Subie Scoop - Subie Events Part 3 with Adam

[00:00:10] Hello everybody, welcome to another edition of the Subie Scoop and welcome to the last series of the Subie Events series where I have guests on to talk about their role at Subie Events and just to help promote all of the Subie Events that are coming up which of course Wicked Big Meat is coming up this weekend so this is perfect timing for me to end this little series.

[00:00:34] In this last edition of the Subie Scoop for Subie Events I have Adam on and he is known as the voice of Subie Events so any of the events that you go to whether it's Wicked Big Meat, Subie Fest or Boxer Fest any of the other Subie Fest events across the country and you are at the event and you hear somebody making announcements talking about all sorts of things that is Adam.

[00:01:02] So I was very honored to have Adam on the podcast to talk about his role and how he started off with Subie Events and how it has progressed over the years. He also talks about you know some of the things that he does outside of Subie Events so it's great to get to know him a little bit better. Also when we were emailing back and forth he mentioned something about having me as a guest and I didn't know what he was talking about because I was thinking

[00:01:32] of a podcast but then I remembered that I was a guest in the booth at Subie Fest California in 2022 and so that was both scary and exciting at the same time because I've always had you know dealt with stage fright and speaking in front of people and having people look at me but I guess being the voice of the Subie and You podcast at some time or at some point I got to be out in front of people and not just

[00:02:02] hiding in my closet. all the time. Also if I sound a little off it's because when I got back from Overland Expo West I was here in town and then I went out of town again for work and then when I got back I got sick.

[00:02:18] So I think going from Houston where it's very humid to Flagstaff where it's very dry and then back to the humidity and then out of town somewhere else and then back in town I think all of that I just pick something up or just the weather change just really jacked with my sinuses because that's mostly been what it has been. It's just being congested and having sinus headaches and stuff.

[00:02:44] I feel a lot better now but I'm still congested as you can probably tell but thankfully it's kind of all going away and I hope it'll all be gone soon because it's really annoying.

[00:02:55] So being that this is the Subie Scoop and we're talking about Subie events it's a perfect time to make an announcement from Subie Mods because Subie Mods is heavily involved with Subie Events and they're also a sponsor of the podcast which I'm extremely grateful for.

[00:03:14] But on June 7th there will be an official Wicked Big Meet pre-meet and it's going to be hosted by Subie Mods. So some of the hot topics Bucky Lassick is going to be attending as a special guest. The Subie Mods showroom will be open for viewing and hosted at the Subie Mods headquarters in Connecticut.

[00:03:37] There will also be a raffle from some brands that they will have there on site and but you know this event is all about meeting enthusiasts, shaking hands and celebrating the Subaru community ahead of the biggest Subaru show of the year Wicked Big Meet. There will also be a food truck on site.

[00:03:59] So that is the pre-meet by Subie Mods on June 7th and again Bucky Lassick is going to be there and it's going to be a great event. It's going to be a great time for people to come together and just hang out and talk all things Subaru. Now on June 8th at Wicked Big Meet there's going to be the Subie Mods and the Mod Report activation. The Mod Report is their magazine that they put together so be on the lookout for that.

[00:04:28] There's also going to be new merchandise for the 2025 season by Subie Mods. So go check out their tent, meet the team, ask questions and just get to know more about Subie Mods. Also if you are not as familiar with Subie Mods and you want to learn more before Wicked Big Meet you can go check out their episode. I had Nick, the owner of Subie Mods on and he was a guest for episode 189.

[00:04:57] So go check that out and learn more about Subie Mods and go say hi at Wicked Big Meet and meet the team. So thank you so much Subie Mods for sponsoring the Subie and You podcast and thank you for putting together this pre-meet for Wicked Big Meet. I know it's going to be a great event. So with all that being said, I'm excited to get into this conversation to share with you with Adam and hear all about his role at Subie or for Subie events.

[00:05:39] Hey, I'm Adam Owens. I have been the emcee at a whole bunch of different Subie events as far back as the very first ever Wicked Big Meet, which was in, I think, 2005. And since about 2015, I've been the emcee at Subie events nationwide.

[00:05:56] Yes. And I had the pleasure of getting up in the booth with you in Subie Fest, California, and you interviewed me out in front of a bunch of people, which we were talking about. I was very nervous, but you did a great job of preparing me beforehand because we sat down. You asked me a bunch of questions and then you said, now let's do that again. But on the mic, I'm like, oh boy, here we go. So it's a great way to kind of calm someone down who's a little nervous. Like at work, I do that a lot.

[00:06:25] Like people kind of come in to record with me and my job and they're nervous because a lot of them have never done it before. And we kind of we sort of do a little dry run. And I said, OK, well, that was great. Just let's do that again. And, you know, you've kind of done me the same favor this time around, Raf. You've given me a list of some of the questions you're planning to ask me. So I had a chance to pregame a little bit here. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:45] And I do the same with guests that I have on the podcast because a lot of these people are just, you know, people in the community out there enjoying their Subarus and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm so nervous. I'm like, well, you know, we're going to talk for a while and just kind of talk like friends and just hang out on the mic. And then after we've been chatting for a while, then they loosen up, like you said. And then they're like, OK, I'm pretty good. And then afterwards, they're like, that wasn't bad. That was fun. Like, good, good. It's supposed to be fun. Painless. Yep. Yep.

[00:07:15] So one of my previous guests asked a silly question, and I've been doing this ever since, but she asked whether I prefer waffles or pancakes. And she asked some of the other people in the community. So now I'm asking you, Adam, do you prefer waffles or pancakes? A question for the ages, huh? I got to go with waffles. I think, you know, it's probably the popular answer, like more surface area, more room for the butter and the syrup.

[00:07:40] And that really, though, is to me, you know, the waffle or the pancake is merely a delivery vehicle for the butter and syrup. But I have to I have to sort of specify here only the real stuff. Like none of this pancake syrup, none of this like whipped margarines product. You know, give me real butter. Give me real honest to goodness maple syrup. Like that's that's what I'm about. Yeah. Maple syrup is man. It's so good. And I had the Vermont sports car maple syrup for the first time after this past Subifest, Texas.

[00:08:09] I bought the two different types that they have and brought them home. And man, they're so good. You know, if people grow up, you know, just eating the, you know, whatever Aunt Jemima table syrup stuff, they, you know, they like it. And when they have the real maple syrup, maybe it's it's not as good to them because it's different. But man, I grew up on the real stuff. And like, yeah, it's the good stuff. Yeah, no, it is. It's great. So so you said that you started off way back when the first week of big meat. How did you find out about the events in the first place?

[00:08:38] Well, I had I have I've only ever owned Subarus. And back in 2000 and back in 2004, I finally bought a WRX. I bought a bug eye and I had been on forums. I had an SVX before that. So I had been on the SVX forum. And then when I got the WRX, I was like, well, I guess I better join some kind of an Impreza forum. So I joined the NASIAC, a.k.a. Nabisco.

[00:09:03] And I sort of in one of the forums, I kind of saw a thread start to build up like, hey, guys, let's do a big meat again. And I guess, you know, before the WRX had ever come to the United States, there was a pretty, you know, pretty small Subaru enthusiast community. But they were out there, you know, the two five R.S. And stuff like that. And they had at some point way prior to wicked big meat, they had had kind of a big meetup of all the sort of, you know, O.G. Impreza dudes.

[00:09:30] And then they sort of said, well, let's kind of do that again and go bigger and let's have a wicked big meat. And so I kind of caught wind that that was happening. And one thing sort of led to another. And I got involved in it. What a clever name for it, too. It's very new. Very New England. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's cool. And then so what was your role at Wicked Big Meat? Were you the emcee there at that event? Well, it was like I was the sound guy more like they sort of asked me.

[00:09:59] They knew that I've worked in radio my whole life and they knew and a lot of the guys knew that I had, you know, some radio experience. And then as a result, some sort of audio and sound experience. And I had a PA and they knew that. And they said, hey, can you bring your PA and just like play music for the day? Like that was it. I was just I brought a couple of CD players. I actually brought record players like vinyl. Nice. Yes. And I was just playing music out of just two speakers.

[00:10:26] And throughout the day, people would come kind of like hustling over to me like, Adam, Adam, can you make an announcement that the tech seminar is going to start soon? Like, oh, Adam, Adam, can you make an announcement that we're going to do like this thing or the other thing? And then, oh, Adam, we need somebody to call out the winning ticket numbers for the people who win the giveaway at the end of the day. And so I kind of was just thrust into the role of being the MC. I was more of the sound guy, just DJ, I guess. But definitely the role of MC, it quickly became apparent that that was a sort of necessary part.

[00:10:56] And what year was that again? You said like 2005? I think it was 05. Truthfully, I don't remember crystal clear, but it was about 2005. OK, so then you said around 2015 is when you became like the MC for all of the events across the nation. So what were you doing between 2005 and 2015? Were you just showing up at Wicked Big Meat as an MC? Yeah, exactly.

[00:11:20] And I think I don't think I got to every single Wicked Big Meat, but most of them I think I would show up at as sort of the sound guy. I helped to kind of coordinate for a while there. We would have guest DJs from the Subaru forums come out and each do like a one hour DJ time slot kind of thing. But I was still there kind of overseeing the whole sound system and sort of making announcements and things like that through the day.

[00:11:43] OK, so now that like, I guess, kind of fast forward to the official Subie events business or structure. Since you were already doing Wicked Big Meat, is that kind of how they pulled you into being a part of Subie events? Yeah, exactly. So so Rob Champion took over Wicked Big Meat and took over, I think, Subie Fest in California. And then that, I think, changed hands and then changed hands again.

[00:12:08] But basically, once kind of Rob got involved, you know, he was he was running the show in New England and I was and he kind of just sort of kept me on board like I was a known quantity there. And he would do he did. They came out and they brought Boxer Fest to the Mid-Atlantic area. But I wasn't really involved in that and some other meets across the country. But it and they would I think what they would do is they would have other local folks act as the emcees at these various events.

[00:12:34] But maybe I was good at what I was doing or they just kind of felt like, you know what, it's let's just have one person in this role. Because, you know, once you kind of know the flow, you can you can get really good at it. And that's, you know, just the sort of the flow of the whole day and then the flow of how the giveaways work at the end of the day and the interviews and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, after after a while, they sort of Rob said to me, look, hey, how would you like to travel, you know, to the Mid-Atlantic to do Boxer Fest?

[00:13:01] And then how would you like to come out? I went to Colorado for Rocky Mountain Subaru Festival and like, let's let's go to the North Big Northwest. Let's do Subi Fest, California. And so I've kind of just become a permanent member of what we call the core team. Yeah. And it's it's nice that I mean, it makes sense to have a kind of like just a voice at, you know, each of the events and like a common voice and that you're able to go out to each of them and be the voice.

[00:13:27] But so like going back to the first event where you were there kind of just to play music, but then people were coming up to you and like, hey, can you make this announcement and can you talk about this and can you announce this and that? So that wasn't really structured. It was just something that kind of happened throughout the day. So fast forward to Subi events. How is that now structured with what you do at each event?

[00:13:52] Yeah, we've definitely got what we would maybe call like a run of show in the in like the in the industry. Like I've heard that phrase, you know, thrown around by some people who work at big events and it's kind of like, you know, here's the structure of the day. Here's, you know, sort of all the points that we're going to have to hit at this particular time. You know, so and so is going to come up to the booth and do an interview at this particular time. You know, we've got events happening over here and over there. So there's definitely a lot more structure to the whole course of the day.

[00:14:22] I mean, you know, it's in way back in the day. It was just, you know, 25 guys and their cars in a parking lot and gals and a barbecue grill. And, you know, maybe someone's going to do a suspension install. And like, that's kind of it. But now it's it's it's taken on more of a almost like a festival atmosphere where there's, you know, tons of different activities and events throughout the day. It's it's really the trajectory of this thing is just pretty awesome to have watched over the years.

[00:14:51] And a lot more people. Oh, my gosh. I think in the in the ballpark of 10,000 at Wicked Big Meat, which is our biggest event in the ballpark. I don't know exactly, but it's it's it's phenomenal. Yeah, that's a lot of people. Yeah, that's a lot of cars to park. Oh, yeah. I know it's it's a lot to coordinate with each event. And I know it can be challenging at times. But, you know, I think overall, people really enjoy the events and they keep coming back every year. So that's good. It's awesome.

[00:15:21] Yeah. So what is your favorite thing about being an emcee at the events? It's like there's there's so many cool things. I mean, I just love being backstage, so to speak, like sort of seeing the event run, you know, from behind the scenes. It's just a real a real privilege and a really cool thing to be able to see.

[00:15:43] I get to talk to and interact with and learn from just some of the best people in the business, whether these are folks who own manufacturing companies or, you know, motorsport athletes and drivers.

[00:15:57] The opportunity to see all these people come in and like connect and share this joy of these cars and this sort of attitude and lifestyle around them is so cool. Like, you know, again, go from 2020 folks in a parking lot somewhere, you know, at a restaurant or something like that, doing just kind of an informal get together to like this festival.

[00:16:26] And to be part of it is like I just puts a huge smile on my face every time I do it. Yeah. And you you've got the best view. That's for sure. Yeah. So they rolled out this. It's the we call it. We call it the lojo. I'm not positive what that stands for, but it's like it's the back of an 18 wheeler and Subaru of America got involved in the meets. I don't know how long ago, but I'm going to say, you know, around 2017 or maybe 16.

[00:16:57] And they bring this 18 wheeler and the back of it opens up and becomes this display area. And for a while, that was where they had the Subaru gear store. Yeah. But now over the last few years, it's been where the simulators live. And so I'm on top of that. And I have like an incredible view of the whole day. And being up there is pretty valuable as an MC because it does give me an opportunity to really see, okay, there's a big line of people over there. Maybe they don't need to actually be in that line or I can see that.

[00:17:25] Oh, look, you know, the Huckster is melting tires over there. Hey, everybody, you know, you might want to go check that out. Wicked Big Meat actually is the exception to this. I don't set up on top of the trailer at Wicked Big Meat. There's like a little radio shack on a hill at Stafford Speedway. And that's kind of where I've always set up for that particular event. But for the rest of the events, yeah, I'm on top of the Subaru trailer, which is just a really great perspective. Yeah. And you've got all your gear up there.

[00:17:54] Got a lot of room to move around. And like you said, when you interview people up there, then that's what's really nice, too, is you've got a lot of space up there to interview people. And, you know, you get people up there at the end of the event, especially like the drivers and stuff. And it's fun for everybody to watch that going on and listen into those interviews. Yeah, it's a bit of a stage. Like if we had, you know, Bucky and Travis and Rhiannon downstairs, you would hear them. But you kind of where, you know, you kind of be looking around. Where the heck are they?

[00:18:22] But, you know, putting them up top on the second floor there, everyone can kind of see them.

[00:18:54] Yeah. One great piece of advice I got from an instructor years and years ago was just like, do your thing, be yourself, lean into that. And so that's kind of all I try to do is just be me. But I kind of have to be family friendly and radio safe, which can be a little bit of an effort for me sometimes. But, you know, when the microphones are off, I say things a little differently. We'll just say as far as my sort of role.

[00:19:22] Yeah, it has changed quite a bit over the years in a couple of different ways. Initially, I was really responsible for what I would say, like deploying the whole sound system. So physically carrying or driving the speakers around, unwinding all the cable that connects them. And we're up to like, I think we have 20 speakers. We probably have like three or four miles worth of audio cable and extension cords. And, you know, everything is linked together essentially.

[00:19:50] So I was really the lead on that for quite a while. And over the last couple of years, I've really backed away from that. And we've brought some other folks on who helped to kind of deploy and maintain the sound system so that I can just focus on announcing. Because what would happen would be I would be the middle of the day. We'd be talking about this or that, making this announcement, interviewing that driver. And all of a sudden, my walkie-talkie would light up and someone would say like, hey, this speaker over by vendor booth, you know, six is making a lot of static noise.

[00:20:16] And I go, oh, crap, I have to like hustle over there and try to troubleshoot it, you know, in the middle of the day. So we've got a couple of folks on board now as core team members who really handle the sort of technical side of the sound system. So that's one thing less that I'm doing these days. But now, you know, more. Yeah, there's a lot more to announce. There's more in terms of, you know, interviewing our guests and some of our sponsors. A few years ago, I got tapped to host the exhaust competition. So this was a really fun.

[00:20:45] And I had never done this. I was always just in the booth. And I would say, okay, guys, you know, the exhaust competition is happening now. It's over. You know, you go out the way you came in and you'll hear it. And someone will be over there kind of they had a couple of speakers and a microphone or maybe even just a megaphone for somebody over there to call out the decibel readings of the cars for the exhaust comp. But at some point, Con and Rob sort of tapped me and said, hey, you go host the exhaust competition. Take a microphone over there with you. We'll find somebody to cover the sound booth and make whatever announcements need to be made in the half an hour that you're over there.

[00:21:15] But you go host it. So it's been a super blast. And the exhaust comp is like easily one of the funnest part of the event. And it's super if you've never been, by the way, it can get very, very loud. Oh, yeah. Some of the cars, some of the cars also not so loud. You know, you get a car that rolls up and looks really good, maybe, but maybe it's not quite so. Then you get some like absolute hooptie that rolls up and just blows everyone's eardrums out.

[00:21:39] If you're standing right up near the fence for the exhaust comp, like you, you may want to honestly think about earplugs because it can get pretty dang loud. So did you do it at SubiFest Texas this last year? Yep. Yep. Yep. I was, I was the host for the exhaust comp. So that was Larissa and her WRX that, that one. Was she the one who had somebody run shotgun with a laptop like on the spot? I'm pretty sure she. Yeah.

[00:22:06] I think I made the comment standalone fuel system, not a bad way to spend 10 grand. Yeah. Yeah. Her muffler was not on the car, which was part of the reason that it made it so loud. And it's funny because the sheet when, so I recorded with her, uh, she had, I did an episode with her cause she lives here in the Houston area. Yeah. And when we took a ride in Clifford, her muffler fell off while we were driving it. That's why she didn't have a muffler on because she took me for a ride.

[00:23:04] Yeah. Like, I don't know. Yeah. I disconnected at the headers or do some, some clever, weird thing to try to game the exhaust competition. I think someone could probably pull something fun off. Yeah, probably so. I mean, it's, I haven't ever, I think I've been kind of close to it, but I've only been to, so I went to Boxer Fest in 21 and I didn't see a thing. Cause I didn't really know what to expect. It was my first time going.

[00:23:32] So I was just kind of walking around and checking things out. And then I knew some people there. So I was talking to them for a while. Then I went to SubiFest, California and I was in my booth pretty much the entire time. And then both times at SubiFest, Texas, I was closer to the tarmac where they were ripping the cars around and having fun in those. So I just haven't really had a chance to make it out to the exhaust competition. Cause I've been working at the events the last couple of years too, at SubiFest, Texas, but which I'm thankful for. And it's, it's been a lot of fun.

[00:24:01] We've also added in, and this is something I just sort of kind of decided to start. Doing a few years ago. And if, if you, you know, come to the events and you kind of keep one ear on the sound system in between some of the songs, you might hear just these little sort of like, I don't know, audio identifiers. It's like what you might hear on a radio station. It's, you know, like, you know, wicked big me. And then the next song starts just kind of like to add a little, I don't know what you'd go branding to the event. Maybe you're just to kind of give it a little polish or a little extra touch.

[00:24:32] And so like, yeah, again, just another kind of little thing that I've started doing in, in, in more recent, more recent times. Makes it fun too. Yeah. And fun for you. I'm sure. Yeah. It's a blast. I can, I can kind of go scour around and find really cool sound clips and, you know, add those in. And it's, it's, it's, it's been a lot of fun. Okay. So do you have a favorite event or location? Uh, or are they all like just pretty similar to you? Cause I know you said like, we could be big meat is really big.

[00:25:00] And then like Subie Fest, Texas, we've only been doing it for a couple of years, but do you have like a favorite one? Uh, you know, how do you, how do you, you know, which, which is your favorite kid or whatever the, however the joke goes, but like, well, we could, so there, they're in some very different locations and like, well, wicked big meat is in like Stafford, Connecticut, which is kind of out of the way. I mean, it's, it's, you know, not too far away from Boston, but it's definitely not in like a big metro area.

[00:25:27] So like for Subie Fest, California, we go to Los Angeles, you know, like it's, it's, you know, it's a big, big city lights kind of place. Um, for Subie Fest, Texas, you know, we're kind of, we're pretty close to big cities in Texas and it's, um, it's pretty awesome to be able to go and travel and be into these bigger cities, you know, uh, Subie Fest Midwest. Yeah. Joliet is maybe an hour away from Chicago, but the team lands in Chicago and we usually get dinner or spend a minute in the city.

[00:25:54] So, um, you know, they're, they're all pretty awesome locations. Um, it's tough to pick a favorite over the past. We have had some pretty cool venues. Um, once for Subie Fest, uh, uh, I'm sorry for big Northwest, we were at the dirt fish campus. So we were at a sort of rally school for the whole day. It's awesome. Uh, it was, it was a dirt lot basically. So it was a little dusty, but it wasn't, maybe it wasn't all dirt, but there was a lot of dirt.

[00:26:24] So it was a little dusty for sure. You know, it's not without its challenges. Um, most of the events are like in big parking lots. So the sun is beaten down on you all day, but they're in, uh, at big Northwest again, actually for a few years, we were at Portland international raceway and we were set up in the sort of grass and trees. So there was a lot of natural shade, which was really quite nice.

[00:26:45] Um, uh, last couple of years for Florida's event, we've had the opportunity to set up at Daytona, which is like a legendary American race facility. And in fact, last year we were set up on the infield at Daytona, which was like a total privilege. Really, really cool. Yeah. That's, uh, I want to make it up to wicked big meat at some point. Cause I've heard that was just an awesome event and just, it's a matter of, you know,

[00:27:11] time and cost and all that, but hopefully I can make it up at some point, but definitely worth the trip. I mean, it is the, they're all, again, all the events are really awesome. Uh, wicked big has a lot of heritage and history. And again, the, the facility that it's at Stafford motor speedway is, is really cool. It's, it's a sort of a medium size oval track. They run, I don't know, wheeling modifieds and late models and stuff like that. Um, but then for the autocross course, they use some of the infield, but then they do go up on some of the oval. It's very, very cool. Yeah.

[00:27:40] And it's, it's, it's big. It's again, it's our biggest event and the, you know, the facility is appropriately sized. It's definitely a pretty awesome location. Yeah. I am very thankful though, that they did bring SuiFest to Texas. And of course all the people in Texas are very excited about that. So we've been thankful. The response, sorry, but the response in Texas was amazing. Like we, you know, we're like, so guys, we're going to do Texas. And we're like, people in Texas drive Subarus, you know, but like we got there. And the turnout was like off the charts.

[00:28:10] The, like the response was incredible. Everyone was thrilled and stoked. Like we, we, we, we wrapped up that first Texas event and we were all just like, well, I guess we're coming back to Texas. Like, yeah, I remember Robert was saying it was one of the biggest like turnouts for the, for, you know, for the first time for an event. And that was really good to hear. Cause then I thought, okay, well I'm sure there'll be back then and glad to have it. And yeah, there's a lot of Subarus here. Yeah. Surprisingly.

[00:28:36] And we don't have much to, well, for the, for the, especially for the off-road scene, there's, there's dirt. There's some stuff. Yeah. But you know, we get the people in the Pacific Northwest and Colorado and California and the Northeast that have like all the really cool open trails because there's just so much private land in Texas. It makes it hard. Does, you know, there's, there's like Texas overland trail. There's a big bend national park, but like for me, big bend national parks, like nine and a half hours away.

[00:29:04] So it's not like I can just go there for the weekend and have some fun. Isn't that like a trip to the grocery store into Texas? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it takes a whole day just to drive across. Yeah. But I like being here. It's fun. It's a, it's a really cool state. Yeah, it is. So what has been one of your best experiences over the time that you've been involved with the events? Again, hard to, hard to pick a favorite.

[00:29:31] And I mean, just like anytime I look over at the autocross course and I see, you know, Scott or Bucky or Travis, like melting a set of tires in front of a huge crowd. Like I just go like, this is, this is happening. Like this is, you know, that's like, that is just such an awesome feeling to look over and see that going down. Um, but I think my favorite Subie event story comes from a wicked big meat years ago.

[00:29:58] Uh, and it was during, it was actually during teardown once pretty much everyone had left. Um, teardown is definitely one of the toughest parts of the event. Like we, we get there really early in the morning on event day to kind of finish our setup. We'd already set up the day before, but we get there super early in the morning before the sun comes up. You know, we do the whole event. It's hot. It's tough. Like we're all working really hard. You know, we finished the giveaways at the end of the day. Everyone goes home, but then we have to stay in, you know, clean the whole thing up and tear it all down and put it back in the boxes and get it ready to go.

[00:30:28] And, and we have to finish teardown like that day. We can't really come back the next day usually. Um, so a bunch of us were working teardown. It was, it had been really hot. Um, we were all tired and kind of sunburned and just cranky or whatever. And earlier in the day at, at wicked big meat that day, um, the groups, uh, uh, Scoobies for boobies had been doing like a fundraiser for breast cancer.

[00:30:51] And the fundraiser was a, like a, uh, a water balloon dunk tank where like someone would sit in the dunk tank and you could chuck water balloons at them for five bucks or something. So a bunch of us are doing teardown. We're all kind of walking around this building. We all kind of converge at the same point. And we all look down and there's like four or five of us and we're all good friends. And we look down and there's this garbage bag, like a contractor garbage bag full of unused water balloons. Oh, fun. And we all just kind of look at each other for like, we pause for a beat. We've taken what we're looking at.

[00:31:21] We look at each other. We look at the bag and then it's just like, it pops off. Like we are just mayhem. We're throwing water balloons at each other. Someone grabs the bag and is like swinging it around. And just like that, like camaraderie and that fun that we had at the end of like such a long, hot day. It was just, I don't know. So it was a really wonderful moment to be a part of. Yeah. And like you were saying, you know, it's the end of the day. You've been out there all, you know, in the sun. You're no doubt extremely exhausted.

[00:31:49] And then to end the day with something like that, it just kind of helps to close it out in the best possible way. Yeah. Yeah. They're definitely fun events. But yeah, teardown is like, I mean, the events that I've done where I have stuff and I don't have a whole lot of stuff, but I'm like, oh, this sucks. I got to put all this stuff up. I know you got to drive and then you drove driving home. Then you have to unload your car once you get home. Yeah.

[00:32:12] So all the equipment that you have like up in the booth, is that your own equipment or is it provided to you? No, it basically, the, um, I bring maybe like my laptop, but everything else belongs to Subi events. There's a big crate that we load up with all the speakers, all the cables, the mixing board, the microphones, everything like that. Um, and that crate travels, you know, all around the country on the back of a big rig, basically. Yeah. Okay.

[00:32:39] What is something that people may not know about what you do at the events? Um, well, like I sort of said, like for a while there, I was the one really laying out the sound system and all those cables and uncoiling them, calling them back up. I don't really do that so much anymore. Um, and I, by the way, I just want to say like, uh, uh, Dan Romo spark. I am so grateful to the team that helps out with that now. Like they have taken a huge amount of weight off of my shoulders.

[00:33:06] So I can really, I can continue to do this for years to come now. Um, but what people might not know is that I definitely die a little bit inside. Every time I mispronounce someone's name during the giveaways at the end of the day, it's, it kills me. It kills me. And I'm so, if I have butchered your name when you want something, I am so sorry. Yeah.

[00:33:30] That's, that's kind of difficult too, because it's, you know, you see the way that it's written and you read it the way it's written and maybe you don't read it correctly. I'd be, I just, I remember being in school and teachers trying to call out names, you know, and they're like, uh, so-and-so. And they're like, yeah, that's right. Or no, it's this, but you don't really get that feedback probably, you know? Like, Hey, it's, it's so-and-so. When, when, when someone should, when, when they do come up to claim their prize, I'll be like, Hey, how bad did I do?

[00:33:59] And they're like, ah, you know, you did all right. Like I get a lot worse, but, but still, I just, I'm, I'm so sorry. Yeah. So what would you say makes your role so valuable with Subie events? And I guess at the events? Well, you know, if I, if I dropped off the face of the earth, the events would still happen. Like people would still show up for the, like, you know, it's not like the world would stop turning, but like at some point a while ago, I realized that anytime a group of people gets together,

[00:34:27] particularly if they're maybe kind of strangers to each other, if, if somebody just gets up in front of them and says like, Hey y'all, uh, you know, thanks for coming. Uh, look, here's the deal. You know, this is what we're going to do today. Uh, we're going to do this, this, and this. So here's where we're at now. And we're going to go to this in a little while. And then eventually we're gonna go to that. And that's going to be kind of the plan. Like if someone just sort of spells out, like here, here's, what's kind of going to go down. It just kind of puts everyone a little at ease.

[00:34:56] Um, it's just kind of nice to kind of go like, Oh, okay. We're all on the same page here. So like, you know, again, I don't think that what I'm doing is necessarily like mission critical, but I just think it helps the event kind of hold together and keep moving. And everyone kind of stays on the same page, you know, whether they're conscious of that or not. I think, I think it's pretty helpful. Yeah.

[00:35:16] I mean, I noticed the one thing when we were at SubiFest, Texas, that, that is very valuable is when you have the people lining up for the autographs. I, I heard you announce like, Hey, get in line as soon as you can, because they're only going to have so much time and you want to be able to get through and get your autograph. And then you told the people to look out for the person with the stop sign, basically. Yeah. And that that's, that's where the end of the line is. Sorry folks, but you know, we're going to have to cut it off there. Yeah.

[00:35:46] Cause I remember that cause I got in line the first time and we were past the stop sign. So the next time they came around, we got in line and got our autographs. So that was really cool. So actually to that, at, at, at, at, before we wrap up, like kind of, when we get to the end, I actually have a list that I want to share of what I consider pro tips that I want to share with, with anybody who's coming to the event. And we don't have to, well, maybe we'll do that towards the end, but like, you know, I've been to, I don't know, 80 of these things now.

[00:36:13] And like, I know I see, I see a lot of things that like people could maybe benefit from hearing about. So, so I have assembled a little list of pro tips, which we'll sort of get to a little later on. Okay. Sounds good. And one of them has to do with autographs. So, so good, good mentioning that. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, you know, it's something that I remembered cause me and my kids were there and we wanted, we had our posters. So, well, we had some personal things that we wanted to have signed and then I know that they had posters and stuff up there.

[00:36:42] So that was a lot of fun. But is there something that you would like to see at the events that would be a part of something that doesn't exist right now? I mean, you know, these things have just, again, the trajectory and if you're not, you know, folks listening at home can't see the sign I'm making with my hand, but Raph, you can't like the trajectory of this thing has just gone steadily up.

[00:37:09] Like we've added so many things over the, the learning center, the tech demos we, we, you know, we've got, you know, all the driving demos have gone like from just like, oh, we're just going to send them through the autocross course to now we've got these just like, borderline obstacle courses that they're working their way through, like really amazing. You know, we all kind of daydream about cool stuff we could add. And there's often because of the size and shape of the events, there's some challenges to, to just, you can't just kind of snap your fingers and say, let's do this.

[00:37:37] But, you know, I, um, I would, uh, I would love to see, and again, I don't, I don't know that it'll ever happen, but this formula, this team too. Is so good. I would love to see us bring these events to Europe or Australia or Canada or, you know, Japan. Now, if we were to go to someplace like Japan, I would probably get the boot because I don't speak the language, but if we go to Canada, I speak enough French.

[00:38:07] I could probably get by. Yeah. Let's see you try to make those announcements in Japan. It'd be pretty tough. Um, and again, you know, there's a lot of logistics behind that and, you know, then you're dealing with whole other arms of the corporation with, with Subaru. Um, so, you know, it's sort of a pie in the sky, but man, you know, again, our team is just so good at what we do that I think we would, it would be pretty awesome. It would be a real dream to bring these events overseas. Yeah, that would, that would be a lot of fun.

[00:38:34] And cause I know there's, there's a lot of Subarus in Europe and I've actually interviewed a guy from France. I entered a couple or entered, I interviewed a couple from Denmark, a guy from Australia, and then another guy from the UK. So there's a, you know, the market exists over there. And I mean, you know, uh, Europe and Japan and New Zealand and Australia all got turbo Subarus, you know, dating back to the early 1990s. I mean, we had a, we had a turbo legacy here.

[00:39:04] Did we have, yeah, we had a, we had a turbo legacy here, but that was kind of it. But they got the S they got STIs in 1995 kind of thing. And we were, you know, kids playing Gran Turismo back in the day were dreaming about these cars and, you know, Subaru dealers in the United States were saying, no way, never going to happen. Finally in 2002, you know, we got it. We got a turbo Impreza, but, but, uh, really, you know, European and Japan and Japanese markets had them first. Yeah. They get, they get the good stuff over there. I know.

[00:39:30] So you said, uh, through an email that you were one of the two creators of periodic review of N-A-S-I-O-C, uh, which was an early Subaru enthusiast web series. So you want to fill us in a little bit more on that? Yeah. This is, if you're a super old school Subaru enthusiast, you might know periodic review of N-A-S-I-O-C, N-A-S-I-O-C, North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club.

[00:39:58] So this was a forum, the Subaru forum back in the day, uh, not necessarily just for Imprezas, but it, uh, it was definitely Impreza centric. And, uh, it's, uh, participation in Nasioc really exploded in 2002 when the bug eye finally came here. Um, and I had bought a bug eye in 04 and I was just kind of lurking in some of the forums.

[00:40:18] And, um, one of the forums was off topic, which is just this kind of like talk about whatever, you know, and just like people who maybe have desk jobs and sit in front of a computer all day at work, just post these random threads about, oh, here's a movie I saw. Or, you know, here's, you know, whatever, something I think is cool. And, um, I started doing this. I was working at a radio station at the time. I started doing this weekly little audio newscast called this week in OT off topic. And it was just kind of a funny, goofy thing where I would like, I put on like a newscaster voice.

[00:40:48] I found some really cheesy, like newsroom background music. And I would do like a little fake, like, here's the thing we're talking about on off topic. Like, you know, so-and-so you didn't tip the waiter and so-and-so thinks they're a real jerk because of it or whatever. Um, then I, I connected with this guy named TJ, AKA Eurojax. He lived in Alaska. I was in New Hampshire at the time and TJ, uh, Eurojax came on board and kind of would do like the sports report. You know, he would just do some like, you know, just, just random weird, wacky stuff.

[00:41:15] Or like, you know, he'd be like chopper Dave with the traffic report and he'd get a helicopter sound effect and do a little, little, a little addition on the, this weekend OT thing. So we were doing that every week just for laughs. And then the owner of Nasiak approached us and said, Hey guys, how would you like to do like a video version of this weekend OT?

[00:41:36] Except have it be more about all of Nasiak, like have it be like a monthly update of everything going on in the whole forum, not just the off topic section, but you know, what's going on in the motor sports forum, what's going on in the engine and transmission forum, et cetera, et cetera. So we put this sort of wonky homespun video thing together. And, you know, like I, I took a camera to like a rally cross and covered that.

[00:42:01] And I, you know, uh, uh, Eurojax, I forget what he, maybe he did like a clutch install or something. And we kind of made this like janky knockoff homespun top gear, but for Subaru nerds and we put it on YouTube and it was super fun. Um, and we did, I think a total of six episodes and there was like months between each episode because anybody who has ever edited video knows it takes for freaking ever.

[00:42:30] Uh, I mean, editing audio is, is a little tricky for sure. Basically editing video takes on the order of between 10 and 30 times as much time and energy as audio. Uh, exactly why I don't do a YouTube. Yeah. YouTubers, you know, yeah, yeah. The power to you. So we did these episodes and they gradually got kind of like more and more polished. I mean, they were never perfect, but, um, they're out there on YouTube. If somebody wants to find them, you can look periodic review of Nasiak. It's kind of a mouthful.

[00:43:00] Um, and there's clips and then there's entire episodes broken up kind of into segments. We did like TSD rallies. We did, uh, we had a project car. We did like suspensions and gauges and stuff on, uh, we had sponsors at one point we were doing like commercials and stuff and making like a couple dollars, like literally just like a couple dollars, but paying a couple of bills. Basically. Um, it was like one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of. Uh, but it was also a lot of work. Yeah.

[00:43:26] We'll have to look it up and see if we can find that, but can you remind me what Nasiak stands for? Nasiak North American Subaru Impreza owners club. Okay. Nasiak, AKA Nabisco. Okay. Yeah. It's still out there. You know, soup, soupy guys who are looking for like, you know, oh crap, how do I make this fit on that or whatever? They do a Google search and there's some old Nasiak thread that pops up where someone had it figured out.

[00:43:53] You know, the image links are all probably dead, but like you kind of make your way through it and still find it. So I'm pretty sure that forum is still, is still active and still going. It's a good acronym for it. It's easy. It's a little bit of a mouthful. It is, but yeah, it does. So, uh, one of my questions was, do you drive a Subaru? But, uh, you already answered that. You said you've only owned Subarus, which I think is really, really cool. But I do own one non Subaru now. Oh man. It's a good one though. It's a good one. Okay.

[00:44:23] So what Subarus do you have now? But now, now I just have a 2018 Crosstrek in that, in that, uh, cool khaki gray, you know, that sort of slate blue color that like three quarters of them seem to be. Yeah. That's the color I almost got because I was looking for a manual and. That's, that's how I found mine. Do you have a manual? Oh yeah. Stick shift. Stick shift. No, no bells and whistles.

[00:44:48] It has, it has a reverse camera, but it does not have those stupid blind spot indicator lights on the sides. It has no bells. I love it. Yeah. Mine is a base model too. And, and I love it too. I mean, I've got, how many miles do you have on yours? Uh, I'm at about a hundred and 117,000, I think. Okay. Mine's a 21. I've got a hundred and 25,000. Well, bigger in Texas, you know, I've, I drive a lot and I've been.

[00:45:16] To some pretty far off places, but yeah, I, I love it. I mean, you know, anyway, so there was a, there's six Houston area dealerships. None of them had a manual, but there was, uh, the cool gray khaki one was sort of available in San Antonio, but a couple was looking at it. And the general manager said, if they don't get it, then you can have it. They ended up buying it. So then mine actually came from McKinney, Texas, which is North of Dallas.

[00:45:41] And, uh, I, I remember when the, so I sold my previous car to CarMax and then my salesperson said, oh, I'll just pick you up in, in your Crosstrek from CarMax. And I'm like, okay. Cause I didn't, I sold my car. I didn't have a way to get. So, so he came and picked me up and I was kind of nervous. Cause I'm like, man, I haven't driven a manual in a really long time, but, but I did great. So yeah, it's like riding a bike, you know? Yeah. And I had owned two manuals before that. So it was pretty easy to get back.

[00:46:12] Every Subaru I've ever owned has been a manual with the one exception of the SVX because they never offered that with a manual. Okay. Yeah. Gotta have a manual. It's more fun. And even though the Crosstrek is slow, it's such a great driving experience being a manual. I gotta say my, my wife has a 2019 Impresa and it's got the CVT and this may be an unpopular opinion, but the CVT ain't that bad. I kind of like it. It's, it's peppy. It, you know, it sticks to the power band, which is great. Yeah.

[00:46:41] My, my daughter has a 24 third gen Crosstrek and it's got the CVT and I, I enjoyed driving it. I don't hate it. I really don't. Yeah. I was thinking it might not be too bad having an automatic at some point. You know, that's, we're, we're that many years old, Raph. No, but my, my, so my, my one non-Subaru, I have a Miata. I have a 95 Miata. It also is a stick shift and man, that thing I'll, I'll keep that thing as long as I can. It's a ton of fun. I've heard those are fun.

[00:47:10] I've never driven one, but I would love to. That'd be a lot of fun. You can, you can tack it out through second gear and you'll be going 50 miles an hour. And like, so, you know, you can really drive the snot out of it and not, not get yourself into any real trouble. Yeah. That's good. How has being the voice of Subie events changed your life? Um, you know, they say, if you're saying like, never meet your heroes. Yeah. I've met some of mine and I'm here to tell you it's awesome. It's totally awesome.

[00:47:40] I mean, I got, I've had, I've had opportunities to sit and have like extended conversations with, with Bucky Lassick and Travis Pastrana and Rianna Gelsimino. And like, uh, I, I, you know, Patrick Sandell, I've met Scott speed, like a tons of these great people I've had an opportunity to sit down with. Um, it's also given me this remarkable opportunity to travel the country. Like I have had so many chances to go to places like Chicago and Portland, Oregon and, and places in Florida and Texas and California.

[00:48:10] Uh, you know, what, what a privilege, like, you know, a lot of my friends are just kind of like, where are you going now? Where are you going this weekend, Adam? And it's like, it's, it's just been a remarkable privilege to travel around and meet all of these really awesome people. And just like, hear these stories, you know, everyone's got their own story. They all kind of like, they all share kind of similar threads. You know, everyone's experience finding Subaru, getting into the brand and, you know, finding a car, maybe building one, breaking one, building it again.

[00:48:38] Um, just having that opportunity to meet all those people and, and see where they live and see where they get to drive around. It's just been totally, totally a privilege. Yeah. It is nice to travel. Sometimes it can be a bit much to travel, but it's, I find that having to pack and go to the airport and fly, it's like, oh, I'm not too excited about that. Yeah. The process kind of stinks. Yeah. But then when you get to your destination, it's like, oh man, this is totally worth it. Yep. So yeah. When you, yeah.

[00:49:07] When you, when you get to that, when you see that downtown skyline or you get to that really cool restaurant or you find that really awesome road or that incredible view, like it's worth every minute. Yep. Definitely. Do you see yourself filling this role for Subi events for a long time to come? It's been like way, it's been 20 years. Like, you know, I did wicked big meat in 2005. We're, we're at 20 years for me doing this basically. Like, I guess so. Holy smokes.

[00:49:37] Time flies. Yeah. Um, yeah. For like, as long as they'll have me, like, I would love to keep doing this. It is, it is a blast. And, um, you know, everything changes, uh, you know, everything changes. You just kind of never know what the next day is going to bring or the next year or the next five years. So, you know, what will happen will happen. Uh, whatever it will be, will be. Um, and, but I, I, I sure hope to, to stay on board for, for a long time. Well, we're glad to have you.

[00:50:05] It's always fun to, I mean, since I kind of got to know who you were at SubiFest, California, then it's like, I recognize that voice, you know, when you came to SubiFest, Texas. So it's, it's good to hear you up there. So you're welcome. Before we get into this last segment, you said you have some pro tips about autographs. I, okay. So I have pro tips about the events. So this is for, this is for anybody who's going to come to a Subi event for the first

[00:50:33] time, or maybe you're, you've come before and you're going to be coming again. Thank you very much, by the way, for coming to more than one of these things. Like you, you are the reason that we can keep doing this. Like to the people who come out to these events, like it's because you're coming that we're able to make these things happen. So, um, like I said, I have seen, I don't know, I lost count, but I'm, I'm going to guess maybe 50 of these events, maybe more. I don't know, but a lot, and I have seen some common recurring themes and I have kind of developed a list of what I call pro tips. So here we go.

[00:51:01] Uh, first of all, have your ticket or ID ready when you come up to claim your trophy or your giveaway prize. Okay. If you win something, we need to make sure you are the right person when you come up to claim it. So just have your ticket out or your ID just so we can go. Yes, that's the, that's the John Smith who won, you know, first place, uh, in the, uh, old school and present category or whatever it might be. So have your ticket or your ID out when you come up to claim your prize.

[00:51:28] Now, if you want an autograph, we get some really awesome guests signing autographs. The lines for the autographs can often get very, very long. So basically if you want an autograph, my advice is to find out where they are going to be happening and when they are going to start and get in line early. So what you're going to be doing is you're going to be standing there with nobody at the autograph table, but eventually they are going to show up and start signing autographs

[00:51:56] and then you'll have waited and then they'll sign your autograph and you'll be gone. And everybody who was behind you will still be waiting at some point. I mean, the people who come our guests to sign autographs, you know, your Travis, your Bucky, Rhiannon, they've got a lot on their agenda for the day. So at some point they're going to have to stop and move on to their next task. And like you sort of saw Raf, like there will be a sort of end of line sign that shows up at some point. And if you're behind that sign, like, sorry, heartbreaker. It sucks. Usually though, they will come back for another session later in the day.

[00:52:24] So just again, if you want an autograph, kind of think about being in line early rather than kind of finding your way to the line late. Now, if you want to enter the exhaust competition, same sort of thing. The exhaust competition is a sort of a legendary part of all of these events. And it's only open to usually about 10 to 15 entries per event. So if you want your car in the exhaust competition, go early to the info booth, find out when the registration opens and just be there a little early.

[00:52:51] So you make sure you're near the front of the line, because again, once that fills up, they're going to cut off entry. And remember to the only cars that are eligible to enter the exhaust comp are cars that are parked in general parking. So if you're in the autocross, if you're in the car show, or if you have a vendor car, you are not eligible for the exhaust competition. But if you're just a guest, if you're here as a guest, like in your cars in general parking, you are eligible. We'll explain to you how you can pull it in safely and all that. They go through all that.

[00:53:19] But again, be kind of early for exhaust comp sign up if you want to make sure to get in. Yeah. Just touching on that real quick. I know that people have purposefully not entered the car show because they wanted to be in the exhaust competition. Ah, yeah. So yeah, that's awesome. I love it. And the exhaust comp, like I said a little while ago, can get hella loud. I mean, it really can, depending on where you're standing too. Now we measure from the rear. Some of the cars who enter have hood exit or side exit exhausts, which sounds awesome, but

[00:53:49] actually works against them when it comes to the competition officially. So informally, we will often put the decibel reader off to the side just to get a reading. But the official rule is we measure from the rear. So if you're standing behind the car, really where the action is happening, earplugs are a pretty good idea, especially if you have kids with you. Yeah. Now, in terms of like waiting in lines, which is a thing that can kind of happen, like you can wait in a line to get into the event, then wait to park. Then you kind of wait to get your ticket scanned.

[00:54:20] If there's a line at the info booth for t-shirts and goodie bags, if you have a voucher, you can come back later. Like you don't have like first thing in the morning when everyone rolls in, usually the info booth kind of gets slammed and a lot of people want to turn in their vouchers and get their goodie bags immediately. But if you have a voucher, we have a goodie bag for you. We have a t-shirt for you if you have a voucher. So you don't have to line up for your t-shirt immediately. You can just kind of go in, explore the event, then go back to the info booth a little later to get your t-shirt or your goodie bag.

[00:54:50] Now, like I said, there's lines to park. There's lines to get in. The first thing in the morning, it's like a bum rush to get in. There's a lot of people all showing up at once from all corners of the area, right? Here's the thing. Unless you're in the car show or the autocross, you don't have to arrive first thing in the morning. You can be a couple of hours late. All the activities will still be there. If you want to avoid the big crowd to get in, I would say aim to arrive a couple hours after the event starts.

[00:55:18] But then I totally understand the excitement of wanting to be the first one through the gate or just get there early. Like it's like, you know, waking up for work, like, oh, this sucks. Waking up on wicked big meat day, like, hell yeah, let's go. It's four in the morning. But it's a long day. And this is my next tip is that like, it's a long day. The event takes place usually in a parking lot. The giveaways happen all the way at the end of the day. So you're going to probably be out on the sun. It's going to be hot. Dress appropriately.

[00:55:48] Wear sunscreen. Hydrate. Eat. Hydrate again. Like keep drinking water. There's almost, we always have like a dedicated shade tent at the events. Usually it's near wherever the food vendors are. There's tables and chairs under the shade tent. So find that. Use that. The learning center is fully shaded. Go back to your car. Run the AC for a while. Then come back to the event. And then if you bring a dog or a child, please take extra care to make sure that they are safe and comfortable.

[00:56:18] Like doggy paws on hot asphalt. It's bad news. So like I've seen actually a lot of people bring those like little doggy shoes kinds of things. And I love to see that. Like I really do. Go ahead. Yeah. Just speaking of hydrating, Subaru usually has a little water station there with a bunch of cups and spouts. So there's, there's really no excuse to not stay hydrated. Yeah. The cups of the cups are free. The cups are, I have a handful of those cups in my cabin. Yeah. Yeah. They're great.

[00:56:45] Um, uh, uh, if you want a really cool, um, experience, uh, consider volunteering. Uh, volunteers are a huge part of the reason that these events can successfully happen. And basically we have our core team, you know, it's, uh, about a dozen or give or take folks who travel to each event. But then at each event, we work with the local community to recruit a pretty substantial number of volunteers to really help the event run. Now, if you're a volunteer, you get in early, uh, you get to look behind the scenes.

[00:57:14] You get to really kind of be part of the team. Remember I was sort of saying, like, I love to see the event from backstage sort of like volunteers get that opportunity. And then if you're at the event as a volunteer, once we're through with teardown, uh, you get to be part of the volunteer giveaway. And what, what the, what Con and Rob do is they're able to get some extra special prizes that are only available to volunteers. And these can be like parts off of a rally car, which you might take home and hang in your

[00:57:40] garage or really special autographed items for some of our, our, our guests. Like, um, and again, if you have ever volunteered at one of our events, thank you. Like, thank you so much. Uh, and so again, like if you, if you think about volunteering, reach out, uh, there's usually an email that goes around that says, Hey, want to volunteer? Click here, go for it. It's tons of fun. It's, it's work. I won't lie, but like, it's a lot of fun. And then my last pro tip, and I'm actually graph, I'm going to need your help in a minute here with this. Okay.

[00:58:09] Don't drive like a D word on your way to, or from the event. Now, local police at every event we do are very aware that your car can go super fast and they will be more than happy to issue you some kind of a citation or impound your vehicle. If you decide to demonstrate how fast your car can go on public roads.

[00:58:33] Now we have an overwhelmingly amazing relationship with all the local officials everywhere we go. They all come to us and they say, you guys, you know, put on a great event. The crowd is incredibly well-behaved, like come back anytime. And so we want to, we really want to keep that. So, um, please drive like really nicely on the way to the event and on the way home. Like we always, we inevitably find out about somebody who like tried to drift their BRZ onto

[00:59:01] the on-ramp and accidentally overcooked it and looped it. And now it's in a ditch and they need a tow. Like, just don't be that person. Just please drive nicely. And so I said, don't drive like a D word. Now at every event, the team picks a word that begins with the letter D and we tell people not to drive like that. Now, um, it's gotta be family friendly. It's gotta be sort of radio safe in the past D words have been, you know, don't drive like a dingleberry. Uh, don't drive like a ding dong. Don't drive like a doofus.

[00:59:31] Uh, we get a little creative with it and, and Raphael, I'd, I'd like to ask if you would pick our first D word for this year to use at wicked big meat. So this is something that my daughter, I don't, I'm sure she heard it somewhere, but I heard this word for the first time from my daughter, I think maybe when she was in junior high or something, but, uh, she said dinglehopper. Dinglehopper. I am familiar with dinglehopper. I love it.

[01:00:02] Dinglehopper. It is okay. Our first D word don't drive like a dinglehopper. So friends, if you're coming to wicked big meat, if you're coming to Subi Fest, Texas, if you're coming to Subi Fest, Florida, if you're coming to boxer fest, don't drive like a dinglehopper. All right. Good one, Raph. Thank you. Glad I got to be a part of that. That's fun. That concludes my pro tips. All right. All right. Thank you, Adam. Okay. So this last segment is a little bit of getting to know my guest a little bit more.

[01:00:31] So first question is who is Adam as in like, describe yourself. I am, uh, I mean, I, I am a morning radio DJ. I am an amateur race car driver. I am a professional karaoke singer, and I am an aspiring trivia host. Very nice. A lot of fun things going on there. Yeah, I definitely, uh, I've worked in food service catering. I've worked in media technology.

[01:01:00] I've worked graveyard shifts. I've been a general manager. I've worked for nonprofit radio stations and commercial radio stations. Um, I've had just, uh, my jobs have taken me to a lot of really cool places and, um, um, I've had some really fun side gigs and I've used some of the money now to, to, uh, rent a seat in a BMW race car, uh, for 24 hours of lemons races and also some champ car races. Very nice. Yeah. That sounds fun. Yeah.

[01:01:26] It's, uh, depending on the profession that you go into, it can definitely bring up about some, some pretty cool opportunities. Yeah. Yeah. They say radio doesn't pay very well and I'm here to tell you, it does not, but it opens a lot of doors and, and you can use, you can definitely use that to your advantage. Yeah. And you just, you know, like doing subie events, you get an opportunity to, like you said, meet your heroes and interview a lot of really cool people. So, uh, definitely worth it.

[01:01:56] So where were you born? Uh, I've always, well, I've lived in new England, most of my life. Well, not, not most of my life. Anyway, I was born in Boston. Uh, and when I was three, my parents moved us to the end of a dirt road in New Hampshire and that's where I grew up. So New Hampshire is where I spent most of my sort of childhood adolescence. All right. Well, speaking of childhood, what is a favorite memory from your childhood? Um, uh, at that house at the end of the dirt road, it was an old farmhouse. There was a medium sized field next to it.

[01:02:26] And when I bought my first Subaru, I set up a de facto rally cross course in the field which my parents were not excited about. Uh, I D beated my very first tire in that field, uh, and really had a blast and started to learn a couple of things about, about car control out there. Well, that sounds fun. And, uh, did, were they eventually okay with it? Nope. No. So it never became okay. No, it was never okay. I eventually moved out and you know, that was that. Yeah.

[01:02:56] All right. Fine. Whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so, uh, I guess what you, cause Subi events is not your full-time job, I'm guessing because they're just, you know, part of the job or part of the year, but hell of a sidekick, you know? Oh, I can imagine. But so what you do for a living and I mean, it seems like you've got a few different things going on. Would you say that what you do is a dream job? Um, yeah, I, I've definitely got a lot of irons and a lot of fires.

[01:03:24] I think I have, you know, I have one full-time job and I probably have at least three different sort of side hustles. Um, but I am absolutely, I would say living the dream. Like none of it really feels like work. It's all a ton of fun. I get to meet cool people, go to cool places, do fun activities and somehow get paid for it. Um, I, I, I really couldn't have written myself a better job description. Yeah.

[01:03:50] That's, that's always, you know, and not everybody has the ability or I guess the, the fortune to be able to do something that they really enjoy as a career. And like you said that to where it doesn't feel like a job. So that's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. I know plenty of people who are stuck in pretty miserable situations. And I mean, I will just say like, uh, it's easier said than done sometimes, but you can just start doing something like, you know, Raph, if you wanted to,

[01:04:20] start a podcast, you could just start a podcast these days. I mean, you know, you might not have a lot of listeners at first, but if you kind of keep at it and lean into it, you might find you have a couple, two, three, four, five, 600, maybe thousand listeners eventually. Yeah. And potentially end up having an interview with the guy that is the voice of Subi events. And Travis Pastrana. I heard that episode. It's fantastic. Like, wow. Thank you. How cool. Yeah.

[01:04:47] I, I still feel very blessed that that was able to happen. And it's just, you know, that was, it's knowing the right people. And it was, of course, I was very thankful to have him on. And it was a lot of fun for me to like, because like, as I was talking to him, I was just, it was a very surreal moment, you know? But at the same time, I'm like, I'm just talking to another person, you know? Yes. Of course it's Travis Pastrana, but you know, at the end of the day, he's another person and he's a, he's a dude. We're all dudes.

[01:05:16] Like it's, you know, yeah. Yeah. But so it was a lot of people in the community that listened to the podcast that would just kept saying for like the past two years, you know, you got to get Travis on, you got to get Travis on. I'm like, I would love to get Travis on, but I can't just call him up and say, Hey, Travis, you want to do my podcast? But again, knowing the right people and being very thankful for that, for them, you know, to help make it happen. And, uh, and it was a lot of fun.

[01:05:41] So yeah, like, like you, like me, or me like you, I get a chance to meet some pretty awesome people and have them in as guests and then also meet them out at the events and being part of the events, being, having the opportunity to kind of go behind the scenes and, you know, be behind the booth and, and everything and get there a little early and talk to people. That's, you know, I feel very blessed to be able to do that. Yeah.

[01:06:07] It, it, it starts sort of, it starts small, like it, not, you don't just jump into interviewing Travis. Like you, you, you start like, I got it. There's a cut, cut to me 20 years ago, hauling my little wonky PA to Neshoba Valley ski area to, to sort of play CDs during wicked big meat. Now it's fast forward 20 years and it's developed into a part-time career. So, you know, it doesn't just happen overnight, but you know, you, you kind of, you find something you love doing, you lean into it.

[01:06:37] And if it, if it works, you keep leaning into it. Now there's, there's, there's, there've been times when you try to do something, it doesn't really work out and you're kind of scrambling and struggling and you know what, you know what, this isn't working. I have to cut ties, abandon ship, whatever, but if it works and you stick with it, it can, things can develop. Yeah, definitely. What is something that makes you want to get out of bed every day? Uh, the thought that I will be able to get back into bed later on. That's a really good one. I've never had that answer before.

[01:07:05] Well, I mean, working in sort of media and radio and entertainment, there is a little bit of a, like the show must go on kind of thing. Like I morning show DJ, like I, I am out of my house at five 15. In the morning, five days a week. And I'm on the air at 6 AM bright eyed and bushy tailed no matter what. Um, and so that's just kind of become a little bit of a mantra for me as it's just like, there's, there's no question like this, you know, you're not going to just go like, wait, I'm like, I don't feel like going to work today. No, you just make it happen.

[01:07:35] It's gotta, it's gotta happen. Yep. What is something that makes you want to stay in bed? Uh, I just, I am like just about everything. Like I am very much a homebody. Like I, my, my ideal weekend is like on Monday I leave for work and I'm like, huh, the door is still locked because I never left the house this weekend. Like I, so like any excuse I have to stay in bed or stay in the house. Like I'm going to take it. Yeah, no, I get that. I get that.

[01:08:02] What would be your best bit of advice to give to someone about anything? Um, one, one of the pieces of advice has sort of already rolled out in this chat a couple of times and that's the sort of just like, do your thing. Like if you want to, if you want to make something happen, like you kind of can like when, uh, there's that whole periodic review and ASIOC thing, like it was, you know, somebody just sort of said like, Hey, make a video news series about Subarus.

[01:08:28] We just kind of like went for it and it was a little wonky at first, but we got better and better at it. So like do your thing is, is a piece of advice that I've gotten that I would give to just about anybody else, like be you lean into it. And if there's something you want to do, like find a way to just start doing it, which might seem like a huge ask, but you might be able to find a way to just kind of start dip your toe in the water, whatever it might be. And, and it develops into something pretty awesome.

[01:08:55] Um, now at the radio station I work at, we get tour groups through all the time. Like the local high school will send their media production class out and, you know, we show them through the studios and explain how radio works and everything. And then I, I kind of always give the same pieces of advice to these kids who are like, you know, junior seniors in high school about to kind of go off into the world and get real jobs and sort of try to find their way. And I say, um, there are like kind of three pieces of advice I can give you to help you

[01:09:22] succeed in the world of working with and around other people. And one of them is be punctual. And then the next is be reliable. And then finally be somebody that other people want to be around. And that, that third one can be a real challenge. Um, but, but it's definitely doable. And all three of those together, punctuality, reliability, and just generally being somebody that people enjoy being around will make you a desirable factor in kind of any workplace.

[01:09:51] Yeah, that's very good advice. And it's very true, especially the, the be reliable because it seems like there's not a lot of that as, as much these days, especially with younger people. But, you know, it is, it is good to see it when there is somebody that's young and like working hard and, you know, really just kind of going after it, whatever it is that they're doing, even if it's like, you know, if they're doing something that they don't necessarily enjoy,

[01:10:17] but, you know, they're there and they're reliable and, uh, just, I don't know. I like that. It's good stuff. It's tough when you're young. I remember when I was young, I flaked out on a bunch of stuff for sure. And as you get older, you kind of get better at this kind of thing. But again, if you put effort and energy into, into being punctual and reliable, you can do it at any age. Definitely. Yep. Was there anything else that you wanted to share before we close this out? Uh, I, again, I just want to thank everybody who has ever come to a SUV event.

[01:10:45] And if you've been to one in the past and like, you haven't been in a while, I want to invite you to come back because again, the trajectory that these things are on is just steadily upward. They're always getting bigger and better and more fun. Uh, we've had some incredible cars in motion. We had, we had the family Huckster in motion on track simultaneously with, uh, Bucky's rally cross car Betty this past year. It was a marvel to watch those two cars together.

[01:11:12] We've had just some incredible guests, uh, some unbelievable vendors and some really, really cool venues. So if you haven't been to a SUV event in a while, please come back. Um, and I just like, I gotta say thank you to Austin anti-gravity batteries. He has just done just great things with us and with our team. And Austin, I want to thank you, buddy. Yeah. Thank you for taking the time to record with me. And it's, it's been fun putting together this little three-part series with people from SUV events.

[01:11:39] And I'm thankful that Khan reached out to me and, uh, got me in touch with you and with Brick. And, uh, so it's been fun for me to be able to share these stories and information with, uh, listeners. So thank you. Keep doing what you're doing, man. You were doing a fantastic job and a really, really cool thing in the community. Thank you. I appreciate that. It's, it's been a lot of fun and, uh, it's, uh, I get a chance to just talk to everyday people and hear their stories about what they're doing with their Subarus and then get a chance

[01:12:09] to talk to some, you know, other people that are a little well and more known in the community. So it's all been fun. Very cool. Yep. Well, thank you again. And I hope you have a good rest of your night and, uh, I'll see you at Subie Fest, Texas. You sure will, my friend. All right. Thank you. All right. That wraps up this Subie events series with Adam from Subie events talking about being the MC and the voice at all the Subie Fest events. Thank you so much, Adam, for taking the time.

[01:12:38] And thank you so much, Khan, for introducing me to Adam. It was great having him on. So when you're at Wicked Big Meet this weekend, or you're at Boxer Fest or any of the Subie Fest events throughout the season, and you hear that announcer voice coming over or coming through the speakers. Now, you know who it is and you know a little bit more about him. And again, I'm very grateful for the opportunity to, the opportunity to do, for the opportunity

[01:13:06] to have had Adam on the podcast to talk about his role at Subie events. And, uh, again, grateful for Subie events for putting this together and allowing me to share their stories and share this with all of you. So thank you all so much. I hope you all have a great week. And for those of you that are able to make it to Wicked Big Meet coming up this weekend, I hope you have an amazing time. I hope you get to meet a lot of friends that maybe you haven't seen in a while,

[01:13:33] meet some new people, see some celebrities, and, uh, go by and wave hi at the booth and say, hey, I heard you on the Subie and You podcast. What's up, Adam? So again, thank you all so much. I'll talk to you later. Much Subie love. Raph.