanding

Okay, like that looks

Really cool and dimensional

And it all comes

Back to the same concept that you just

You're drawing a bunch of

Lines

And then cutting lines and segmenting lines

And joining lines together

Contouring lines

Beveling lines

Like that's what all these

Projects come out to be

And I think this year we finally incorporated

You know, a little at least

In the first class, the first

I should say the first session we did

Not the second session, because we didn't dive into the fusion

In the second session, but we dove

Into fusion in the first session that we did

Just to show that like

Here's a program

And you had a great analogy

It's like

It's exactly what you've been taught this whole class

It's the same everything

But now, like

Instead of just 2D

Where it's just like your computer screen

Now your computer is on the floor

It's on the wall, it's on the ceiling

And these are the planes

In which you're drawing objects

Right?

So it's just more

Areas, more planes to draw

Something to create the same

Concept. Everything stays the same

In what you learn in 2D CAD

And those procedures are then

Transferred into just more planes

To create a more complex shape

Yep

Yep, I think that's

I don't know what to say

That's a good vision of that

And

See what we come up with for next year

So that gets us through

What, that's Friday?

What do we do Friday night?

I think we just stayed in

Did we just stay in the...

Oh, Friday night we went bowling

We went bowling

Was that Friday night or Saturday night?

Friday night

Because that was

Yeah, it was Friday night, we went bowling

Okay, yeah, so we did

I did a training Friday night

Yeah

And when you did your training, I think I was in

The Fishman training

Oh yeah, same time, how was the fish?

So yeah, Friday night

When you were doing your audio, you did audio control training?

Yep

Okay, yeah

When you were doing that

We did the Fishman training

Which was super dope

Had no idea what to expect

And turns out it was like

His first ever

Professional

Speaking event

Like professional training ever

Which is kind of fascinating

Well, he's done plenty of like

Well, no, he's done like

In-person

Like fish camp, which is like

In-person fab thing

But this was like

First thing where he's speaking

Class in front of a bunch of people

It wasn't a fab class, it was a

Motivational speaking type event

I would just sum it up as like

He just took whatever

Whatever it was, the hour and a half

Of whatever the class duration was

And just

Basically was teaching

And motivating everyone

Who showed up, which was

A lot of people

Of all the mistakes

That he had made in his career

Like how he could have done

Things different

What to focus on

When it comes to

Just like never burn a bridge

I think that was like one of his

Big takeaways

Is like never burn a bridge

Because you never know like when

You'll work with somebody again

Right?

It was also a lot of sales

Technique

And things when it comes to like

Never selling yourself short

Ever

Always deliver on your commitment

Even I think one of his big takeaways

Was like all the vehicles that he had built

Where like

If he's saying like it'll be ready

For the start of SEMA

Even if it's 22 seconds before

SEMA starts

That's still your commitment

Right?

Is like get it done when you say

You're gonna get it done

It doesn't matter if you are still

Literally working on it 22 seconds

Before it's ready to be delivered

But as long as you can get there

And just back up

Whatever your words are

Right?

So like it was just very motivational

I don't really know how else

To put it

If you didn't attend it

It was

Just very like be

What you say you're gonna be

And don't limit yourself

And keep pushing and

Kind of what he was saying is like

I was scared to do this training

But at the end of the day

And it's like what we've always

Preach is like

You gotta get out of your comfort zone

Like if you stay in your comfort zone

You're not gonna learn

You learn outside of your comfort zone

And you don't know who you can be

Unless you try something new

Just keep pushing

And keep trying new stuff

Keep evolving

Never be content with where you're at

You know just all the like

I feel like things that most

People who are very successful

Live and die by

But it was nice hearing that from him

Who

Just has so much history

In car audio

Even a lot of the younger generation

Like way younger than me

Like the 20 year olds

Who know his story and everything

It was cool just for

Them to see the crazy shit

That he had built

Because like things aren't that crazy anymore

Things are more practical

And elegant and OEM

And it's not

It's not solving crazy problems

Of having a motorization

Come up

Then out and then go back in

And if anyone knows

Fishman he's not

He's not like a master cat

Person he's not

Like he's all thinking in his head

In a mechanical aspect

And then utilizing

Servos and

Drives and just

Tracks like self made

Tracks to make

Actions happen right

So from an engineering standpoint

It's quite fascinating

Because it's nothing like

Modern people are using

But yet he's still doing

The same

Practically the same

Action

That somebody today would do with

Really convenient stuff

He's just doing it in a

More modular

Old fashion

Concept

Yeah and that's really

Kind of how the old school

Outdo everybody

Demo car

World was

Was just pushing the limits

And there weren't all these automation tools

I think it was probably

Or 06

When we finally got a CNC at Alpine

And it was

It was a hobby machine

Compared to the machines that most guys use today

To build boxes and stuff with

And it was a lot of that

Just figuring stuff out

And trying to figure out

Geometry with cardboard

And pivot points and how to make

Stuff move but there really was that

Hot import nights era of just

Outdoing each other with

Crazy amounts of fiberglass and

Paint and airbrush

And I think you nailed it on the head

Like today's custom installs

And big installs are more about

Integration of the car and OEM

Cosmetics and trying to make

Stuff be

Integrated into the car

Slightly highlighted but it's not

Meant to be the

Like showstopper

But the cars are a little more subtle now

Than they were back then. They were very in your face

Back then. Yeah it's so weird too

Because like when you

If I look at somebody like

I hate how much run

Chris gets from Texas

On this podcast. The guy who

Made his appearance at

Last year's master tech expo

But

I wonder what got him

Into the industry because like

In today's world where

Everything's more integrated and subtle

There's not that like wow

Factor that we all got into the industry

Where you just see this crazy

Shit like whether it's like

Audio for the first time that wasn't

Prevalent, right?

That was like so new and out there

And

Outlier and that

Could get you into the industry and hooked

My generation was watching like

The Fishman and the Yado build

Just really just crazy shit

That moved and you're just like

This is insane. This seems like

A spaceship. That is

Obviously what got my generation

Into this industry. I'm really

Curious as what like what is

The the the thing for

Younger people today

Because everything is just so

Integrated you know what I mean

I feel like there's not a lot of wow

Factor because

I think the wow today

Is how

Integrated or factory

Or just cohesive with

The interior design does it look

Yeah, I think there's still a lot. I mean

My guess is if we ask little Chris

You know a lot of the stuff

Like on the inside of

An enclosure the lighting

When like the MTI

Boys go nuts on the inside of an enclosure

With the you know lit acrylic

Braces and that kind of

Stuff I think that that kind of details really

Kind of cool and it's

It almost seems to me like almost like

One of those dudes that builds like model train

Sets and stuff like it's this like kind of

Small little version

Of shrunken down where like we used to try

To build the entire car to just be this obscene

Thing that demanded attention

And now it's like let me focus

And harness some of that and put it inside

This woofer enclosure

And that'll be the focal piece

As opposed to having to you know

Rebuild every inch of the interior from scratch

Which a lot of those guys are doing but it's more

In the subtle clean hot rod

Realm not in the flashy

Side but I think the lighting

Has changed a lot too with the RGB

Incob lighting like

You can do so many more cool effects where

You know ten years ago

Twelve years ago we were doing that with

Arduinos and programming and now there's

All sorts of off the shelf products available

That can help kind of dress that stuff up

And automate some of that

Motion and lighting

So Friday night after the

Fish thing the fish thing was cool

Yeah I think at that point we just

We ate

Or we ate before yeah I think we ate

Before we went to that class

And then I think we just

It was like a

The enchantment under the sea dance

In the lobby with connect 4

You'd finally had it

Delivered or again

I gotta stop saying connect 4

Four in a line

At the board room

Table in the middle of the lobby

Which we always meet at

And within

I would say ten to fifteen minutes

I don't know what it is about this game

But

Everyone you know

So for people that don't know when you're at

MasterTech everyone kind of congregates

In the lobby of where MasterTech is held

Well and the bar there

Yeah there's a bar that's almost connected

Yeah there's a bar that's almost

Connected it's in the same sight line of this

It's by the elevators

So for people staying there they have to

Walk by this area

To go up to the room

Very quickly I feel like people notice

This game

And I feel like a lot of people

Just like a double take

They're confused

And they're like is that connect 4

Like they don't know it's actually four in a line

Four in a line

They're like is that connect 4

What is happening

And then everyone is sitting

There just with their hand on

Their chin

In silence

Just trying to play the next 20

Moves happening in this game

So very quickly

It was almost like there was an actual

Street fight happening in the lobby

Where there's just a circle

That commences

You would have thought somebody was

Breakdancing doing a windmill

And people are just like creating a circle

But really

They're just watching four in a line

And the competition ran rampant

That night and that's when

This new

Found tradition started

Yeah

You know the first few years it was you

At that table with cards doing magic tricks

Magic tricks, yeah

I feel like you gotta do something

To entertain the people

Yeah, oh yeah

It's a fun bar trick

It's a funny game

And look

What my wife is bringing me right now

For

For in a line

You know

To start this podcast

I was going to go grab

The Kinect 4 game

And right as it started

I was going to drop all the chips

So you could hear the noise of

All the chips falling

And that's how the podcast was going to start

The one you missed from the front of it

It says you got

Benefiting intelligence

And then it's

Interesting amusement

Yeah, that's the good one

Interesting amusement

If that's not the definition of bad translation

I don't know what is

So good, so bad it's good

So that night we played

Until our eyes got red

And then we went to bed

Woke up the next morning

Now it's Saturday morning, right?

We have our second CAD class

Which

In my

Humble opinion was

I just more

Just more

Well oiled version of the first day

It flowed better

It flowed better, yeah

We had that

Finally actually got to walk around

The floor a little bit

Because the first day

I feel like I'm the same person

Every year when we have

The three classes that we do

The first day that we do it

I'm so mentally and socially exhausted

That after

Literally that class

Ends I skip lunch

I go right to the room

And I go to sleep

For five hours

And come down before like dinner

Really?

So every single year

Every single year it's that first day

That we do the three classes

You know where we go from like 8am

To 12.30

I'm just so mentally exhausted

Because there's all this prep

The days before and then you do the class

And then I'm just so mentally exhausted

I go up to the room

I just take a deep slumber

A small coma, whatever you want to

Coin it and

I'll come back down

Right before dinner like 6pm

You bastard

Yeah, I know you can't

Because you work for a manufacturer

You have a demo vehicle

Like you have to be out there

I run out of our class

Right to the car

And start giving demos

And it doesn't stop until we're up against

The next one

I would blow my brains out

Like manufacturer training

But you know what's funny

We brought a couple more people this year

Some people who hadn't been from our organization

Which was really good for them to see

And really see what goes on

And see how intense of a day it is

For us and you know

That goes for myself, it goes for Matt Polombo

Who does the majority of the work

At the event like that

We brought Ernie Hartman out this year

We had a good team Jake from our sales team

Our vice president of product development

Was there, there was a good group of guys

And you know

They're all standing in the sun

Like just burning up because we have an outside booth

So we can do demos and let the car run

And stuff like that

And

They're like, they see that I don't really get lunch

They don't see the part where I have

Like a pocket full of

Kind bars in my

In my pocket and I'm snacking as I'm in the car

They don't see that part, I don't think any of them listen to the podcast

So they won't hear that part but they're like

Oh man, I'm so sorry you're stuck

In the car all day, blah blah blah

And I'm like, yeah it's terrible in here

Sitting in the air conditioned car

Listening to music for four hours

This is really tough

Yeah

Watching people laugh and smile and having fun conversation

Yeah

Definitely fun

Yeah I do but I go up and I just

Have a small coma

So jealous

And I feel like that's what re-energizes me

For the rest

Because to me that's like my half time

Right

Because at this point

I've already done two classes for the first time

What I call again the dry runs

And

At this point it's half time

I can finally go up

And just

Like recharge my

Social battery

And then prepare myself for

Like the second half of master tech

Which I already know how the classes are gonna go

There's no more prep really needed

I've run into a lot of

Like the people for the first time

Who like I've

Walked by so many people for the first time

That you have all those small little

Engagement conversations

So like

At this point you can just

Recharge

Every year my recharge time

Is after our first class

Yeah that's pretty awesome

So that night, Saturday night

Oh we did a

My manufacturer training was the early one

That night so we got through that pretty quick

And then let outside

For dinner

We grabbed some barbecue

Yeah

Yeah there's I feel like there's some

People that love meat way more than other

People

People that know that know

Yeah the people that know that know

But

Yeah that night we went bowling

For our second inaugural

Bowling league and I feel like

The amount of people participating

Doubled which was fun

Cause I

I always love

Going places the first time

With industry friends that you feel like

You know so well

Dude I've known Gary forever

But have I ever seen him

Bowl? The answer to that is no

I don't know what his style looks like

You've seen me top golf before

I don't know what size

Ball he throws

I don't know if he's one of those lunatics that just

Like wings a 7 pound

Ball at 100 miles an hour like

Pierce does for music car

Pierce is insane

Yeah that's an insane thing to do

Gary could have done that for all I know

You kind of get it like I see

Gary's throw which

To me it like it works

For you like you balled out the first game

You like balled out the first game

And

The way that you just like

You go up to the line

You have so much momentum with your body

But your body just stops

The momentum

And your arm swings

And the ball flies out

Like it's wild

I don't know how it's supposed to work

I don't know

I just kind of do it

Your ball that night just

I mean the lord was working through your arm

That night at least the first game

Yeah I was very tired

In the second game

I was so pissed too because like

I'm an avid bowler I like to bowl

You're in a league aren't you

I'm in a league

But the funny thing is

It's like a social league

At a local place

And

We just all do it

Me and the people that I used to live in the same neighborhood with

But the problem is

Is the league like the only bowling alley

In our

Close city where this league

Exists

Is the pins are on strings

And there's no foil on the lanes

That's weird

Which is drastically different

Obviously pins are on strings

That's insane

That should be a place of terrorism

What bowling alley has pins on strings

Well this one does

And that's just where we have our bowling league

Because it's a place where nobody

Takes bowling seriously

Right

But the problem is

Is I have two different ways I throw a bowling ball

I have a way

Where I spin it at like a typical bowling alley

When there's oil on the lanes

But if I throw that same

Spinning ball

At the place where we go

Where there's no oil on the lanes

There's so much traction that if you spin the ball

It's immediately going to go in the gutter

Right immediately

Because there's no oil to keep it spinning

Right

So when you spin the ball there

If you try and spin the ball you have to throw

Way down the lane, way to the right

So it breaks late

And hits pocket of the pins

So generally at that bowling alley

I just bowl straight

Because that's the best course of action

So when we play at our first game

I'm trying to figure out

Am I going to spin the ball here

Trying to dial in how the lanes are

Or do I just bowl straight

And I was in between

And I fucking bowled like trash

The first game

And I was so mad

Like I wasn't even drinking at this point

Because I'm like F these people

Like I'm going to lock in

And I'm going to

I'm going to be me at bowling

Right

First game was trash

Second game I bowled out

I think I bowled like a 186

Which I feel like is good

Like it's decent

For like just going out bowling

That's insane for me

But you bowled like a 171

Or something the first game

Like you were just

You were automatic

You know what actually happened

And I didn't want to tell you this

Because I didn't want to make you bashful

I actually saw an angel

Have you ever seen angels in the outfield

There was an angel

Literally rubbing your shoulders

Every time you would go bowl the ball

And I just didn't want to say anything

Because I didn't want it to go away

I didn't want it to know I was there

That I could see it

I feel like I've gone bowling

Three times that I can remember

In the last 10 or 15 years

I went for my birthday a couple years back

I bowled at the Mesa summit

This past year

And I want to say probably had

A very similar score to what I did

And I was like I don't know where it came from

One stellar game

The rest of the games were so-so

Bowling with the duns from Cartronics

And we had some fun

And then this

And I walked up and like

The first ball I threw I think I got six pins

And I was like yeah this is going to be about average for me

And I don't think I left an open frame

From there

And it was like

Phil and I like head to head

But yeah it was good times

It was fun

And then you know

My favorite part of that night

Was what we found in the arcade

Basketball Connect 4

It was like it was speaking to us

I wish we had a little more time

To play the game at Basketball Connect 4

It was a fun night

It was all of music car

All of MTI

Which I always love fucking with Justin Cush

I just

I don't know something about him

I love just wrangling his feathers

The emotional roller coaster

Of doing well and doing terrible

Throw to throw

And watching the roller coaster of emotions

Yeah

Phil's a good bowler

He's always very consistent

I'd say with both years he's been very consistently

Good

Spends it

Pretty dialed in

It was just fun watching

Pierce

Literally

Randy Johnson from the Mariners

He can fuck that little ball

He was hammered out of his mind too

He was hammered out of his mind

I have so many good pics of him from that night

I don't even know how he got home

Well I do know how he was in the same car as me

But

We were sitting there in the car

Driving back to the hotel

And you ever

Have you ever been with somebody and

You're like

You leave somewhere and they don't know how hammered they are

And then you see them in real time

Realize how hammered they are

You know that face they do

Yeah I've seen it and been

Yeah they hold

It's simultaneous

You just see them open up their eyes

A little bit and then

They do it real big

And then they lean their head back

And then they put their hand on something

So he did all those

Back to back to back and I was just like

Oh no

He's in

Not a great place

It was a fun time

We had Doug Dobson

Yeah Doug Dobson from

Rockford, Lordfield

There's some spectators too

Hanging out

It's a good time

So that gets us through Saturday nights

Saturday

And then Sunday

For most of you guys

Don't have any classes

Yeah that's a crazy thing

We went bowling

We got back at

Oh gosh I forget about Sunday

2am

Oh we started playing Connect 4 again

Yeah we go back

We play Connect 4

I go to bed at

3.30

Wake up at 4.30

Yeah we go to bed at 2.30

I wake up at 4.30

Or 4

Because we left by 4.30

I woke up at 4

Go climb a mountain

Which sounds insane

And I thought it was

Honestly I'm just going to say this

I thought it was going to be way easier

I had no idea

Like so

John Covenants always

Post pictures

Every master tech

He brings a group

I forget exactly what the name of

The mountain

Or I don't want to call it a hill

Because it's not a hill

It's a mountain

Or plateau

I don't know what you would call it

But it's a mountain hike

And every year I see him post pictures

At like sunrise

At the top of this mountain

And you can see like

You can see Delaware from there

That's how

You can see all of Arizona from there

It's like the highest point in that area

And every year dude I see those pictures

That he posts and I'm just like

One year I'm definitely going to do that

Like it just seems so peaceful

It seems like it's such a

Inner spirit moment that you would have

Up there on the top of the mountain

And

I think a day prior

So I was like hey did you guys climb yet

Did you guys do that

And he said yeah but we might do it again

So turns out like

He set it up to go again on

Sunday morning

And this is again we bold

I talked to Aaron

Who I was staying in a room with

He was my co-presenter in the radar class

And then

We were with

We bold with

Wesley Cato that night

And we were in the lobby with him

And I was like hey you want to climb the mountain

And he was like yeah sure

We're all set

We all meet in the lobby at like

420

To leave

To drive out to this mountain

How far away is it

It was like 25

Maybe 30 minutes of the drive

So it's a little bit of a hike

And

We get there it's pitch black dark

We park

There's a guy that drove us JT

And we got there

And

I couldn't be more unprepared right

I don't have lights I don't have

I don't have anything I don't have hiking shoes

Which is soon going to be my biggest

Problem of this whole hike

You know I packed only like

I packed like four pairs of Jordans

And I'm just picking the best ones that I'm like

Are going to be

The least intrusive to hike right

So they ended up being like some

For my sneaker heads out there

I was wearing Jordan one

Low cut Zion Voodoo

Okay

And the shoe strings

Don't even tie they're loose on my foot

Climbing up is one thing it's fine

Because you're constantly stepping up

And stepping up so

In my mind when we got there

I thought it was just going to be a dusty trail

All the way up to the top

You know like if you're

Walking somewhere on a man made

Path

It's just kind of like a dusty trail

There's no obstacles whatever

You just go up

Of course you're going to go to a high altitude

And you're going to be walking for a long time

That's what I envisioned in my head

But this was like

You're stepping up and lunging

On a stair master

With jagged rocks

For an hour and ten minutes

Way harder right off the rip

I mean there's a lot of times where I was pretty

Winded

My co-worker Aaron

He had a much tougher time

Which

To me I feel like results with him

He just has trouble getting oxygen

Like he uses a sleep apnea machine

And when we're just sitting there

In a room not moving

Not doing anything

He'll be at the computer next to me

During the day not moving

And I can just hear him breathe

He's just a loud breather

So in a scenario like that hike

He was cooked from the start

Because he just can't get oxygen

He's trying to

Get his breath and trying to keep going

And there's a point

We were like 30% of the way there

And

He was just like

Sweating

Couldn't keep his breath

And the looks were so deceiving

Because you see at the top of the mountain

And it looks so much closer

Than you're actually there

Because obviously you're zigzagging all the way up

But I keep telling Aaron at this point

I'm like dude it's right there

We're almost there

And he had a point where he asked John

He was like hey

How far along would you say we are

And John was like I don't know 30%

And you could just see

Like all hope

Just be removed

From his face

And this is where a good call back

From a motivational

Class we attended is going to come back

Into play

Because Aaron said all he could hear

Every time he wanted to quit

Was fishman in his class

Just saying

Do not quit

Don't be a bitch

Keep going, keep moving

Whenever you think you're done

You're not done

Again we went to that class two days prior

And Aaron told me

When we finally got up to the top

And we could finally talk

And obviously he could use his breath

To use that on other areas of exertion

He was like

Dude all I kept thinking about was fishman

Saying like just don't quit

Just keep going, just keep going

Just keep going

If he were to listen to this

Fishman

Just know that

That class

Impacted even that type of a moment

That had nothing to do with car audio

Which is what I think

Fish's goal was of just trying to

Motivate people

Because again you can use that story in any aspect of life

Just don't quit, just keep going

When you think you're good, you're not good

Just keep going, keep progressing

Never be

Never be happy with where you're at

Because there's always growth to be had

And we're climbing

We're climbing and

Finally we get Aaron 50% of the way

And then

We take a small break

And at this point we're on a race

With

Sunrise

As we hear it at this moment

There's a guy that does this

Climb every day

He's like a Japanese guy

And he brings a drum

He brings like a piccolo

He brings some other instruments up there

And he does like a tribute

To like a warrior

Who had passed away

He does the climb every morning

At sunrise

And he starts his whole tribute

At sunrise

So right when that sun comes over the crest

That you can see in far

Horizon Arizona

That's when he immediately

Starts his tribute playing these instruments

And doing this crazy

Tribal stuff which is

Really cool

We're a race

To see that happen

Like that's our goal

We're on track but like

Every time we're stopping

It's for Aaron and

We're just trying to push him

Like dude come on

Let's

We want to be respectful

We don't want him to have a heart attack

But at the same point

Like we're trying to push him

Dude let's move

We're now like 70% there

And it's to the point where

He has willpower

He wants to do it

It doesn't look like he's gonna die

He's leading all of us

He's in front

And my hand is just like in the middle of his back

The whole time

And I'm just pushing him

Just to give less effort for him

To like climb all these rocks

And

You could see he wanted it

You could see like he wasn't gonna quit

But like he definitely needed help

To keep moving forward

You know

And even said like dude

You're like

Your hand on my back helped so much

And it was funny because in the moment

We came up with like a

What I feel like is a great t-shirt

Where I was like

My hand was on his back

And I said it's not gay it's teamwork

Push harder

Because he felt my hand like on the nape

Of his back and it looked super gay

I was gonna ask if there was any

Bluetue involved with all this but

Yeah I'm like dude

It's not gay

It's teamwork push harder

Just keep pushing

Keep going

And

The first time I said that I'm like dude

That's such a t-shirt by the way

Yeah we push him all the way up

And finally

Get up to the top with maybe

Five minutes to spare

So we can kind of sit up there catch our breath

And dude it's super emotional when you get to the top

I don't think I was prepared for that

Like I got teary eyed

I know Aaron like

Definitely broke down because

His challenge was

Just of will and

What probably feels like

Your body letting you down but you pushed

All the way through knowing that you wanted to quit

40 minutes ago

Right so

We got up to the top

And at that point caught our breath

And watched this dude

Do this tribute

And the best way that I can describe this dude

Because like I zoomed in super far from my iPhone

And I saw the guy

And he definitely

Reminded me of

The grandpa from the movie three ninjas

That

Definitely predates you Gary

That's after you

But it's more my generation

So people are definitely going to resonate with that

Because you know what the grandpa looks like from three ninjas

And

It was like that dude

Doing all of this tribute stuff

Which again super cool

Because like

Our industry is audio driven

And this was like a cool live performance

Happening at the top of a mountain

And

Everyone's silent

Everyone is like

Respecting like nobody's talking

There's no small conversations happening

Everyone's just listening to this dude

And it's just super

Spiritual

Right like you could feel it in your

Core like it was so much more

Than just climbing

A mountain or being

In nature I mean it was a really

Cool moment that

You know after doing that once

Every year I will do that again

100%

Yeah I was going to say just listening to the

I'll pack the right shoes

But I would 100%

Do it every time

There's a second half to the story

That we'll get to in a second about the trip down

But yeah that's

Just hearing you guys' story it makes me

Like I know I struggle

With my weight and

Trying to you know be in shape and like

It's really my goal next year to do it

With you guys

There's nothing I would like more than

To get to the top of the hill with you

And then kick your ass three out of

Three and I connect four game at the top of that hill

That would be so sick

You just bring a backpack and then we

Play four at a line at the top

That would actually be a great

That would be a great pick for social media

Yeah

And I don't know if that's probably

Never been done at the top of that mountain before

I'm just going to say that

So like we could be trailblazers

We could be the

Freakin'

Paul Revere of

Connect Four

You think if we make a video of the whole track

Going up the hill and everything and then make

A YouTube video it will then become a thing

That people will make that track to

Play a game of four in the line

We could leave the game

You know what why don't we do this let's

Just leave it up there let's buy a game and we'll leave it there

And then we'll have a little scorecard where people

Can go up there and write you know

Yeah a little chalk or a little

Stone where they can etch it in the stone at the top

Love it love it

Hey how'd that trip down the hill

Go Matt

Well first I will say

You know before I get into this

For the people interested in doing this

Because again I just saw

The pictures online right

You know going up

I heard a lot of stories from John

And people who've done it before like

Just people throwing up on the way up

People quitting

Like it's

It's hard it's not easy

By any means

You do have to be

I would say

Somewhat in good shape

Right to do the track like

Aaron physically is in good shape

Like he's

You know he's muscular

But I think his problem is just

Getting oxygen and

How he breathes

Was the detriment for him but

You know I would

I know our industry and the health of our

Industry I think a lot of people in our industry

Probably couldn't do it

But I will say it's way more challenging

Than you think because it's

The best analogy I would give is like

A constant stair master

That

You're going further steps

Not just like small steps

Constantly

Like some of these are very large

Steps

On jagged rock

So again it's not just like

Here's all these perfect

Steps all the way up I mean it's like

It's awkward

And it's exhausting

Did it ever cross your mind to give up

On the trip up?

There were definitely moments when I wanted to take a break

When in my head I'm just like

I could definitely take

A tight two here just to get my breath

Back

A little two hour nap

A little two hour nap like you do in the middle of

MasterTech

Yeah and you don't want to be

The one to like stop the group

Especially when you're going up

To try and get there

By a certain time like you don't want to be the one

To hold the group back of like

Oh we missed the start

Of everything by

Three minutes because I wanted to take a break

So that's the part

That's going to be

That's going to be exhausting

But again like if you plan on doing it

Just buy

Good hiking shoes

Before you go like that's my biggest thing

Because going up is one thing

Coming down is a completely different thing

You know you can control your steps

Going up and your position going up

But going down obviously

You have the momentum of your downward

You know

Weight

That if your shoes

Aren't gripping on the rock

That you're walking on

Which again is

Every step you take

You're easily going to roll your ankle

Right and that's exactly

What the fuck I did

And I would say it was like

50% of the way down

I took one step

Completely lost my balance

Rolled my ankle so hard

Heard a just a loud pop

And

Fell on the ground

My ankle and foot went numb

And in that moment

I was like I just snapped my ankle

And I'm on

I'm like in the middle of a mountain right now

And this is

Of course this happened

And in my head I'm like

Dude I have a class to teach

In like an hour and a half

Yeah

I had to get down just on time

To get back to the event within 30 minutes

Of doing my class

And

In that moment

I fell to the ground

And I feel like all the people

With me knew it might be a problem

Because I tried to get up

Immediately

And then just sat right back down

Immediately

Which is never a good sign

And I was just like hey

Just give me a minute

I just want to get the feeling back

Like I've had high ankle sprains before

Hopefully that's what this is

And you know hopefully we can move on

Just give me a second

And you know I sat there for a minute

And then I started like

Just rolling my ankle around

And I didn't feel any super super sharp pain

Like I've broken bones before

And I'm just looking for that

Super excruciating pain

Which basically would tell me

Okay my ankle's broken

And I didn't feel the super sharp pain

Like it definitely hurt

Moving it around

But I didn't feel the super super sharp pain

I got up like a minute later

I could

Put weight on it

I could limp

Kind of walk

And in that moment with an ankle sprain

I'm just like well you got to keep your ankle moving

Or like this thing is going to lock up

If I just don't move it

I was able to walk the rest of the way down

We took the drive back

Immediately got to the room

Limped back to the room

Erin got me like an ice pack

And I just had ice on my ankle for

The 25 minutes before our class started

The radar and laser on Sunday

And

It was so hard

Like I had to put my shoe back on

And I was like oh my god that I

Can barely put my foot in a shoe

That hurt so bad

And finally got all the way

Down to our class

And

Did the entire class

And then by the end of class

Because I was sitting down

I wasn't standing obviously

I was like dude my ankle is so locked up

Right now

So just

Started moving it around

Got on the showroom and just

I was like well I just got to stay walking around

At this point because if I don't

I'm not like I'm going to have to get wheeled

To the airport

So I walked around the rest of the day

Spent all the time on the floor

And

You know even now

Like it hurts it's so swollen

I posted a picture of it in

Like my master tech

Expo recap picture which everyone's like

Dude you really post a picture of your feet on there

Like there's some

Pictures at the end of that and it's like

My one ankle is so swollen

Bruise at this point

Like it's black the other one's fine

But yeah

The moral of the story is like

Don't assume anything's

Going to be easy like that

It was hard

I'm definitely buying some hiking shoes

Bringing them with me next year

I'll pack one less pair of Jordans

And

Yeah we'll definitely do the hike again

And I can't wait to do it again honestly

It's probably going to be what I look forward to the most

Yeah and

And you push through and you got home

Or you got back and then you got

To do your class

And you got to

Still do stuff

We hobbled out for you to finally

Take a listen to the Prius

Late late on Sunday night

And you were

Yeah in that moment

My ankle hurts so bad

I remember that walk to your car

And my ankle hurts so fucking bad

It was awful

I don't think I had realized how bad

It was until I saw you limping

Getting out there and then I felt bad for dragging

You out there

No but it was good

Prius I would say

Remarkable

I mean it still sounded great

Last year but

Remarkable improvement from last year

But last year

I remember you had just gotten to the show

Just finished the build

And like you're tuning it on your way

To expo

And nothing even really

Like you didn't even really sit down and tune that much

At that point

Like it was so fresh but it still sounded great last year

Yeah and of course I made it difficult on myself

By swapping gear a couple weeks before

MasterTech and not really leaving enough time

To really get a solid

Tune on it but

I was happy with it

It's insane for

The product that's in it that

You know I'm super happy

I'll leave it at that

Yeah it's a very Gary Bell

Product

It means that you're efficient with what you're given

Like you

You have a good return for what you're given

Right

Because again we talk about this all the time

There's so many cars you'll listen to with super high

In gear

And it's just mediocre

At best

And you know

I feel like it's better when you're

Walled by something

Like you go into something with

Whatever expectation and you're just like

Holy shit this is very

Good

It's like the time you get duped when

You hear a car that's got a ton of bass

And the dude's like yeah it's

Two six and a half and you're like what

That's always way more impressive

Than have a wall of 12's

And it's got pretty good

Here's a great analogy for some people listening

Who may have done the same thing

If you like stand up comedy

It's like

Loving Theo Vaughn's podcast

And then going to see him

Actually do stand up and you're like wow

I'm very disappointed

Really?

You just go into it thinking

Wow this is going to be such a fun

Night

And you're like dude that was trash

Honestly that was terrible

You know who I had that experience with

Who I have seen and loved his performance

I've always just enjoyed his

Style is a Anthony

Juslenick

Like I've always loved his just like

He's leading you down a path and he switches it up

And we went and saw him one night and he

Literally got to the point where he was just done

With his show like just like

I ran through my new material and he basically said

Hey just shout out what jokes of mine

You want to hear and I'll tell him

And we're like what the

That is terrible

That was terrible

Yeah it could be one of the worst comedy shows

I've ever seen but

Yeah so we redid the Prius

And put the new altitude speakers in it

Which we're just super jazzed on

It's like super nice speaker for the money

Like $250

Retail set of three ways in the

Front of the car

And

Super impressive for what it is

More than for what it is

I gotta say I think it's more than

Super impressive for a $250 set of components

I think that it

It hangs with darn near anybody's junk

Regardless of the price

Yeah I would agree to that

For factory locations

That's a perfect demo

Perfect demo

Thank you

Especially for what you're doing

Again it's just

There's nobody that's going to go in that car

And listen to that

And their expectations aren't going to be

Blown away

For sure

Which is again the definition of a perfect demo

I had people's expectations

To always be blown

Oh yeah

I gave tons and tons of demos all weekend

One of my favorite ones was

Somebody had just gotten out of another car

And they're like

This sounds as good

If not better than the last car I listened to

And I will keep the manufacturer's name

Out of my mouth but it was basically

And they were showing me

The $3,500 speaker set

In the front of it

And I'm like well this

Comes in a little under that

Just a little

I will say for the awards that were given out

You know the best

Demo vehicle I could understand

Why

They won

In Orca's booth

It was Don's

Honda

Oh yeah

What I remember from that

Because I listened to it this past

Expo

Is they had a firework track

Which was really good

You hear the first

Explosion from the firework

And again this is all about just

Blowing away your expectations

So in your mind

Your understanding

This is going to be fireworks

Because you can understand

How the track is being presented

You're like we're going to listen to fireworks

And then I think

It was like

How translucent

And real and dynamic

The first firework explosion was

That you're just like holy shit

Like that

That's actually very impressive

Because a firework

Explosion

There's a lot of dynamics to that

And

For that to happen without

Especially in a car

And especially in like

An older car like a Honda

You know an old Honda

It's like a 90s cord wagon

Late 90s

You would just naturally expect

A lot of shit to go sideways

In that moment

That is a very like

If it doesn't do exactly what you want it to do

You definitely don't play that track

Right

But like the first fireworks explodes

And you're like

That sounded very accurate

If you're witnessing that fireworks

Explode in real life

The dynamics to that

The sound

Just the natural

Tones coming off that explosion

You're just like that is so impressive

Right?

I think that was like my takeaway from that demo

Did you get to hear it this year

Or you heard it the last time they brought it

Which I think was two years ago

I missed when

The keys weren't there when I got over there

To finally take a listen to it

So I'm a little bummed I didn't get to hear it

But that has always been

I've heard two different systems

Previous systems in that car

And both times it's one of the most impressive

Demos I've gotten

And just

I love the way Sage

Attacks a system design

And a demo car like that

And it is so

Aggressively loud

In addition to being able to

Be controlled and have a great sound

Stage and have great tonality

And then just have this over the top

Aggressiveness that it's going

To slam

I think this time it had like 12

Eights in it in the back

And the last time I heard it had like 8

Eights and there was one in the

Dashboard and I always teased Sage

That like he gave me the demo

And I said I can't hear the 8 that's in the

Dashboard and I always hit him with

But yeah one of my

Favorite demo cars so I have

Yeah I always like his stuff too

Because I feel like that's

From like a tuning perspective

I feel like that's

Who I'd probably relate to the most

Because everything that I do is very

Dynamic plays super loud

But still keeps it sound

Stages still tonal

All of those things intact with it

But it's also something that you

Can jam and enjoy

And have fun

But it still keeps the

Basic principles of

A good SQ system

Yeah

Were you comfortable with me demoing

The Prius past the point of resonance?

Yeah

Of course

I always tease you because I

Don't remember which podcast

I feel like I don't demo past

Resonance and I'm like come on

Shake some shit

Because I always

Gets my OCD going

For instance in my car specifically

Like if you go past

The point of resonance there's stuff

In my trunk

That I want to

Recreate while I'm back there

So I can figure out where that's coming from

And then control it

But I feel like I just go down

An unhealthy path

At that point

And I'm just trying to control everything

I'd rather not

I've definitely gone down an unhealthy path

In the Prius

We had the whole like the

Three days before we left for the show

The mattress

The mattress topper shoved in the dashboard

To damp resonances

A couple days before the show I took

And it's scary

I took the whole rear taillight

Panel out of the Prius

To try to get rid of a couple rattles

And it's like I do that with most cars

Actually like when I do radar and laser

And I'm doing a sound system at the same time

A lot of times I just automatically

Pull out the plastic taillights

And basically put foam

Around the taillights where it meets

The metal and then bolt everything back

Yeah this was kind of sketchy because I didn't know

How it came apart and it's the entire back

Panel of the car and I'm like

Well okay so let's say I break this

On Sunday

Can the dealer get me one by Tuesday

To be on the road Wednesday morning

If I screw something up and I'm like

Yeah let's go for it so

Couple educated guesses and we got it apart

And got it a little bit better

Also put

A escort radar detector

Tom Miller was

On super short notice

Made me a license plate

One of his cool license plate frames for the back

I figured he didn't have time and he was closer

So I begged him

Music car team came through

And got me a badass plate frame

For the Prius and

Did some quicky install

On a 360 CI

And super stoked

Thank you Brady

For helping me with that

It's good for the demo because you just see

That escort display right there

Right in front of you

While you're listening to the system

Brilliant it's right there

It's right in front of you

You can't not notice it

Job all done

It's the first thing I noticed when I sat in your car

Yeah Sunday night we went to dinner

Well we had the winners of the build off

Oh yeah

So that was super rad

I feel like it was a little different this year

Because generally it's what four teams

Yeah four teams and

They get a few hours

As opposed to having a few hours twice

So yeah I think the level

The execution

Really stepped up this year

I think it was

Really good I think the format is really good

Yeah and I like that they couldn't bring anything

Pre-made

Obviously they can pre-design

Right so they have all that stuff

And they probably have all their cut sheets

Ready and things like that

But nobody's coming with anything

Pre-engineered

Off the rip

Well engineered yes

Built no

Built no yeah

Engineered yes

But pre-built parts like in the past

Which I feel like they were such a great area before

Because it's like

Some people already have half the shit built

And put it together

But this year

Everything had to be made on the spot

More attention to detail

Obviously on the projects

It was I think easier to follow

Because like again there's only two teams

So it's less

Confusion happening where people are running

It was probably way easier to manage honestly

And I feel like

It came across more controlled

From the viewer in the audience

But there was some super gnarly stuff built

Yeah those were pretty

Pretty rad for two days

Not even a full two days

That's one day's worth of work

With a team of four dudes

So yeah

And little Chris from last year

The guy that just

Showed up to his first event

Sat down with everyone like he was in the build off

So that shows

And proves any

Green

FNG guy

Right

Coming in

Who's never done anything

You can attend your first master tech

Expo

And then the following year

When a build off with your team

It can happen

That is the success story

Of master tech expo

If I've ever seen one

What other awards we had

Andy Waymeyer

Got the lifetime achievement

Which so

So fitting

For him

As long

As I've been in this industry

And I know obviously he's

Done way more years than

When I've been in the industry

Just day one

Of me in this industry

Knowing him

Still doing the same stuff he does today

Just dedicates his whole

Being

Of teaching

Teaching procedures

To follow

For people that

Need guidance

And he's always there

To talk and chat

And argue

Becker whatever it is

At the end of the day you're going to learn

Within arguing and beckering

You're still going to learn things

And he's just been a constant

A constant

Educator in our industry

Since day one

Dedicates a lot of his

Time to making sure

That people are growing and learning

And I think that's huge

In fact I remember

The first year they gave that award

And they're about to announce it

Matt turned to me and he said

Do you think it's Andy Waymeyer

Yeah I was trying to think outside the box

And yeah I'm happy to see

That like him get that

Because again just like

At the end of the day there's so many people out there

That do so much for people

And

Get so

I don't want to say so little recognition

Because everyone always appreciates

Like you know if I'm using Andy as the example

Here like everyone knows

How much he puts in

But again there's there are

Plenty of people out there that I could think in my head

That have constantly

Put hours and

Countless hours

Into the industry without any kind of recognition

For sure I mean I could rattle

At least ten people

Who could be candidates for that right now

Off the top of my head

We'll see who

Who wins next year

So yeah glad he got his recognition

And then Dave

Cos got his recognition for fabricator

He's been one of those people

Just like every year

Vying for installer of the year

For the past

How many years

So again like at the end of the day

Like getting that recognition

And being

Appreciated by your peers

Goes a long way

He's been doing cool stuff for a long time

And it's really

Cool to see this next generation

Of guys come up

I feel like

I think we talked about this before

I feel like I'm a generation before you

You're a generation behind me

And then these guys are like another half generation

Or generation behind you

It's really cool to see this

Next wave and a lot of the guys that are

Stepping into presenting

And teaching and kind of passing it along

And it's just

It's good to see that

Hopefully we'll get to take a break soon

And these guys can take over

There's a lot of people you see there

That have stepped up and come a long way

And it was

Pierce and TJ getting in there this year

And teaching

The mobile toys boys

Phil and Kush

Getting in there and getting it done

Yeah and it was Aaron's first time teaching too

Yeah

Aaron's coming up in there

It was cool to see people

Take those steps

And get the confidence to teach

It's weird because

At the end of the day

There's so many people in the industry

Who are very educated

And skilled

And I think

It's always tough being a teacher

Especially for the first time

Because you're like am I worthy of teaching

To people who want to hear

What I have to say

Am I

At a level where I should be

Considered a teacher

You have that imposter syndrome

When you first start out

Because you're like do I deserve this

Do I deserve to teach

But at the end of the day

I feel like

The things Aaron does

The things Pierce do

Like they do a lot of things

That people would love to

Be able to do what they do

And know what they know

And I think it's tough

Because you have to disconnect

Kind of like that ideology

In your head of

Seeing yourself

Somebody

Growing in the industry and still growing

But like also

Understanding that you know enough

Random stuff to then teach

To the crop of people

Right?

And then there's a whole another skill set

On top of all of that

And it's being comfortable speaking in front of people

It's being able to hold a crowd's attention

Realize when you're losing people

And trying to bring them back in

When you need to identify

That you're losing them and getting boring

And you need to liven it up

And

We get the

We've worked a lot together in teaching

And doing those things

And so we love our kind of banter back and forth

And the way we do things

But it's also really cool and really interesting

To watch how other people do that

And handle a crowd

So I'd say for those of you that are out there

That are that next generation

It might be coming up

Just start taking notes about what you enjoy

About the presentations

And notice that there's

With the best presentations

I think there is

Equal thoughts into

How you present the information

And the actual information

Because

A lot of what we're teaching out there

You could find the information on a YouTube

Or Facebook groups

And that kind of stuff

But presenting it in a way that's easy to digest

And in a workflow that makes sense

And that you can put it all together

And actually walk out of there

Either inspired

Or actually have a game plan

Or the skills you need to move forward

And then take back in practice

Which I think is the biggest key there

When you go to any of these events

Is being a good student

And realizing, you know, we always say that

Major league baseball players get paid

Millions and millions of dollars

And they still show up to the park

Early every day and take batting practice

And field ground balls and field fly balls

And they are practicing, practicing, practicing

At a sport that they're at the

Very highest game

And so when you go to these classes

Take in as many of those nuggets

You can put as much of it

Together as you can

But continue your education

At home and keep practicing

And practicing and when you get stuck

Then you can go try to hunt down the answer

To the question that you have

Or the part that you're stuck at

But yeah, it's definitely a fun

Rewarding thing to pass the knowledge around

And hopefully that next generation

Is ready to come up behind this

So that I can go take a nap

In the middle of the day

I think one of the biggest things too

Which is also kind of difficult

For people who are those

First time presenters is

It's very easy to become complacent

In your

Workflow during the day

And, you know, all of the

Small progressions that we make

As a detailed shop

Every year

You kind of take what you know for granted

All of those little

Tricks and the little things that you've put together

That full year

To then become how you

Operate, right?

Like, a year and a half ago

We didn't do fusion

We didn't do 3D printing

We didn't do any of this

But like, now it's

Supplemental part of what we do

And

You just kind of become complacent

Becomes normal, right?

So for, there's still many people

Who've never done anything like that

So obviously

There's a lot of

Trials and tribulations

That we've fought along the way

Of failing 3D printing

Or failing drawing

Or problems that we've gotten into

That we can help somebody else out

By letting them know

All the ways we failed

So they don't fail, right?

So that's what all this is about

And

For anyone, again, doing these things

Is like, maybe think about

All of your failures

And all of the times when you spent

Trying to overcome something

That you didn't know how to do

And that creates value

Of how can you save

Somebody else from running into

All your mistakes, which goes back

To the Fishman class

That we kind of started off this podcast with

Is like, that's what his class was about

It wasn't about how to build

Something cool or what to do

It was like

How to accept failure

Because it's gonna happen

How to progress and how to push forward

And how to not give up

And that's what all of this

Is about at the end of the day

You know, all of these classes

Are trying to prevent you

From

Failing

And more time on executing

Because

All of us who are teaching you

Were professional

Failures, right?

We failed so many times

That we're preventing you from failing

In the same aspect

And one of my favorite quotes ever

You know, I think this is on

My Facebook is like, my quote

Is the master has failed

At everything the beginner has never tried

Right

You know, I'll say that again

The master has failed at everything

The beginners never tried

So what that says is

For you to become an expert

You have to fail

You have to fail a lot

And anyone who's ever done anything

With their lives

Or holds a high title

Or a high position

They have failed more than probably

Everyone around them, right?

Yeah, 100%

That's what this expo is all about

It's

Yeah, it's preventing people from failure

By hearing the

Failures of people

That have failed

I think that's what makes a huge difference

In people's success

Is that the most successful people

I know

Are not afraid of failing

They realize it's going to happen

And they know that they

They're confident in their ability

To find a solution

In a way to make it work

After they fail

And that's part of

What these skills are

Is learning

A new way, a new approach

A new thing to try

When you do fail

And as much as it may look

Like on Instagram

Or all these places that everybody's

Killing it on every single job

I guarantee you, for every picture you see

That looks amazing, there's six things

That are fucked up behind the scenes

Or something that happened on that path

That they had to redo to get there

You know my motto, Matt

Custom never works on the first drive

It does, it's just not that custom

You didn't push yourself very hard

Especially when you push

And you push to do big things

Big areas, by the way

But when you push and you push hard

Like you're going to run into

Boundaries and failures

That's growth

There's no growth

Or there's no progress

Or no work being done

If there's not heat or friction

Or something fighting you

If you're just coasting along

You're not growing

Whether it's burning muscle

Or learning stuff

Doesn't really matter

I also think that that's

A big difference between

In the master text scenario

We're kind of speaking to large groups

And a little less hands on

I think that's one of the huge benefits

To the in-person mobile solutions classes

Is that

We're building stuff and we're building it

Shoulder to shoulder, and when something

Goes wrong, we, hey look

Look what happened, this is screwed up

This happens sometimes

And then here's how we go

Right around it, we're not worried about it

We're just going to fix this and we're going to move on

And sometimes you don't see those things

It's like playing, did we just connect four

Did we just form a line metaphor this

Sometimes you don't see it coming

And something happens

And you're like, oh crap

Okay, let me deal with this

And sometimes that somebody's got three

And they're about to drop the four

And sometimes that's you know

Something didn't stick, something didn't bond

Something cracked

Something didn't look the way you thought it was going to be

The paint didn't dry right

Paint wrinkled, like it could be

A bazillion things, and

You know, you just kind of work through it

Then you work through it and then all of a sudden

You're dropping that last chip in there

And you see it, you're like, oh my god it's coming

It's coming, I'm going to win, louses

And then you're just like boom

Four in a line

And then the other person's like

Oh, are you kidding

Or even worse, they're like no

I actually had dropped four on the last one

I just didn't say anything because that happened a few times too

See how long you keep playing while

You already won five turns ago

And they don't even realize

Thanks McNulty for pointing out all our

All our failures

That four in a line is a great metaphor

To what we deal with

I mean it's

You can argue it's the same concept

Try to set yourself up for success

And try your best

But it's not always going to happen for you

Yeah

Sometimes you'll get smoked

But I think that concludes

The whole training

Right, because we flew out

Monday morning, which somehow

Our flight wasn't canceled, it wasn't delayed

You were lucky

You know, for the people there

At that time

Yeah, so they said we were having some massive

East Coast storm

It's one of those one in every ten year storms

We're supposed to get

100 mile an hour winds, crazy rain

And

The storm cell

Was as high as like

Massachusetts and down to like

Florida

The whole east coast

And everyone was like well

Your stuff's going to get canceled, they're already canceling stuff

And I think everything got canceled in Florida

But somehow

Our stuff didn't get canceled

We flew in

We got in the car

There wasn't a bad storm

Like we were able to drive home fine

And

It was just a all hubbub

It was all

Typical weather talk where it's either

Going to be the end of days

Or nothing at all

It all worked out

Yeah, so we got home and we're back

To work now and you know

We'll probably have a podcast

After this episode

Of like a

Shop recap

Work recap in your case

Because you're not in the shop anymore

But yeah, we'll have a

New product offerings

Yeah

We'll do some catch up

And then we'll start talking about

What we're going to do

On some upcoming episodes

Maybe

Tease some potential guests

We'll dangle some things out there

Cool

Excited to be back to it

We need to get back in the flow

It's been too long

We had to dust off our sets

Literally

We had to blow the dust off

Computers needed updates

Had to retune all our setups

We started this podcast about an hour late

Because all of our stuff needed to be updated

Up here now, we're done

And Master Tech Expo

2026

Is in the books

0:00

110:42

Episode 49 - MasterTech EXPO 2026 Recap

Bluetooth

Master Tech

amps

speakers

road noise

demo tracks

Toyota adaptive cruise control

30 foot screen

backup camera

VHS or Beta

laser machine

2D CAD

fiberglass

3D printing

sub box

3D CAD

demo car

CNC

Alpine

build boxes

car audio

Fishman and the Yado build

wow factor

enclosure

RGB

Arduinos

Honda

SQ system

installer of the year

accept failure

About this episode

Original notes