Restoring Goldberg’s BMX bike. SEMA show prep for exhibitors.

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I'm Matt, the moderator, D'Andre here with Bill Goldberg, and our friend Brad Fanshawe,

my co-host from Shift and Steer.

He's on the show today because we've got a very, very important two-wheel topic today.

Goldberg's BMX bikes and Brad's got some history in BMX.

We want to get into that as well.

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So we touched last week about Bill's BMX bike, but not just any BMX bike.

It's the very first bike you ever had.

And we're talking about it.

It's such an influence over all of us, the bikes that we had back in the day.

And Brad went on to have sort of a professional career, if you will, in BMX.

But Bill, tell us quickly about your bike and how that came to be, and then we'll get

into Brad's story.

Well, we always look back on our childhood, and it'd be nice to have something tangible

to help in kickstarting the memories that we had.

And I had absolutely nothing.

I mean, you got a couple of trinkets as babies that you keep throughout the years.

But I don't really have anything.

I don't have my first car.

I don't have anything tangible.

And then six years ago, I get a phone call from one of my brother's best friends who

still lives in my hometown.

And ironically, somehow, when we escaped Oklahoma back in the day, he ended up with

my frickin BMX bike.

And I had no recollection of what I had done with it.

Fast forward to him.

He reached out.

He sent it to me.

And yeah, you got it.

This is my childhood.

There it is.

Right.

So it's kind of like, you know, to me, it's an unbelievable trinket that stirs many a

memory, you know, to me when I was a kid.

And quite obviously, as we discussed, you know, for a short period of time, this was

the first, I want to say vehicle.

This is the first thing that I was able to grab and call my own, be able to customize

it, be able to put my own, you know, swing it on it.

And it's really frickin cool.

And when I'm sitting here trying to delve into the automotive world and restoring

cars and updating everything that I've got, I got this thing in my hands.

And the first thing that I thought about, hey, man, I got to restore this thing,

right, just like a car.

But when you're going through that restoration process, if you do not know

what to restore and what not to restore because of value and because of this and

that, I'm like shooting blanks, right?

So first and foremost, I'd love to completely blow the thing apart because it

won't take but like 20 minutes.

I'd love to blast everything and make it all look new.

But the reality is when you do that with a car, you devalue it, you know, there's

so many things to take into consideration.

So I wanted to reach out to you, Brad, because of your quite obvious background

in the BMX and I'm ready to blow this thing apart.

I'm ready to make it, you know, what it needs to be made.

Although with your asking your opinion, do I just leave it the way it is, right?

And so hence you being on the show today.

There we go.

Brad, tell us about your BMX.

My background?

Yeah, your background there.

And then we'll get into Bill's bike too.

Well, I was living in San Diego during the real, the uprising of BMX, the very first part.

I mean, I raced all the great historic tracks like Rancho San Diego.

I raced side hacks with Scott Brihop, who is the godfather of BMX.

The guy who started the first organized races.

And I raced with guys like Eddie King and all kinds of people that are now the heroes,

the Stu Thompson's and the Jeff Botimas, and they're all buddies of mine.

And then one day my dad came home and he said, hey, we're moving to Omaha, Nebraska.

And I went, what?

I went from surfing and skateboarding and racing BMX.

The pick and core.

We're moving to Nebraska in February, man.

Yeah.

So I didn't let that deter me.

My dad was great.

Him and a buddy of mine, Tim Lulethorpe's dad, helped us start the first BMX track in the Midwest.

And I went on to race Pro BMX for a number of years and then took my career into the business side

and ended up being the vice president.

I started out as a magazine editor and then went on to be the vice president of operations

for the American Bicycle Association.

And in later years, I consulted them on getting BMX into the Olympics.

And so I've kept with it.

Right now, I sit on the horizontal photo.

Look at this young buck.

And Bill, you will see that kindred spirits.

That's a mongoose.

Hell yeah.

Yeah, I got red line forks.

And I even got blue or a rail rims on it.

You know, I mean, like yours has blue rims.

Yeah.

Really, really close.

But that's what's so cool about the BMX bikes.

See, you went with mongoose forks.

I went with red line forks.

I had one piece cranks and a quick change sprocket.

You went with three piece cranks, aluminum cranks.

And that was the whole customizing of what you could do,

what you could afford, what you wanted, and the colors you wanted.

And nowadays, getting into the restoration part of things,

we all go with cars that we wanted when we grew up or had when we grew up.

BMX bikes are no different than that.

And I sit on the board of directors for the Nebraska BMX Hall of Fame,

which I'm proud to say I'm an inducted member in.

But we have teamed up with the museum in Nebraska,

which is a huge automotive museum, the American Museum of Speed.

And any car guy needs to go to the American Museum of Speed.

It's 250,000 square feet of awe.

And they put in a 2,000 square foot BMX section.

It got so much response.

It is now 8,000 square feet, and they're going to expand it again.

And my buddy, Steve Strope, who's a car builder that I've known forever.

Do we know Steve?

Yeah. Steve is a huge BMX guy, and we talk about it all the time.

And we all got together and got some of bikes, some of my bikes in there,

some of Steve's bikes in there, and a bunch of our buddies in there.

So if you're into BMX, you can go there and see just about every kind of BMX bike there.

So that's kind of my in a nutshell.

And ironically, in Tulsa, they have a BMX museum, and they asked to put my bike in there.

Do I put it in there, or do I restore it, and keep here so that I can still touch my

childhood in a way, shape, or form?

So I got all these questions, and again, it's exactly like prepping to restore a car.

I think one of the, Brad, you can shed some light on this.

I think one of the issues is, unlike the automotive space, there's not a lot of restoration parts.

There's nothing being remanufactured for the most part.

So you have to find new old stock or restore the existing parts, right?

Is that kind of?

Yeah, we're seeing more and more, you know, pro nicks coming back with a legacy series

and things like that.

But what I think with Bill's bike, seeing the photos, you know, it's pretty rusty,

it's pretty corroded, and it's not like taking it, you know, taking a car to a concor where you

want it that barn find, you know?

And I think for you especially, you want to remember it how it was.

That's an early Mongoose frame.

We can tell by the way it has the brake tab down on the bottom for a coaster brake,

which was the pre-freewheel setup.

Got it.

And so you want to, you know, maintain that, you know, because it's an early bike.

But in your case, that thing, I would get it stripped and refinished, you know, new chrome.

Now, what's great is there is a company that makes all reproduction stickers for that bike

still.

So you can get all the reproduction stickers.

You can get those forks re-chromed, have it all redone.

Those rims could be re-trued.

And now it's a little hard for me to tell Bill.

Are those aluminum anodized or are those the steel with paint?

They're aluminum anodized.

So those I would, the same thing.

You can have those straightened out.

You can have them re-anodized and do the hubs.

So everything looks brand new.

And that is, you know, at this point for you, that's a piece of wall art that, like you said,

brings back those days.

And if you can dig out a photo, I have my very first Schwinn with MotoMag on the front,

and a 120 gauge on the back.

And I restored that.

And I've got it hanging on a wall with a photo of me racing it.

And that's, if you got a photo of you sitting on it, you know, it's like, it's so cool to have that.

And what you may want to do is, you know, the USA BMX Museum in Tulsa, as you said,

it is the National Museum.

And that's where they do the National Hall of Fame every year and things like that.

Really reputable.

They're the ones I used to work for years and years ago.

It used to be called ABA BMX.

Now it's USA BMX.

That would be a great place to put it on temporary loan.

You know, let other people share in the Bill Goldberg-ness.

And then you could get it back and have it, you know, in your collection so you could enjoy it.

But that is an easy restore.

It really is.

It's, you called it.

You can blow it apart easy.

Some of the, I mean, one of the things that STEM that Matt has us looking at right there,

I would not touch that.

I would go, that's what I, that's the first thing that I found out, you know,

when I reached out information-wise is definitely don't touch that.

Because it's got the original sticker still on it, which that one you can't get in repo.

And, you know, it's so cool.

Those are very hard to find like that.

So, you know, but everything else, what kind of grips does that have on it, Bill?

Are those old, I can't see what this logo is here.

They look like maybe ory grips or something like that.

But it looks like a mushroom on the end of it.

It says swoosh.

Not familiar with that.

But what's so cool about it is they look like they're in pretty good shape.

So, if you can save them and-

That's what I was thinking too.

Put them back on.

Yeah, I'd say these.

Now, Brad, my question first and foremost are the brakes.

Right.

So, is that some-

Diacomp brakes on there, which are error-correct.

Is that some store or do I replace them?

Well, I would restore them because Diacomps are, you know, they're the right brakes for the era.

And they are really, I mean, I'll be honest with you, I would just clean those up,

put new cables on them, because they look like-

Needs a brake pad, needs pads in front.

I've got the pads.

The pads and just, you know, cleaning them up with new cables and stuff like that,

because they look really good.

And those are kind of difficult.

They're not just anodized.

They were like a, almost like a clear powder coat with a tint to it type of a deal.

And you don't want to over restore things just like a car, you know.

So, you don't want to use any sort of like metal, polish, or chemical on that.

You just start with just the soap or water and let it retain its patina.

Yes, on that part.

I would say the same thing.

If you redo the frame, the forks and stuff, and like if you keep the neck, you clean it up,

you might be able to clean this up without damaging the sticker.

But if you can get the grips off, soap and water, right, let them sit.

And then if you can get the grips back on, it brings some of that patina back into it.

And I'm kind of on the fence.

I kind of like the little bit worn seat, the saddle.

Like I would take that off, clean it and put it back on like a little bit.

Oh, I'm a hundred percent.

A hundred percent.

That's an arrow seat.

That's a pretty rare seat.

So, I would stick with that definitely.

That and I'll be perfectly honest with you.

And, you know, it's a family show, but the one thing that I remember about them,

I'm just, you know where I'm going.

It's a nutbuster.

I took that over a fucking creek.

Pardon my French.

And the when I landed, I was, I looked like Superman.

The only thing between myself and that bike was my unit.

And that I remember.

I mean, I don't remember any other instances of me taking it out and having fun with my

with my buddies because there wasn't anything memorable except that.

So things I remember were that my knees on the stem and my shins when the pedal came around.

A hundred percent.

Yeah.

But so restoring things like the hubs and the neck and stuff.

Now, this isn't really a bike that's going to be ridden.

It's a show bike at this point.

But when you get into there, if any of the bearings can the bearings be replaced?

Does the neck wobble?

So if you take it apart, there are bearings you can put into those existing hubs.

You'd have to just kind of size them out and find some sources for it.

In fact, I have a guy up in Nebraska that he actually does.

We do a podcast called the Super Rad BMX podcast.

And and Tim is known for restoring bikes and he does.

He sits on the board with me for the Nebraska BMX Hall of Fame.

But he's really good at wheels.

So like he's a guy that you could literally take the wheels off, send them to him.

He could source some some, you know, tires that are the right era.

He could redo the rims, reach through them, take them apart, put them back together.

And, you know, the hubs may only need to be rebuilt.

They don't, you know, the wear is not as much like is the rim because of the brakes.

I really think that bike is clean it up, restore it as far as the chrome on the forks

and the and the frame.

But the rest of it looks like it's, it's clean it up and put it back together

with some good bearings and true in the wheels and stuff.

Maybe anodize the hoop so that they look new, put some tires on it.

And other than that, there's no reason to go trying to over restore it.

It's just like a car.

You want to make it look like it, it maybe just came off the racetrack after one or two races.

Yeah.

The last thing I want to do is make it look brand new by any stretch.

You know, because then it would take away, you know, my memory of it.

Yeah.

Except from the first day that I bought it because I destroyed this bike.

But sounds like it destroyed you.

Unfortunately, I had a kid who did that much damage, but Brad, I can't thank you enough, man.

It's one of those things where if you've never done it, you don't know where to start.

You kind of think you know where to start because, you know, I'm a car guy.

But, you know, hey, this, this gives me an agenda.

And so it'll be a part this afternoon.

So, but, but you have, because you have the space there and you know that,

so you've gone down this road on some of your cars, that replacement parts aren't really

much of an option if you have to.

Yes.

So when you take that car, when you take that bike apart, like it's got to be laid out.

It's got to be labeled and sort of organized.

And it's going to be a little bit fragile, you know, like when you're taking things

like the seat off.

And I think there's some ways to, to get those grips off.

Obviously getting them back on is easier than getting them off because it's probably

going to sit there for a while.

I mean, if you salvage the grips, that'd be great.

If you.

Oh, I will.

A good air gun underneath those will blow them up like a balloon a little bit,

get some air under them and get them off.

That's probably what I, where I would start is the air compressor, but with the, with the thin

wand on it and just, just, just start hitting it around, peeking around the edges and just

starting to break it loose with some air.

And then.

Let's open water prior to that, wouldn't you?

Yeah, if you can, you know, sometimes they're stuck after all these years.

So you want to kind of get something that's not going to rip them, you know, before you

start doing that.

So the air is sometimes safe that way.

But yeah, and anything, you know, you can resource me, reach out to me with any questions.

Or like I said, if you want somebody that can restore any of these individual parts or

something like that, I can, I can put you in the right direction there.

I'm definitely going to hand the wheels over.

Other than that, I think it's, I think it's easily attainable.

Yeah, I think when you get the frame and the forks down to their bare pieces,

you know, check with like Clint at CGC, you know, because I'm sure he knows a lot about

blasting it and the right pressure and material or dipping it.

And then maybe even getting the chrome done or where you get that done.

You know, thousand percent.

He's my go to with all of it.

He does all the coatings.

He does all the, you know, the Saracote coatings,

chromes, anodized, all that stuff.

He does it on the cars.

He does it on weapons.

He does it all, you know, so he's, he's going to be the guy to go for.

And if there's any cracks or anything in the frame, right?

Like, because you're not going to ride it, you might be able to just leave it or repair it.

And, and he may be able to just hit like a little bit of weld if it needs it, right?

And, you know, so I think he's your, your guy for sure.

And I know he comes by and hangs out with Roger and hits the gym with you guys and stuff as well.

So he's going to be there.

So when he comes by, we're like, Hey, here's the next project, Clint.

Check it out. Have you done a bike?

I already put him on it, believe he's fishing for the next two days.

And so by the time he gets back, like I said, it'll all be laid out, labeled,

photographed and ready to run.

Yeah. And Bill, I, I just bought a, an Arab Mungoose frame so I could replicate

my bike from back then.

So when I get that done, we'll have to have a match race.

Oh yeah. I'll get it.

I'll have Wanda jump on the bike.

I'll get on that little thing.

It'll kill me, man, but thank you again, Brad.

No problem, man.

It's awesome. You got another project, right?

So before we take a break and let you guys go,

the, the Porsche that you sold on, bring a trailer.

The, I spoke to the, to the buyer and he, Patrick, he was a really nice guy.

And I know he wanted to come out and visit and grab the car.

Uh, he came out. How'd it go?

Well, he said he would have gone to 300 on it.

So it kind of pissed me off.

But how do we know that?

We kind of had a positive experience.

I'll tell you what, you never know what you're going to get when you have somebody out there

that purchases a vehicle from you.

And in, in doing my due diligence, going back and forth, thanks to you,

turned out to be a wonderful experience, man.

He and his wife stopped by and we threw in, you know, a trip to Goldberg's garage.

And so we gave him a little tour.

Now I'll be perfectly honest, compared to his 150 cars,

I don't know how impressed a human being can be by seeing a garage,

you know, that's got 35 cars in it, but he had a great time.

His wife obviously went over to the barn with Wanda and, you know,

took some photos over there, but he was, he was enthralled with the car.

And I got to say, he was so appreciative of the cleanliness of this vehicle.

And it made me feel good because I literally spent 100 hours under this damn thing for two months.

And at the end of the day, when you hand something off,

especially a high ticket item like that, it's got your name on it and your reputation.

And it's a small world in the car world.

And, you know, bad shit can be thrown around quickly.

But the fact is, is that I have a lot of pride in something that's got my name on it.

So I wanted it to be in the best condition humanly possible.

And the one thing that I, I mean, I learned to shitload through that auction about these porches,

right? Yeah.

But the one thing that I really learned that was the biggest saving grace to me

is that I thought I was going to have to drop that transmission

because of the chattering in it.

But it's just the way these cars are.

And that was the first thing that I disclosed to Patrick when he came here.

And he just started laughing and he's like, that's, that's what they do.

And I'm like, oh, God, thank God that, you know, I didn't have to pull the,

I was prepared to buy a new transmission for him.

I mean, I was, but, you know, I showed him the two blemishes on the paint.

He doesn't care.

He wants to drive that thing.

This dude's got eight, nine thirties, right?

So I mean, this is a car that comparatively,

even though that was its predecessor, I mean, I mean, it's a refined version.

But to me, I mean, I'd love to have a nine 30 instead.

So he wants, he bought this car to drive and he was ecstatic at its condition.

I mean, the thing, truly, you don't want to oversell when you're doing,

bring a trailer or anything else.

But I under, undersold the car as far as descriptions concerned,

because truly, as he said, this car, this car is almost perfect.

Now it does have its, you know, little blemishes, but comparatively,

you know, to what's out there, this, this car was top notch.

And it was nice to see that he felt that same way because he's an expert.

This guy's got more Porsches and, you know, and Carter's got pills.

So I was very appreciative of what I was able to do.

And again, on the podcast, I got to exclaim that I could not have done that without you.

I really appreciate that.

Yeah, and it was fun to do.

So I'm happy to, happy to do it.

It was a great looking car.

Yeah.

What a good looking car.

So it's, it's funny that you've got a little bit of tears.

I funny you mentioned some of those cars and Brad and I were talking about

Ferraris and stuff on the shift in steer with, with Aaron Hagar.

I just got together with a friend of mine that

he was up in the Palisades and during the fires and lost his house and lost some of his cars.

And so he moved closer to me temporarily.

He's got a little house down in this area.

And he's been slowly trying to get some of his other cars.

He had the ones at his house he lost, but he had a big car collection.

So years ago, I sold a number of his cars so he can buy a house, right?

And then he goes, once that's done, I'm going to try to get them back.

So one of them was a Pantera GTS, which he fully restored.

He had to sell.

He loved it.

And then he just bought it back from the guy we sold it to.

And which is good.

But two things he bought recently that he was very, very excited about,

that he showed me is he bought a Porsche 930 and he bought a Ferrari 512.

But the era that Sammy Hagar's car is, right?

He's got the red one.

You know, Sammy's got the black one.

He bought because we were just talking about it.

Brad going like, I love that body style.

The boxer 12 cylinder, like that's that's a cool car.

So he's got, yeah, he's got those.

He got his Pantera back and and then the other one is his Viper.

He's got he had a Gen 1 Viper, which is like the hand built ones, right?

And they're just so crazy nuts, like a little fragile.

But just just talk about analog cars, like all the cars he's got,

his Ferrari, his 930, his Viper.

He's like, he's like, I've had McLaren's.

I've had modern day Porsches.

He's like, there's something about those very analog cars that he really,

really likes.

So I'm glad he's just trying to get those back.

Well, I took Patrick, as I said, I took Patrick to my buddy Martin Peaks collection

down the street.

Okay.

I told you about the BMWs he had.

Yeah.

He had a black tan interior Dino, which is still one of the most beautiful cars in the world.

Yes.

That car is way too small for you.

Oh my God, is that car small?

It's smaller than the Cobra, for God's sake.

But I mean, it was just it was a really neat experience.

Just, you know, there's another car guy in the fold.

That's a cool car.

And actually a Dino black with tan is a little more rare than you would think.

You know, I think, so David Lee, he's the Ferrari collector that just spent the 38 million dollars

on that 250 GTO.

I think if I remember correctly, he has like a Resto Mod Dino with like a more modern Ferrari

engine in it.

And it was at Pebble years ago.

That one's black.

And it's kind of like going, hey, I'm going to do a Dino, but it needs to have like an F40

engine or something in it, you know, and he did one of those things or like a 288 GTO engine.

Like he did something that was just a little bit more modern in terms of I forgot what it was.

I'd have to look that up because I don't want to, you know, sort of misrepresent his story.

But I remember seeing it there, hearing about the car and seeing it.

And as Adam and I were walking around with our friend, Ali, she's done a bunch of TV stuff with

us. She was on, she co-hosted some of the stuff like going racing with Adam Corolla,

she did with me and Adam.

And she was out there with us for a little bit.

And Adam said, he goes, so, Ali, what car on the lawn of Pebble Beach caught your attention?

And then she goes, that black Ferrari Dino right over there.

And he's like, good eye, good eye. I like where your head's at. Yeah.

We can talk about Ferraris and Pebble Beach and all that stuff. Oh, we want.

And I can talk about Martin's collection, all I want.

But American Muscle, still to me, if there was one car, he had an M1, he's got a 2000 mile

Kuntas, he's got a Testerosa with 5000, the one car that I could pick out of his entire place.

It's a 69 Baldwin motion Chevelle. Oh, yeah, you're speaking Brad's language.

Now you're talking my language, man.

So listen to this. It's the only Chevelle, 69 Chevelle Baldwin motion with the original 396,

because they did not want the 427 motor. They wanted the 396 built up to its specs.

So it's a one-on-one, man. And this car, unless you know cars, unless you know Baldwin motion and

are of the, you know, of the information era that we are, you have no clue as to what you're looking at.

You know, I've got a Baldwin motion car myself.

I passed on a 72-vet phase three.

I've got the only one that's left. It's actually not a Baldwin motion because they were motion,

but it's a motion super Vega that I got from Reggie Jackson's collection.

It's a Vega. It's cool.

And it's got the LT1 with the Narrow 12 Bolt and everything just, and it's got the chambered exhaust.

It is dead nut stock. Nothing has changed on it.

That's so cool. The first car, when I walked into Martin's place yesterday,

they caught my eye was a freaking V8 Gremlin. You ever seen one of those?

It came to the V8 and I think it was an R1 or some Gremlin X or something.

Gremlin X. That's what it was. It was black with white stripes that I'm like,

what in the hell do you have a Gremlin in here for? Game with a V8. That's why I got it.

So that was the freakiest car I saw.

Yeah. But that's a good collection because you mentioned BMW M1. That's a cool car.

I mean, in race trim, obviously, it's very, very cool, right? With the big flares and everything

on it. And those were some of the art cars, the BMW M1 art cars, which were very cool.

The BMW art car, one of those cars, that's the big white whale that got away from Adam.

Like he bid on it at auction and the auctioneers, like ahead of time, the specialists were like,

nobody really wants these art cars. I think it's worth whatever. It's like a couple

hundred grand or something like that. And Adam went and he actually didn't get a friend of his

went and bid on it and maybe he was there. And then whatever, he was like, now it's blown past

what the guy told me, what the auction specialist told me. He's like, so now what am I? I'm just

crazy overpaying it. Fast forward to today and it's worth eight times as much money.

So that was one of the ones that that that got away. But they're there.

Yeah, yeah, they're super. They're super. Yeah, listen, McLaren F1 was not even getting that story.

Talking about a one that got away. But you know, I think if Adam didn't have that experience with

losing out on that auction for the M1, we wouldn't have been as aggressive. Brad was with me when

we bought the 935, the Paul Newman 935. Adam was there on the other side of the room. But Brad and

I went and he was with him when we bid on it. And he was nervous spending his money. Yeah.

And like we had this long conversation going, well, you know, what's the price? Where should it be?

Where's the top of the, you know, what the range and, you know, feeling comfortable with it and,

you know, and Adam at the time was just like, you're going to bid on it. You go and do it.

It was like, this is the range I think I need to be in. But, you know, you're going to have to

just play it by ear and just feel it out and just do it yourself. Like if you think it's going

really fast and it's blown past that number, maybe get out of that auction. But if you feel like

it's going to go by the way, it gets your money. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, when you're bidding

on a car at that price range, you can get the guy, you can get the auctioneer, the specialist to

stand next to you and go, you know, nudge you a little bit going, this is going to go quickly,

you know, so you might want to jump in, you know, like, because it's not every day you're bidding,

you know, three, four, five million dollars on a car, at least not for us, you know, for us. So

that experience was something else. I, as much fun as it was, I'm okay with not doing that again.

Yeah. The experience we just had on bring a trailer was a little more calming because,

you know, that clock resets every two minutes. There's no like beating the clock and, you know,

and the auctioneer like trying to hammer that thing and just going, wait a minute, you missed me,

you know, I needed another, like, it's fun, but. And the whole room when we were bidding on that,

remember standing there? We're standing over to the side and it was like every bid, every head in

the place turns towards you and looks at you, like, okay, you get a bid again, you know, it was just

the strangest experience. Right behind us was the phone bank and there was a phone bidder going up

against us. So the auctioneer kept looking our direction and we were like, is it us, is it him,

is it us, is it him? It's like, it's a little weird. Anyway, glad we got the car, but yes,

different experience completely, different experience completely.

Hey, after what it just happened, I'm sold on bring a trailer. Yeah, true.

Yeah. I think that's, I think that's good. We had a good, we had a good experience there and I think

we're going to have some more fun stuff coming up on bring a trailer soon as well. So, all right,

so we're going to take a quick break and then I'm going to jump into an interview that with,

with my friend Tom Catooso at SEMA. He's going to talk a little bit about

exhibitors at SEMA and if you want to be an exhibitor, what you need to do because there is

a deadline coming up and what to sort of look forward to at SEMA this year. So guys, thanks so

much for, for joining us and we're just going to take a quick break and I'll be right back with

Tom Catooso. Thank you, Brad. Hey, thank you guys. It was fun.

Quick reminder, if you're betting games this week, do it on FanDuel. Super easy, great props and it

makes watching the games way more fun. Download the FanDuel app and place your first bet today.

Tom Catooso from SEMA, good to see you again. I don't know that we had to on the show last year.

We were trying to make an annual thing out of it, but somebody else came on. I think you got

bumped. Somebody at SEMA was like, let's, let's, let's mix it up a bit, but it's good to see you.

How are you? Now it's good to see you too, Matt. No, I'm doing good. Shows in our 59th year and

we're plugging right along, right on schedule. You know, we, we do talk to quite a few people at

SEMA. We've toured SEMA garage. We talked about some of the things that are going on just outside

of SEMA or just sort of all the other programs at SEMA and now PRI. But just to remind people,

give them a little background about what your role is at SEMA. So SEMA for people that may not know

is a trade association that, that represents the aftermarket automotive products and services industry.

And it's, it's pretty big from a sales standpoint at about $52 billion. But from an economic

standpoint, we represent $337 billion in the US economy with 1.3 million jobs there. So,

so as an association, that's, that's sort of our, our big push is to who we're representing and what

it means to the US economy and to the automotive industry in general. I'm lucky where my job is

pretty simple. We do an event that the industry comes to once a year and it's an opportunity for

everybody to connect and share ideas and really push innovation forward. So I'm lucky to be in

my seat where the SEMA show is, is the largest trade show for the automotive industry in the country.

But also one of the top 10 trade shows, just trade shows in general from a nationwide standpoint.

So we're lucky that we have such a passionate industry and we're able to reflect that in what

we do in November. And your, your job is mostly on the event side. Like there's all these programs

and incentives to being a member, discounts on shipping and insurance and help with scanning

parts and getting information. But you're more on the event side because you've been on the show in

the past as, as, as you guys were launching SEMA Fest. And that was a big undertaking that kind

of fell on your shoulders. They were like, here's SEMA Fest. It's a great idea. Good luck, Tom. Like

playing it. Yeah. So it was, it was a long process to get there. And really we had noticed

some changes in the marketplace. But yeah, from, from my seat, I've got more than 30 years of

experience producing events. And I've done everything from creating events in small cities to

you know, being able to help foster and grow the SEMA show. So, you know, really lucky in my career

to be able to do this. But I am by all accounts an event professional and I stay in that lane

pretty well. When they put me in some of the other places, I ask a lot of strange questions. So

they like me on the event side, we'll just say. Yeah. Okay. There's experts around the rest of

the company that do our advocacy and our education and our data co-op and that kind of thing. But

from an event standpoint, that's really my, my wheelhouse. You know, most of the audience listening

to podcast listeners are consumers. They're automotive fans or automotive enthusiasts.

Many of them have heard of the SEMA show, certainly seen the press that come out of the SEMA show

about the new parts, the builds. But certainly there are a handful of industry insiders. Maybe

people that are exhibitors at the SEMA show. But that's a big part. Like, let's not overlook that.

The SEMA show isn't just for the press events and the builds and the new parts that come out.

It's a tool for the exhibitors, for companies in the space. And so let's talk a little bit about

that because it's not always just the biggest companies in the automotive space. You guys have

to be proactive on attracting these new companies, why they should participate, how do you make it

worth their while? How do you make it affordable? What are they trying to get out of it? So

let's talk a little bit about the exhibitors at the SEMA show.

Yeah. So an exhibitor, it's interesting, Matt, that when you look at our membership breakdown,

we have roughly 7,000 members as part of SEMA, 95% of them are small businesses. And really,

when you look at how our industry starts and, you know, recently Ed, his condarian passed away,

and he was our first SEMA chairman. But when you look at some of the innovation he did and how he

sold his parts, he literally was doing it in his garage and it expanded. And throughout time,

there's a lot of stories like that where a small business will find a need and try to bring it

to market. The SEMA is the perfect place to be able to launch that through either the SEMA show

or the PRI show. And it's really this incubator of ideas that happens at our events, where you

bring these products or services or ideas to the life, and then your peers get to sort of

picking apart a little bit and troubleshoot it. And then as you get along with the product of the

idea or service, you get to a place where you start to find distribution at the SEMA show,

you get to be able to get in front of media, and you get an opportunity to do branding. So

as you go through the life cycle of your company, we really do cater to whichever level that you're

at. And a big part of what we do is finding the new companies that have the new innovations and

new products. And it's constantly happening. And the cool thing for me is the stories because

you'll talk to somebody who developed a race part and say the off-road industry.

And usually it will come down to, well, this kept breaking or I wasn't finishing in the top

five in my races because I was having a fail here. So I built a better mousetrap.

And then I brought it to market and I found distribution and it all just kind of snowball

effects. So the small company is really the heartbeat of what we do in the aftermarket because

it really is constantly changing. And it takes an eye of innovation to really propel that forward.

Let's talk about what it takes to become an exhibitor. We'll start there and then we'll talk

about how to sort of maximize once you're there. But what's the process of applying

or becoming an exhibitor? Let's say you're a first-time exhibitor.

Sure. No, it's relatively easy. You go into our website and we've got instructions on how you can

become either a member of CMO or not and then join one of our shows, CMA Show, PRI Show.

But you fill out that application and we review it and just make sure that your product applies to

the section or the show that you've applied to be in. And the CMA Show as an example has

12 different sections and it can range from wheels and tires to tools and equipment to

racing performance and everything in between. So we'll sort of look at that and then we get

all the applications that were unique in this way to CMA Show. We'll get all the applications

together and we'll go seniority-ranked one-by-one on company and we'll build our show floor plan.

And that happens every May. So if you're a new company, there's space that we'll have on the

floor because we get all these applications in and we sort of make sure we've got space for

everyone. But then where you are really comes down to your seniority and what happens in each

section because we've got people that have got 58 or 59 years of seniority with us

all the way down to zero and one. So it's a kind of a cool thing because you can come in on an

equal footing with the people in your seniority bracket and be able to get really good space.

But the other thing that I've learned through 30 years of producing events is there's really

not a bad space on the floor. From a perception standpoint, everybody wants to be like at the

front door or near a restaurant or whatever it is. They definitely want to be in the traffic flow.

But what I found is that people who come to a trade event have done something to get there.

They've gotten on an airplane or they've invested in a registration fee or

they've driven and parked and come into the building. Whatever it is, there was effort involved

and when they expend that effort, they're going to see the things they need to see.

And the nice thing about being a new company is you're probably something that a buyer may not

have seen before. So we do highlight those areas where we know some of the newer companies are

going to be and we allow our exhibitors or our attendees an opportunity to look at the exhibitors

through that lens. Here are the exhibitors in these places on the floor but definitely finding

the new companies because that's usually where the newest products and

some of the coolest ideas are happening. If I was a new exhibitor, like you said,

I'm a small business, for example. I've been focusing on my product. I've been trying to find

a solution to whatever problem that I found in the marketplace on my race car, whatever.

But getting into something like the SEMA show would be new for me. So do you guys have help or

resources on walking through the product? Like I sign up and then what? Do I set up a table and

just a banner backdrop? How do I present? Are there resources that help walk me through that or

are there companies that you can refer a new time or two? Because it can be overwhelming going,

oh, I don't want to build a huge booth and I heard they're really expensive and people spend

$500,000 on a booth but that's not the norm. That's the biggest companies, that 5% that you

talked about. They have the biggest booths and the most real estate but there's a couple of

hundreds of those of the thousands of exhibitors. So most of the booths are actually fairly

conservative. Yeah, so I would like to find a sweet spot between with costs because I'm a true

believer and you don't need to spend a lot of money to be able to get exposure at the show.

My analogy always is if you're just handing out $100 bills, you can do that in a 10x10

booth and people will come find you to get your free $100 bill. What you need is to figure out

what your $100 bill is. What's that message? What's that product? How do you present that?

But there is a sweet spot between the money you can spend and the rate of return that you're

going to get. So if you're a small company, you have a couple people that you can have come to the

show, a 10x10, a 10x20 booth is perfectly fine because you can go in there with your product

and those two people can talk to 12 people an hour. Like if you think of time as a commodity

and you think of a five-minute conversation, you can only have 12 five-minute conversations in

an hour. And if you bring two people, that's 24 conversations per hour. So as we go through our

show week, it's 31 hours long, one person can have 372 five-minute conversations. So if you want

more conversations, you either have to shorten your pitch or bring more people. And that to me

is what justifies the bigger booth. If you only had a couple people, I don't know that a giant

20x50 booth would really do anything justice because you can only talk to so many of those

individuals. So I like to have it appropriately sized with what you're going to have in there

and be able to demonstrate your product. So that's the first thing is really just finding that sweet

stop between investing and return on X. It's either a return on investment or return on energy

or return on effort, whatever it is. But you need to get a return out of a SEMA show. So investing

conservatively the first couple years, I think is a really smart decision until you can test the

waters and start to get your traction. And then as your distribution comes on, you'll be able to

grow and you'll have more conversations and more people will need more conversations. And that's

where it all starts to click. But you're not alone when you join the show. We've got a ton of resources.

We have a program that's catered specifically to newer companies or people that are new at some

of our established exhibitors called the Exhibitor Summit. And that's a neat event because we bring

a lot of our support vendors into this. But we also share statistics on what buyers do at the show,

what attracts them to a booth, how you join our new product showcase, how you can take part in

education, how you submit a PR or press release, and maybe even talk to some media at that event.

But the key part of that event is we share information so that you learn how to successfully

exhibit at the SEMA show. But you walk out of there with contacts so you know the person

that can supply you electricity or carpet or whatever that is. You know a person at the hotel

company. You know a person at the registration company. And you've networked with them and we

make it fun. So there's usually a story involved somewhere where you've shared an experience.

And then you're just not a stranger to it where it's like, okay, I know these people. I know I

can go get help and get some resources there. But another thing we do is we organize everything

you need from an order perspective and participation and deadlines and budgeting

into something that we call our exhibit service manual. And our exhibit service manual is online.

All the forms are easily, you know, findable and searchable. But that really will walk you

through our timelines, how to budget, what you need for your booth. And we can really do anything

you want. You know we can go from doing nothing and you bring everything and literally like you

mentioned you may just need a table and a product. And that could be enough. Or we could do a turn

key solution that goes, you know, really big. And some of our bigger companies at the show

have used some of our vendors to help them build that. So you're not alone. When you join the show

we've got a ton of support. And really it's as far as our website. We're one of the few companies

now that still lists everybody on our website. So you can find your salesperson and our operations

people and all the people you need to answer questions all right there. Yeah, that's good.

That's helpful because it can be daunting, you know, trying to figure out what it should be.

Your first time, your second time. Right. Okay, so assuming now that I've got it in order,

I'm getting ready to exhibit. I've got my booth sort of planned out. I got my staff planned out.

My goal is mostly twofold is maybe I'm looking for customers and customers. I mean,

I'm looking for retailers or installation shops. I need to find ways to sell my product

and I need to generate some buzz with my product. So I'm looking for press. I'm looking for media

and I'm looking for those deals. How do I go about those deals? How do I do it? Am I setting up

meetings? If so, who am I calling? How am I setting up meetings? I mean, you can't just

rely on a press release and think everyone's going to show up to your booth because you put

something on your Instagram account saying come to booth, you know, 1121 or whatever, right?

It can't be just that. So what are the next steps now? How do you make a young distributor

or a young exhibitor or a first-time exhibitor make it successful for them?

So you do have to do some fundamental things and contrary to intuitively what you think,

promoting the fact that you're going to be there to your customer base if you have one

will help you get different customers. And it's strange how that goes, but you promote that

you're going to be there and more of the industry knows about it and they know you're going to be

there and then they start to talk about that. But momentum creates momentum. So as everybody's

promoting that they're going to be there, your customer base says, okay, yes, I know I'm going

to be able to go and I'm going to want to have a meeting or we're just going to want to touch base.

But that's going to create activity in your booth. And then when you have this activity going on in

your booth, you're going to meet new companies that are there. But probably the most effective

on-site way to attract companies is to participate in our new product showcase.

And that really is this show within a show. We'll have somewhere between 1500 and 2500

products depending on the year broken down by different categories. And we find that almost

half of the people who come to the show find a product in the new product showcase and that

led them to an exhibitor on the show floor. So when you look at our show floor in general,

it's cut into 12 different sections and there's 2500 exhibitors. So when you think about the

five minute conversation or you think about really the time that you've got, you have to be efficient.

And more than three quarters of our attendees come with a plan and they're looking for the

companies they want to see before they get there. So the new product showcase helps while they're

on site. You promoting your company being there helps before the show. But really just updating

everything that you've got on our website as an example. Like we'll have a floor plan and we'll

list companies on our website. People will do research that way. They'll do research in our

mobile apps. So you just want to make sure fundamentally that the things that we're promoting

for you through these avenues, the website and our directory and our floor plan that those are

accurate. And you'll get emails that say, Hey, it's time to update your floor plan listing.

And you can go in there and do that. So there's that part of it. The other part is the media.

And they're looking, they go through our new products. 95% of the media goes through our

new product showcase. But they also look at press releases. Sometimes companies like to make a press

announcement. And there's multiple things going on, you know, all throughout the show.

But you do have this opportunity to get in front of the press. Again, the same way that you get

in front of the buying community. But those are two of the three pillars, you know, when you look

at the the web, the width and breadth of our exhibitor base. Some of them are, you know, have

been with us all 59 years. So you take a company that's been with us for a long, long time.

They pretty much got distribution handled that. And they've got media to a point where they may

be shifting from traditional media to social media. But they're making a big media play.

But they're also there for branding. And that I think is the third thing is your company starts to

evolve and get more into the fabric of the show. Branding will be a bigger play. And you'll go from

looking for distribution in media to looking for media and branding, because distribution,

you've got a pretty wide net and you're, you're in all the outlets and you're in the WDs and that

type of thing. So that's kind of the path that you go on from product introduction to established

product. We've got people that are interested in recognizing each stage that your company can be in.

You know, I think that's great. I think that's helpful. I would, I would even add,

like if I was a new company, I would start to ahead of time do my research on,

on certain retailers, distributors, you know, even pie in the sky stuff, you're like, oh,

my ultimate is to sell on Summit or Jags or whatever, right? I would start doing the research to find

out who are at those companies and who will be at SEMA and start sending out emails and making

phone calls and inviting them and trying to set up appointments with the press as well. If there's

YouTube channels that you like, if there's publications that you like, I would, I would try

to reach out to them, start sending your DMs and stuff on social media going, you know, we'd love

to meet you. We're at the SEMA show. This is our booth. You know, you're welcome to swing by any

time. Just ask for me, but I, you know, I would love to set up a time, like come by. How's Tuesday at

one and try to set up as many of those as possible because you're, you are right though,

especially as a small company, you could be taking hundreds of meetings and having hundreds of

conversations, but when the dust settles and you walk away, if, if you sign one or two significant

distribution deals, that, that's a home run. Like you, you know, you've met, you've met your goal.

You, you've found a way to start getting out there and selling your product or, you know, if you did,

you were able to get a certain amount of media heads, you know, like, Hey, I got mentions here.

I got mentions there. Like by the way, I would say this too is if you are an exhibitor and you are

going to SEMA and you are inviting media, inviting, think about how your follow up is.

If you're going to do any sort of like media interview, even a small media interview podcast,

quick video shout out, have something to give them and go, by the way, this is my company. This is

my name. These are my tags. These are my accounts. If you do post something, please tag us. We will

repost it and that helps the media, right? Cause media is looking for that too, right? Media wants

to grow. So if you're a company and we do a piece on you and you tag us and you share it,

then we share it and then we're both growing. That's, that's kind of how the media side works,

right? The media relies on views, right? Eyeballs, ears, whatever. And, and the companies that we're

presenting to as well. So yeah, I think it's, I think it's a, it's quite an interesting process.

Now you mentioned the new product showcase and I've been talking about this for years,

how I'm kind of a new product showcase super fan. And Motorator is me. That's my brand.

If you go to any of my social media accounts that are all at Motorator, but I'm going to

show you guys real quick. This is the Motorator Facebook page. And as you guys know, there's

photos and when you go to photos, you can go to albums. And I have been putting up for years.

You'll see 2025 Seema new product showcase, 2024 Seema new product showcase, 2023 Seema

new product showcase. And I just go through and I just try to find all of the really cool

products that I think are super. There's, there's way more than I can photograph,

but for almost everything that I grab, I try to grab a photo of the product and then I grab like

the, the info sheet, right? Sometimes it's a bar code, sometimes it's the QR code,

but tells you that the company, the name of the product, it's not the best photos. I'm shooting

it through the glass case, but I just go through and go, here's a new supercharger for a certain

company, right? Corvette CA eat from pro charger. Here you go. Check it out. Like I, I am a fan of,

of the new product showcase for sure. No, and you're doing this because you need to be efficient.

You know, your time at the show is, is really limited and you've got to be able to, this is

amazing when you're organized, but you've got to be able to, to find the new products and then

lead that to the conversation. And it may not happen on the show floor. You know,

you may be able to follow up with that company quickly on the show floor and then have your,

your meaningful 30 minute or hour long conversation a week after. And that's,

something from an interesting point I always recommend is, is sort of rank the people that

you talk to ABC and D and a person would be someone you want to follow up with the week of the show.

Like while you're there, you saw him on a Tuesday, you thank him on Wednesday.

Then there's somebody the week after, Hey, I saw you last week. I'd love to follow up. Let's keep

going. Then there's someone the month after, then there's somebody three to six months after. And

if you do that, you're so far ahead of the game because you're following up and in a lot of times

people will go to the show and just imagine if you can have 370 to five minute conversations,

how many conversations a buyer can have that are maybe one minute or 30 seconds or whatever.

So they may not necessarily have a memory of who they talk to or prioritize it in such a way

where when you follow up and you're right there in front of them, you know, again, big things happen.

So you're doing it absolutely right. I love the fact that you're documenting it because that's

perfect. It's the products. It's really what you're seeing is new in the industry. And if somebody

else went through that same new product showcase, they take pictures of different stuff because

there's so much stuff in there. But it does really help curate where you're going to walk and what

you're going to do that with. And, you know, because I'm walking around the show floor,

it's daunting and I won't be able to get to see everything I want to see and talk to everyone

that I want to talk to and then add to that all of the pre scheduled interviews that I have set up.

And, you know, each time I sit down for one of those, like you sit down for a few minutes,

you take out your audio equipment. There's a couple of microphones. Maybe there's a

camera being quickly set up and, you know, you grab 10, 15 minute interview. It doesn't sound

like a lot, but you're only getting 10 or 12 of these over the course of SEMA, like that you can

produce into a series of podcasts or YouTube clips, right? But being able to then go to

the new product showcase and present that gallery online. But it also gives me sort of my checklist

of things for the rest of the year going, I'm going to go back through that. I remember seeing

this company and seeing this product. And some of them are maybe just things I left out of an

interview like, oh, I forgot to ask Holly about this or I forgot to ask, you know, so and so about

this, or this is something I haven't seen before. I'm going to follow this company. I'm going to

look up this company and maybe start following them on social media or reach out to them next year.

So there is a bit of that going on. Now, you have to kind of be a SEMA show fanatic like I am,

having gone for, oh, going on. For me, probably going on 20 years, 18, 19,

yeah, summer around there. And, and starting off and not knowing anything or doing anything,

just being a car fan and just getting into the space. But okay, so we're doing the exact same

thing you are like on our mobile app, we make sure to have every single new product that's in the

showcase in the app by Tuesday morning, a picture, a description, everything would do the same thing

on our website. So even if you haven't taken the pictures or you didn't have a chance to go to the

show, you can still find benefit in both of those with the new products. It's kind of cool.

100%. And I love that feature. I just run through on my own in post pictures because not everyone

knows that app, not everyone has like access to it or whatever. And I'm just trying to get it out

there as well. All right, so we talked a bit about the being an exhibitor, but we're running into

some deadlines. Here we are. It's March 11th when you guys listen to this. What are the next steps?

If you want to be an exhibitor, we need to start applying soon or yeah, so the applications date

like what's the what's the process? March 27th is the big date. Okay. That's the one where we

collect all the applications by the end of that day. And then we organize them into the sections

they're in. And then we play a game of Tetris where we try to see the space requests we have in

order of seniority, kind of how the floor plane is going to lay out. It's not going to be perfect

because we're going to start with a blank slate, but we want to make sure that there's a seat on

the airplane for all the people that wanted a window, all the people that wanted a middle and

all the people that want to denial. So once we know that, then on May the 4th, and it takes us

about a month to organize everything and get it ready, but on May the 4th, we have pre-drawn the

floor plan, but we took all the names off of it. And really it is a blank slate. So if you see

something, an area where you want to go and it's a 20 by 30 booth, and you'd like that to be a 20

by 40 booth, you know, we have the ability to make changes and do all that on the fly. And you

can watch it happen live. So prior to May the 4th, the week before, you'll get an email with your

exact time within an hour when we're going to call you. And then when it is your time, let's just say

that we say, okay, we're going to call you on May the 8th at one o'clock in the afternoon.

About 12.30, go online and look at our floor plan in the section that you're going to pick in.

And you'll start to see it. It'll be populated at that point. You'll start to see where people went

and then you can sort of track it. What we do in the room, I have a live floor plan that our

caller is going to be on and one that I manage with my team. But then we have a public facing one

that's 10 minutes behind. So it's not, it's not a day or very far behind. And then you'll be able

to go, okay, I really want this location. Is that booth available? And they'll be able to tell you

right then, yes or no. They may go, no, that one just got taken a couple minutes ago, but there's

one right next to it that we'd be able to do. So you pick that one, you finalize your application.

And then within the next 10 or 15 minutes, you'll be able to see it online. And then within the next

two hours, you'll get a confirmation that that's your booth. So sometime between May the 4th and May

17th, you're going to have your booth location. And at that point, ordering your items from our

exhibit service manual and registering and getting no tellers, all of that suddenly will make sense

because you have a real booth number that you'll be able to attach all these orders and everything

too. And then you're really off and running. Okay. So the first deadline, is it March 23rd or

March? It's March 27th. March 27th. So what is due March 27th? Do I just apply? Is it a payment

required? Like what is due on March 27th? Yeah. So March 27th, we need a completed application

and a deposit of some sort. It needs to be 25%, 50% or some people pay 100%. But we need to have a

deposit and that will allow you to pick your space. And then at the end of May, we shore everybody up

to be 50% or 100%. So you'd need two payments to happen. One to get the thing rolling. And then

one at the end of the May, at the end of May to get you to that 50%. And then our next, you know,

final payment is due sometime in August. So if you're a 25% person, you do four payments that

end in August. A 50% person will do one upfront and then one in August. But that's really kind

of how it's done. It's really just a deposit and an application. And then we take it from there,

we call you and together we pick your space. Okay. And if you're doing this for the first time

and you're having some difficulty during the application process, you can call and talk to

somebody. Oh, definitely. Please help me. I don't want to screw this up. Like, what can I do?

Yeah. Okay. No, we've got a customer care team of 10 people that answer the phone,

you know, at an Ask SEMA number. We've got my team here. And then there's another 10 sales

people too. So you've got almost 25, 30 people that can answer your questions. So by all means,

when in doubt, call us, email us, let us help because we do this all year long and we can

really make your process easy. Okay. I think that's good. I think that's super helpful,

especially if you're a first time exhibitor. Or if you did it one year and you're like,

now I have questions. I, you know, I learned some things. I made some mistakes. I want to

make this easier. Like I need some help, you know, don't be afraid to call and just ask because

the one thing I keep finding is SEMA has so many resources and things that they offer that it's

impossible to sort of remember what they all are, right? Everything from like, oh, you know,

in your head, you're going, I, you know, I got to ship something there and I got to display it.

And how do I do that? Ask SEMA. They'll help you ship it there, get it loaded, get it to the booth.

Like they'll, there are resources for doing all of that stuff. Absolutely. So just, just ask. If

you don't know, just call and ask. All right. So tell us what else was in store for the SEMA show.

You guys are doing SEMA Fest again. Any, any, any, any thoughts on that? What's going on for SEMA

Fest this year? So SEMA Fest is always, is always just really fun. It's a great way to cap off an

incredible week of business being done. But it also happens at a time where we're allowing consumers

into the event and you do that on Friday. So Friday is a hybrid day that's business to business

and business to consumer. But what it gives us is it gives us really unique thing that most

trade shows don't have. Well, we've got distribution, we've got end user, and we've got manufacturing

all in one place. So when you look at what an ecosystem or marketplace is, someone makes a

product, someone distributes or sells the product and someone uses the product. And that's all

converging on the SEMA show and the PRI show in December in one place for one week. So that part

is really cool. But when you look at, you know, how you're going to end that week, we have a lot of

people that are B2B that buy tickets to our SEMA Fest event. And then we have a lot of people that

are consumers who are either music fans or automotive fans who come. And SEMA Fest is this

marriage of automotive passion and music passion kind of put together. And it creates this entertainment

aspect. And we've studied the marketplace quite a bit. And it's getting younger and people are

looking for different things. And a lot of times they're looking for entertainment, things like

this. And Mark Cuban is famous these days for doing that. He's investing in some event companies.

And one of the reasons for that is when you look at how things are changing online in our algorithm,

and I have to say, we wouldn't be smart, Matt, if we didn't say the words AI or use those in

a sentence during this interview. But AI is such a way online where people are starting to not

believe the things they see. And what our trade show does is it gives you this opportunity

to see it and feel it and hear it in real life. So SEMA Fest, again, sort of aligns with that,

where people want to be able to see, feel and touch. They want the community involvement.

They want the networking. And they also want experiences. And again, Mark Cuban is investing

in this saying, it's time to get off our butts and go have some fun. You know, instead of just

being in this online virtual world, get out there and do it. And that really is this combination

of everything we've got going on that week, and just a great way to end it.

Okay. And SEMA Fest, also, I'll give you guys a little tip here. Even if you're just a music

fan and just getting into the car space, it's one of the best, most affordable concerts you're

going to find in Vegas. You know, like the ticket price compared to everything else on

this trip is phenomenally affordable. So that part is super, is super interesting as well.

All right. So you don't know, or you can't tell us what the entertainment's going to be,

but do you have sort of an idea of when those announcements will come out when we get the

lineup of both the motorsports entertainment and the musical guests? Like what's going to happen

at SEMA Fest? Yes. So we're going to make an announcement on May 4th that tickets go on sale.

And that will be an opportunity to join the event at the lowest price. And like you mentioned,

we do have it artificially low. You know, we'll probably come out of the gate for a concert ticket

of, you know, 50 or 60 dollars. But we won't announce the band yet. That will happen in July.

And we're putting the final touches on what the lineup is. I'm actually super excited about it.

But in July, we'll announce who the bands are and go through a whole other

version of our launch. So, you know, my recommendation is if you've been to the

event before and liked it, it's still going to be that top tier talent. So I get your tickets while

they're most affordable. But if you want to wait till July, you certainly can. We're going to announce

our lineup then. But the caliber of performer that we've had in the past is, you know, everywhere

from Cage the Elephant to Sublime to Black Crows. It's really been... Yeah. Imagine Dragons, AJR.

Yeah. Yeah. It's really been fun to be able to do this. And it's great to watch our industry react

to it and have everybody, you know, there just kind of enjoying what we're doing. And we really

try to move you around from music performance to some automotive activation, you know, drifting or

that type of thing. And it is just a fun event. And again, it's a way for us to be able to

connect an industry together and build in experiences and memories. And I think in this day and age,

the more of those things you have, you know, the longer your event stays relevant.

And, you know, you mentioned, we've been talking about this for a few years now,

is Friday is the public day. The show floor hours are a little bit shorter so you can get

out to SEMA Fest afterward. There's the parade of cars and stuff. But that is the public day.

So when the SEMA Fest tickets go on sale, there's, correct me if I'm wrong, there's typically that

ticket can be included. So if you want to go to the SEMA show Friday and SEMA Fest Friday night,

those tickets will be for sale starting in May, May 4th. Yeah. May the 4th. So you can buy a ticket

just to the show on Friday. You can buy a ticket just to the concert. Or you can buy a ticket to

both. Right. You can really work evenly spread. It's almost a third, a third, a third on what

people are doing. So that part of it shows us that we've got some magic going where people

are interested in everything we've got going on. Yeah. All right. Well, listen, I'm looking forward

to it. I'm sure as soon as we find out what the musical acts will be and the rest of the entertainment

will hit that again on the podcast. But yes, if you do want to be an exhibitor, please start the

process right away. You've only got a couple of weeks left. At least get that application in

and get on the phone if you need to and start asking questions. I'm sure we would all love

to see you out there and we'll see you in the new product showcase. Any final thoughts, Tom,

before we wrap it up? The one thing I would share is really, if you are interested in this

or the PRI show or anything we're doing as an association, our websites and a simple Google

search, we'll find them all but SEMA.org and SEMA show.com and PRI.com. But the information that

we've got on our website and in a lot of our communication channels on social, we'll tell

you everything we've got going on. If you're interested, follow us because it's all going

to be there and we look forward to seeing everybody in November. Thanks so much. I

appreciate it and I'm looking forward to it as well. Guys, thanks so much for listening. We'll

see you again later this week, I guess. One more show this week. Until then, keep the air and the

subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.

Restoring Goldberg’s BMX bike. SEMA show prep for exhibitors.

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