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Tom Diaz is the Coordinating Producer at Bright Bay Creative, where he contributes to the production of Netflix automotive TV shows. His first experience in the automotive industry was as a co-owner of a muffler shop in 1992. Despite not knowing what a muffler or catalytic converter were — or how to run a business — Tom’s passion for cars helped him to learn quickly. He found his muffler-related niche in import racing, and mufflers from his shop were routinely featured on the cover of Super Street, an import magazine. He then opened an auto accessory store which laid the path toward helping with the sponsorship of a TV show.
In this episode…
Were you a fan of the show Pimp My Ride? It aired on MTV for six seasons from 2004 to 2007. Did you notice the difference between seasons 1-4 and 5-6? According to Tom Diaz, who was part of the show’s production team, the show started to go downhill in its fifth season. At that point, he says everything on the show was fake — fake stuff, fake owners, fake cars, and a fake cast. Are you curious about the behind-the-scenes craziness involved with producing that show?
On this episode of Gain Traction, Neal Maier and Matthew Peters are joined by Tom to talk about the making of Pimp My Ride. Tom shares how he broke into the automotive industry and how his journey led him to television production. He explains how he got involved with Pimp My Ride and his experience helping with the show’s production. Tom tells an emotional story about how the owner of Strada Wheels helped him solidify his current role in TV production. Don’t miss this fascinating conversation!
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Tom Diaz talks about his background and how he got involved in TV production
- Why people working on automotive television shows were often not happy with Tom
- Tom gets emotional as he shares how his friend helped him start working with Bright Bay Creative
- Which tires has Tom been particularly fond of over the years?
- What are the most exciting things about producing shows like Pimp My Ride?
- The challenges of working with multiple shop owners while creating content
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Tom Diaz on LinkedIn
- Pimp My Ride
- Street Designs Inc on Instagram
- Strada Wheels
- Ryan Friedlinghaus IMDb
- Rico Aiello on LinkedIn
- Neal Maier on LinkedIn
- Matthew Peters on LinkedIn
- Tread Partners
Transcript
Announcer:
Welcome to the Gain Traction podcast, where we feature top automotive entrepreneurs and experts and share their inspiring stories. Now let’s get started with the show.
Neal:
Hi, this is Neal Maier and I’m joined by Matt Peters. We’re hosts of Gain Traction, where we talk with top automotive business leaders about their journeys. Before we jump in with today’s guest, this episode’s brought to you by Tread Partners. At Tread Partners, we provide digital marketing for tire dealers and auto repair shops. Using our strategy, branding and marketing services. We help shop sell more tires and put more cars in bays. So what are you waiting for? Visit us at treadpartners.com. Today, we’re joined by Tom Diaz, a coordinating producer for Bright Bay Creative and a longtime automotive industry veteran. Tom, welcome to Gain Traction.
Tom:
Hi, guys.
Matt:
Hey, Tom.
Tom:
Sorry, I got a forklift moving in front of me and I just had to tell a car to move out of the way. I’m outside right now. I’m at Studio. We’re filming even now at the studio. Can’t say, but we’re in LA, in California.
Neal:
I love catching somebody right in the middle of the work day. Perfect time to talk, right?
Tom:
Exactly.
Neal:
Well, Tom, you’ve done a lot through the automotive industry, and I coined it as Tires to Hollywood. Give us a little bit of your background and tell us how you got to where you are.
Tom:
So most of my work career has been owning shops. I started out with a muffler shop back in ’92. Did it with my mom. Didn’t quite know what any of that there was. Didn’t know what a muffler was. Catalytic converter, had no clue, didn’t know anything. I remember getting the keys to open the door and I was like, what am I doing here? I’ve never run a business. I never done this before. I was 22 years old and didn’t know anything about business, didn’t know anything about that stuff. But I’ve always had a passion and love for cars as a kid. There’s a couple things that I’ve always loved. There’s been audio, video and cars. Same thing. Nothing’s changed. So that’s where it began. And I picked up pretty fast, started doing some things that others weren’t necessarily doing. Got together with a bunch of shops as I became friends with a lot of people, and some of these people were… back then, we’re talking 90s.
So a lot of import racing stuff. And I became kind of king in the muffler world. And so I met a lot of shops and I was doing a lot of subbing out for shops. And stock shops, being from performance shops, also like tire shops. And that was kind of my beginning entry into even tires. I’ve always been a wheel guy. Every car I’ve had has never been stocked. I hate stock. Stock to me is boring. It’s never about showing off. And my windows are usually tinted and they’re usually up. It’s super rare that you’ll see a window down. Maybe getting some from McDonald’s. That’s about… with time, you’re going to see me with a top down, or if it happens to be a convertible, the top will be down at night, because I don’t want anybody seeing me. I don’t really care.
So I’ve always had some kind of cars. And from my wife to my kids. My sister, her first car, Honda del Sol, I got her. And I painted it, lowered it, the big system in it, just all this stuff. And she’ll never forget that car. It’s just what I do. Even my mom’s car I fixed up. So it’s just what I like doing. I love that stuff. Anyways, so when I started in the muffler shop, as the popularity of the shop grew and I got to know all these people, I ended up being in a circle of people that were on the covers. I did a lot of covers of Super Street, which was an import magazine. And I mean, I’ll tell you, for a few years all the cars that were on there were all… Valley Muffler was the name of my shop.
Valley Muffler was every single car on the cover. And it was me, it was TSW, it was Wings West, IVOC and Modern Image. And all the cars were ours. Seriously. I just got to be the part of that group. And so from there, I began doing decals. I opened an auto accessory store. And so I got to get into that field. And that was a scary one. Basically just… this was just a chance. I didn’t know anything about mufflers. Got this muffler shop and just went with it. Started the decals, started that because of my ex. She wanted to do something. She wasn’t working at the time, so she started doing decals and then we started this decal business and it took off. But along the way, as the shop grew, I needed to do something because I went into a more expensive building and I was afraid that I couldn’t do it.
So I started carrying auto accessories, and I started with one light. And they were starting… back then, it was clear corners. And I slowly… I remember buying an 88 Civic two-door Clear Corner, put it in a showcase that I had there. Literally had one set. It sold. So I went back, bought two of them, and then I added another car. And then those sold. So I went back, bought two more of those, bought two of the new cars that I sold and then I added another car. And before you know it, I had 100 grand worth of inventory. I had stacks of lights, shop grew. I mean, it was wild. Progression, I mean, it took off. And I had all the connections with people. I mean, doing all that magazine stuff definitely helped get me in with the right people, if you want to say. Direct with not even distributors.
I was going directly to these companies. So that made a big difference. And then from there, I ended up getting divorced. And when I got divorced, ended up selling business. And during that time, I had been selling stuff to West Coast Customs. And I had begun selling some stuff to them. And so I became friends with Ryan who he’s the owner of West Coast. Still is. And so, one day he tells me, he says, “Hey, I’m going to do this TV show.” And he goes, “I’m going to need some help. I need some help with sponsors.” And since I’ve been building my own cars for the longest time, I’ve carried sponsors for the longest time. I’ve had the same sponsors for 30 years. So I said, “Yeah, no problem, I’ll help you.” So I helped him with two cars and that show… So he started building them in December of 2003.
And by mid-January, he’s like, “Dude, just come work for me.” He’s like, “I need your help. Just come work for me.” And I was going through different stuff because I’m getting divorced. So I said, “You know what, that’s fine.” So I went to go work there, sold my shop while I was there. And then I started to handle Pimp My Ride. And the show was Pimp My Ride. And I helped to bring in all these sponsors, which was… I brought in mine, which were easy because they trusted me and they knew I would do whatever I said. So that was easy. But bringing new people was definitely difficult, because no one knew anything. And we hadn’t aired any episodes yet. The first episode aired in April of 2004. We were into it at that point. I think we were like Car five. But when it aired, it took off.
And nobody knew that that was going to happen like that. I mean everybody wishes, but we had no clue. And MTV, I mean you’re talking kids. That’s 15 probably to, I think they said like 25 is the age group. And then when this show took off, I mean you had people under 70s, you had kids, four years old, five years old, talking about Pimp My Ride. And I was like, wow. Even women. So they never expected it to take off and launch like it did. And none of us did. We weren’t prepared for that. We weren’t TV people, we weren’t trying to be on TV. We were just doing a job. So anyways, so we ended up doing that for three seasons.
Neal:
Had you had any experience with TV prior to that?
Tom:
No. No, I’d never done that. And basically I handled all the creative on the cars. So at some point, Ryan would be in the meetings and then he stopped because he’s like, “Dude, I don’t want to be in that anymore.” And so he says, “You just handle it.” And I said, “Okay.” So I just handled all that and they basically would come with these vision boards and go, “Oh, we want to do this, we want to do that.” And I was basically the no guy. Honestly, I felt that I was the most hated guy there, because I was the no guy.
Neal:
You were the one saying-
Tom:
I was like, “No, no.”
Neal:
No to the swimming pools. No to the running water.
Tom:
Yeah.
Neal:
Because-
Tom:
Oh my gosh.
Neal:
… they built some crazy cars, some crazy things that went on with those builds.
Tom:
So I basically allowed one dumb thing per car, and that was it. And if you look at the West Coast cars, literally I allowed one dumb thing, whether it was a DJ system, or a fish tank, or whatever. But these people were not happy with me. They really legitimately were not happy. They were upset with me. I mean, there was arguments with them, and it was more than one producer, because they had assistant producer, like segment producers for every car. So I dealt with a whole group of people every time for these cars. And it was constant fights. And the thing is, I worked for Ryan. I didn’t work for MTV. So I was doing what was in the best interest of the shop, but also I took care of them just the same. I had to make them happy too. And it was in a weird line that I had to try and keep.
So they left West Coast, and the reason they left was because Ryan bought a shop in Corona. And they always said, “If you guys go to Corona, we’re not going.” Which that shop that we were at in Inglewood, it was about an hour and change away. And all these guys live in Bennet, Sherman Oaks, all in these other areas where all these people live still to today. And they said, “We’re not going to drive.” And they convinced Xzibit that he was the main guy and it wasn’t West Coast, that was the important people. So they left and they went to Galpin, and that’s where all the dumb shit went on. So when you look and people are complaining, there’s a current thing that someone just sent me about some guy, I don’t even know who the hell he is, I think he’s some YouTuber or something that bought a Dodge Caravan or something.
And it was a Pimp My Ride car-
Neal:
One of the cars?
Tom:
Yeah. And it says, “Oh, it’s West Coast Customs,” and all this negative shit against West Coast. And then I was like, “Okay, well I mean, let me look at the thing.” So I look at this guy’s video because it’s like a half hour. And it wasn’t a West Coast car, it was all Galpin. Every single car that they made fun of was Galpin. And I’ll tell you, now that I’m in what I’m doing, one of the original producers, well, he came in the last season, I found out stuff about the show that I didn’t know. Our people, the ones that were picked for the show, they were real people. The cars were real cars. Apparently season five, and I’m not sure about season four, but I can tell you season five was all fake stuff. Fake owners, fake cars, fake cast. Those guys, they didn’t even know how to turn a screwdriver.
Neal:
That was also-
Tom:
I honestly didn’t know that.
Neal:
Well, that was also when the car models started to change significantly too. It wasn’t just a Honda Civic anymore, right? They were working on cars that were kind of rare to start with. They weren’t everyday vehicles. So that makes sense that it had to change or evolve after that.
Tom:
I mean, they did a Pacer. I remember seeing this thing. And oh my God, thing was ugly. First of all, the car is ugly, right? Second, the paint that they did was just hideous. And the wing and everything they did. And that reminded me of the stuff that I used to tell them no to. Because I used to tell them no all the time. And literally stuff like that, those cars that came out of there, that’s what I would not agree to. So then they did it because they had somebody that would say yes, and that show lasted two seasons and that was it. So anyways after… because there was a bunch of things that happened in there, and crazy stuff that happened. Luckily there was no… TMZ had just started. So there was hilarity of some of the things that actually went on.
I won’t give those secrets now, but 20 years later, here I am, I get a call from one of the producers. The original producer. And says, “Hey, we got a show. We’re doing this for Netflix. And it’s not a Pimp My Ride, but it’s from the creators of Pimp My Ride.” And they asked me if I would come back. And I mean, this is 20 years later. It’s not like a year later, 20 years. And then the guy that I talked to, I thought he hated me. The two actually that I talked to. I was in shock because legitly, what I had been told for a long time is that these people were upset at me and didn’t like me. And that wasn’t even the truth when it was all said and done.
But anyway, so here I am. We’re building eight cars for Netflix. I can’t say the name of the show. And kind of Pimp My Ride. We are legitly taking people’s cars and real people and helping them out with their cars and taking care of them. But I mean, that’s really all I can say. We got sponsors. I have some good friends of mine of course, that have been around in the industry, so I’ve brought them in. So I got Strata Wheels, we got [inaudible 00:15:07]. Yeah, we got Lowe’s, we got eBay Motors.
Neal:
You got Rico.
Tom:
Yeah. I love Rico. Me and Rico have been friends before he ever started Strata. When he worked at Pilot. And we’ve been friends since then. Man, I love this dude. Rico, he’s really, really a good dude. Aside from being my friend, he helped solidify this deal here. And how did he help? So the producers, this phone call and all this happens with these guys at SEMA. So I’m walking SEMA, well, I’m there on Monday and I get the call Monday from them. I talk to them Monday evening. So we’re going to meet up Tuesday for lunch. And I told them, “Let’s meet up at the South Hall.” These guys have never really been to SEMA. I said, “Let’s meet in front of the South Hall. There’s a place to eat there and if not, we’ll go to the Renaissance next door and we can talk there.” So we decided on a time. I’ll just say it was like 12:30.
And so 12:00 hits, and I went to my friends. I went to all the people that I knew and I said, “Hey look, I got this TV show thing. These guys are calling me back. It’s 20 years later.” And everybody was supporting me. Everybody said, “Whatever you need, just let us know whatever it is and we’ll help you out.” Great. So the support there was amazing. So I’m going to meet these guys. Producer texts me and he says, “Hey, we’re running five minutes late, we’re already in the South Hall.” And I said, “Okay.” So for 20 minutes, I walked around after I talked to these people and I literally prayed to God and I said, “Hey, if this is it, then so let it be. If it’s not, then so let it be. Whatever it’s going to be. Just give me words of wisdom, whatever it is to deal with, whatever’s going to come my way.”
And if I need to be there, then cool. If not, then I’m okay. So I’m not even lying about that. I walked around in the South Hall for about 20 minutes, literally just walking around, praying by myself. I’m not talking to anybody. And so then I go and I’m waiting there in the front by the stairs. And so I’m like, okay. So now I’m just kind of standing there waiting and then Rico texts me. And Rico says, “Call me now.” And Rico never texts me. I’ve known Rico for near 30 years, and he’s never [inaudible 00:17:36] that. I mean, never anything, or that 911 emergency. And that’s the vibe that I felt from his text. So I call him, I’m like, “Hey dude, what’s up?” He’s like, “Hey, those Netflix guys, they were here.” And I said, “Really?” He goes, “Yeah, they’re in my booth right now.”
And he goes, “They were talking to one of my sales guys,” and he goes, “And I just kind of overheard.” He goes, “And then I walked up to them,” and he says, “They were kind of asking for help or we knew anybody that might be able to help them in the show.” And he goes, “I told them,” he says, “No, I know this guy, good friend of mine. And he used to be general manager of West Coast Customs and Pimp My Ride.” And one of the producers, the old original producer, he’s like, “Well, what’s his name?” And then he goes, “Tom,” and he goes, “Diaz?” And he goes, “Yeah.”
And the main production guy, the guy that owns where I’m working for now, it’s called Bright Bay Creative. He said, “That’s our guy. We got our guy.” And man, it was Rico. That was like my in. Sorry.
Neal:
That’s fantastic.
Tom:
I was super thankful for that. So this dude put me at the top. There was no coming down from there. So that was pretty neat. So I thanked him like no tomorrow. Oh, sorry.
Matt:
That’s right. Hey Tom, it’s great to have good friends like Rico. And-
Tom:
Dude, guy’s just been awesome. He’s literally just been awesome.
Matt:
He knew you needed this and he helped make it happen for you. And I’m happy for you about that.
Tom:
So I brought him along to the show. So this will be Rico’s real first show, where Strata is actually the sponsor of the show. So I’m taking care of them. Every car, well, all but two are going to have his wheels, only because I have another good friend to help me out from Savini Wheels to get a bunch of parts for one of the cars. And for one car, Rico just really didn’t have anything just because the bull pattern, the kind of vehicle. So another friend that just started working for the wheel group, so he’s got some stuff coming my way. But oh man, yeah, quite the blessing. So it’s not all me. It’s not me at all. This has been… God came through this bringing me here, meeting all these people, Rico on top of the world. They couldn’t have had a better entry to that. I mean, come on, all booths to stop by before they’re going to meet me, to stop at Rico’s.
My friend, I couldn’t have planned that. I couldn’t have paid to do something like that. So that was exciting. And so from there, man, it was all up a while for them to finally get this thing going and work this location. And I came with them to help scout two locations. And I want to say, well, I think I’ve been working with them now for almost two months. And we’ve done two cars. We’re working on two cars right now. And I’m actually a coordinating producer now, where I didn’t quite have a title. In fact, nobody had a title for at West Coast because we worked for Ryan. So nobody got credits. The only person that got credits was the shop. I don’t even know Ryan got credits for that. But here I’m a coordinating producer.
And then coordinating producer, basically I help with tradeouts. And the reason they brought me is because I know cars. I mean, I know cars pretty good. There’s so many facets that I’ve messed around with because I’m into audio and wheels and just accessories. And so there’s so many things that I’m even into now. I told you I haven’t stopped. I’m working on lifting one of my trucks. I have a Hummer I’m going to lift at home. My wife’s got this Lexus, I’m putting wheels on her Lexus. Just me. I enjoy it. Anyways, so I have some pretty good knowledge of cars. And so that was one reason why they wanted to bring me. So they brought me, and there’s a garage producer here, and his name is Clint. And man, he’s been heavensent to me too, because we’ve just become really good friends. And I mean we’ve become basically a team now.
I’m his right hand. And we are working on possibly another show right after this one. And this will be all high-end stuff. It’s going to be literally Ferraris and Lamborghinis and stuff like that. I don’t quite know the premise of the things when it’s going to be out here in California. So that’ll be interesting since I still live in Texas. But anyway, so that’s kind of where I’m at. I mean, Tires has been part of everything that I’ve done because I’ve always been into wheels and tires. And I’ve always been in the extreme. When 15s first came out, it was such a big deal. I had a Honda Accord that was lowered with a whole chrome undercarriage and an engine and all this stuff. And I had some 15-inch DP Euros, which was a big deal back then because there were 15s. And they were 195-50-15. That was big.
And then I remember when 16s came out and I got 16s, and 16s were a big deal. Man, I think for those 16, I paid 1,600 or something back then. That’s early nineties. And when 18s came out, well I paid wow, honestly like 30, 3,500. And I had a set of Antera Opus 1s. And so I did SEMA. That was one of my first SEMAs that I did with that car. And that was sponsored by Bridgestone. Dude, I’ll tell you, Bridgestone, S-O2 Pole Position, the Potenzas. Oh my God, those tires, amazing. Amazing. I always loved those things. They were free of course, but that gave me the opportunity to try them. And those things worked amazing in the rain, because back then they really didn’t have quite rain tires and nobody was… it wasn’t like now. Now, you got a gazillion manufacturers and stuff.
But I mean, they were on top of the game and the tire was awesome. I mean it performed amazing. It was quiet. Oh Lord, I hate to give Dunlop a bad name, but man, my Dunlops were loud. It sounded like I was rolling on Boggers, like 44s in my Honda. That thing was loud.
Neal:
I remember those days.
Tom:
You had Riken tires back then. What else did I roll on? Man, it was hard to leave those Pole Positions that I pretty much stayed with that. I got sponsored back in the day by Tire Rack. And that was interesting, right? Because I was getting sponsored by Tire Rack. And they ended up giving me a set of… they were actually OZ wheels or Made by OZ. MSWs I believe was the name of the company. And then I got some Pole Positions again. They gave me new tires. I was like, oh man, just in time because my tires were weary out. And those Pole Positions, they were like 300 and something a tire back then for those 18s
Neal:
Tom, and then I think if you look across your career, the thing that you can certainly say is sponsorships and custom cars have gone hand in hand through this. When do you think we might see a show?
Tom:
So they’re saying that probably next year or this time. And honestly, I think there’s going to be a season two, not just because we’re doing it. I legitly think there’s going to be a season two just because what we’ve done is kind of cool, and the people that are getting it, it kind of has that Pimp My Ride feel, like real deserving people. So I think it’ll be a season two. I’m almost positive we’ll have another one.
Neal:
Well, when it goes live, you’ll have to do another episode with us and talk to us about how some of those cars were put together.
Tom:
Oh yeah. I live in this place. That’s the one thing about doing this show stuff. You’re literally building a Steamer car every week. And granted, it’s not taking us a week. It’s a little bit longer, but not much. We’re couple to maybe three weeks have been doing full complete paint jobs, interiors, everything to these cars, fixing them. Because at West Coast, we didn’t have mechanics, we weren’t a mechanic shop, we were accessorizing cars. People bring in… Ryan would tell me, he goes, “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.” Really, if you had to ask, that was not the place for you. The guys that I talked to, the celebs, they didn’t ever ask me how much anything was. They literally just… they say, “Hey, this is my Ferrari. It’s my dream car. I want wheels, I want exhaust. I want it to look nice. You guys can do any audio on it?”
We’re like, “Yeah, cool.” It was like 50, 60 grand later and they’re paying out their American Expresses and not a big deal. No one ever questioned anything. So definitely a different clientele base. I mean, that taught me something too about branding. Because some of the stuff we did, I mean, hell, if I did that at my shop when I had my shop, I could have done the exact same thing and it would’ve been way cheaper. And I still would’ve made a bunch of money. But because it was West coast and Ryan had a name and it was branded, that definitely made a big difference. And then branding is definitely a thing. It’s huge. It’s more important I think, than people believe. And some of these cast… obviously marketing’s changed from back in the day till now. You had all these magazines and stuff before.
Magazines are basically almost extinct. I think I saw a Rob Report still on the shelves the other day, but I don’t even know Car and Driver or any of that stuff’s around anymore. I think all that’s probably gone or near gone. I’m sure viewership is probably little on those things. But now it’s like YouTube, and doing these podcasts and doing Instagram stuff and trying to brand themselves that way. Because a couple of the cast members that are here, one of the reasons that they’re here is because they have a good following of people. And that’s the one thing I don’t have because I really didn’t care. It hasn’t been my thing. It’s always been reputation. And that’s what brought me here. I’m not one of the faces of the show. All these other ones do. They got 100,000 followers, 85,000 followers on YouTube.
They got 7 million hits. And that’s just as important too on, I would say on a new business more than an old existing business. If you were open 10 years ago, it was a lot easier than opening a brand new business now. Even when I opened, I had a big failure in 2015. I opened a tire shop in Huntington Beach. I knew it was going to be hard. And my marketing back in the day was the Penny Saver. And Penny saver, oh my God, I did amazing. You had the recycler back then, which was a big deal. And all that faded away. So now it was a lot of online marketing. Man, I didn’t have enough time. I did it for two years, and I tanked. I lost my ass. I’m still paying for that. I’ve got something still lingering from that. But I still never stopped.
It wouldn’t stop me today from doing something. It’s just all learning experiences. And believe me, it was a heartache. I’ve dragged my whole family, I’ve never really thought about it, but I’ve always been kind of the leader of the band. And I’ve never really given the choices to my family, my kids, my wife. They’re just apart. And I just did it. I didn’t say like, “Hey, what do you guys think?” I just did it. And man, I mean that’s put us in the poor house at times. And right now I’m finally coming out of stuff. So this was heavensent, and like I said, I think this is probably here to stay for me now, being a producer and continuing in this field because there’s not a lot of guys that have done or have my experience and what I’m doing. I know what these people want. I know what it takes. 15 hours a day, seven days a week for months at a time. And you have to put the time. It is what it is.
Neal:
These projects are tremendous amounts of work. And I mean, only way to do it is to put in the hours and get through it, especially when you’re on a short timetable.
Matt:
That’s right.
Tom:
And right now, I’ve had people walking out, so I have a side door over here and they’ve been walking out and staring at me. They’re looking at me, because they need help. I should’ve been a fireman because there’s so many fires I put out on a daily basis in this place. It’s incredible. Oh my God, the things that are run into.
Neal:
I have no doubt.
Tom:
It’s nuts.
Neal:
Well-
Tom:
And we’re bringing all these… a lot of these guys are shop owners, so you’re bringing shop owners with their own ways of doing things all together, trying to work together. And that’s an interesting thing because everybody’s used to having their way doing things their way. And here you got to get along.
Neal:
You’re building a team with a lot of leaders and I’m sure it’s difficult.
Tom:
Yeah, I’ve had to be… And I get along with all of them. Because that’s just me. Either you like me or you hate me. I’m one of the two.
Matt:
Well listen, this is why they brought you on board.
Tom:
I think so. Because I can get along.
Neal:
That’s it. Well, Tom, I know the fires are building and first off, I want to say thank you. Matt and I thoroughly appreciate you taking time out to talk. And gosh, now we’ve got to wait a whole year to see what happens. But we’re going to watch closely.
Tom:
Okay, I got to wait the year. I don’t even know. I’m watching them filming. I don’t know what the editing is like, I don’t see it.
Neal:
Oh, it’s fantastic.
Matt:
I can’t wait to see it.
Neal:
Tom, we appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Matt:
Thank you Tom.
Tom:
Thank you, guys.
Neal:
Today we’ve been joined by Tom Diaz, coordinating producer for Bright Bay Creative. Tom, if people want to learn more about you, where should they look? You have LinkedIn?
Tom:
That’s a good question.
Neal:
Probably look on LinkedIn?
Tom:
Maybe LinkedIn. Maybe. Yeah. There’s not really much… I’m kind of a quiet one. I do have a street design ink on Instagram, so I’m usually kind of putting some stuff into stories of what we’re… I’m not saying what we’re doing, but I’ve put up taking care of the sponsors. I’ve put little things here and there. I’ll show their machines, I’ll show their wheels. So you can see some stuff. You can see a buildup, but I can’t show cars. And then you can just kind of see some of my life. Oh, you know what I have? I do have a dealer license. I thought… I forget about that. I actually have a California dealer license. I sell retail cars, but I haven’t obviously been doing it because I’m here. So I have sold cars, and that’s been an interesting arena. But anyways, that’s where you can find me at least on Instagram.
Neal:
We’ll put a link in the show notes for you.
Tom:
Okay.
Neal:
All right-
Tom:
Perfect.
Neal:
… thank you, Tom.
Tom:
All right guys. Thank you.
Matt:
Thank you.
Announcer:
Thanks for listening to the Gain Traction podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.
Transcript
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