Selig & Stretton: Fund Your Passion Podcast Episode 10

SPEAKERS

Darren Selig, Shmee150, Amanda Stretton

 

Amanda Stretton 

Hello and welcome to another podcast, a video podcast. No less. We’re back in person. fund your passion podcast brought to you by JBR Capital. Joining me, of course is my trusty sidekick.

 

Darren Selig 

Hello, how are you?

 

Amanda Stretton 

Hoarse

 

Darren Selig 

You are very hoarse. What a pair we are today that we’ve hobbled our way over to the schmuseum.

 

Shmee150 

Welcome.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Oh, Are we welcoming you? Are you welcoming us? We’re here in your schmuseum,

 

Shmee150 

I suppose both ways around. Right.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Tim, thank you very much hosting us today.

 

Shmee150 

Pleasure.

 

Amanda Stretton 

And, okay, let’s start the obvious question schmuseum, tell us about the idea behind it. Yes, tell us the story.

 

Shmee150 

I guess this is something I was actually planning for a very long time trying to find the right location, both to store my growing car collection, but also as a venue to shoot videos to create content to have a space, you know, to have the opportunity to expand what I’ve been doing, with Shmee150. And then here we are in the early stages, still, but it’s exciting.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Early stages, obviously, you’ve got big plans. At the moment, it just looks like a barn. But we’re going to come on to the plans and what you’ve got. What you’ve got in mind for it later on. Obviously, it’s lovely to see all the cards here is everything, or is there more hiding?

 

Shmee150 

There are a couple currently missing most things here, I’ve done my best to try and bring all the cards down today. And to get everything here but a couple of outs because I think it’s pretty much the norm when you have a collection of cards that you use as much as we do with everything here something is always out being fixed being serviced at an event somewhere or just on display. There are always some cars that are missing. I have one car over in the USA at the moment. And then there are a couple dotted around some garages here and there.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Okay, so you are certainly to my mind, the person who sort of defined what it means to be an influencer around cars you are to my mind, you kicked it all off. Do you see it that way. It’s how did it all start? And just let’s also talk about Shmee. What is Shmee? Tim?

 

Shmee150 

This is the funny thing, right? This all started for me. A long time ago, I was posting pictures online back in around 2007 2008. And I moved into videos on YouTube in 2010. And at the time, people wouldn’t really have known what YouTube was it wasn’t it wasn’t a thing. Social media wasn’t a thing. This is one of the craziest things for me is I’ve been uploading videos, basically daily, since before platforms like Instagram or Snapchat even existed. That’s one of the kind of strange concepts but how quickly all of this has grown. And certainly the total time an influencer or a YouTuber didn’t exist. So Shmee was just my personal online nickname, my gamer name, my website, you know, username for different things. And it was where I happen to upload videos of what I loved, which was cars going to events like the Geneva Motor Show or the Goodwood Festival of Speed or stuff I would see around London, for example, just going for a walk, I live near South Kensington where all of the nice cars would often be spotted, and just uploaded you know videos. And at the time, it was a very small community. There were a couple of other channels I was watching. And I thought it was so cool people had 100 subscribers or 500 subscribers, subscribers or something like this. And I thought it was so exciting. And you got to meet, obviously digitally, virtually, people who shared the same passion. So that was one of the biggest drivers for me was that people would comment on my stuff, who loved the same thing that I loved. And you know, this, this car spotting community group.

 

Darren Selig 

So back in the day, I remember because I did see some of them. You are literally on your bike chasing cars down the road, like a mad person with a camera one hand try not to fall off. I’m not sure. How did that work? And I’m assuming other people were doing it or started doing it. And was it like a little community?

 

Shmee150 

There was I mean, nowadays, obviously every mobile phone has a camera back then the camera on your mobile phone was not good enough to do this. It was very much for me at the beginning that I had a point and shoot camera. And then I had I had been playing around with tape camcorders and then ripping the tape to my computer. It was you know, a different game to what it is now. But like he said, there were a couple of people going out and we would meet up on a Saturday afternoon. And you know, it was almost like a social activity to go out and go see what we could find. And then there was just this excitement, you know, like you said, I would be on my pedal bike running, blasting around town.

 

Amanda Stretton 

How old were you at this point?

 

Shmee150 

So I guess I’m starting I would have been in my young 20s, 21, 22 at that point. And it was just I don’t know, it was I guess it was an odd thing to be doing. But it was so much fun than you could get from traffic lights traffic light quicker on a bicycle than any car could so if you’re chasing a Ferrari Enzo down the road, you follow it the whole way through because the bikes the quickest way around.

 

Darren Selig 

And did you have a day job while you were doing all this?

 

Shmee150 

I did have a day job I worked in a in an office in the city. So this was a weekends and evenings activity.

 

Darren Selig 

So Tim, we’re in the fabulous schmuseum and you’re Shmee. I’m not quite sure what that makes me but anyway. So where did Shmee come from the name. Is there a history to that?

 

Shmee150 

Well, this is the thing, right? It was never planned. This wasn’t, let’s say, a business idea of a business plan for and said, Yes, this is going to work. It was very much transitioning my online presence into creating content specifically for the purpose. So it’s kind of funny story. Shmee was just a nickname I made up once for a website. And the 150 on the name came because once upon a time Shmee was already taken, and it offered me Shmee 0000 Shmee 98765 or Shmee 150, which was the shortest so I just clicked it done. point on it was set. Obviously, Shmuseum is a bit of a play. We have a few a few funny terms, you could say like this, the scheemobiles we do Shmeetings, which are the meetups, the schmuseum, it’s very cliche. It’s just a bit of fun.

 

Darren Selig 

You can do some schmoozing. Terrible, but anyway, what can I say?

 

Amanda Stretton 

No. Obviously, you started off with this sort of niche, if you like, following. But it has grown, it’s gone. Bananas. I mean, now you must find that you’re recognised. Probably places that you never expected to be recognised.

 

Shmee150 

Yeah, that that is one of the craziest things to me is that obviously, it’s a very global platform. Being on social media, and especially cars, it speaks through every different language barrier, every different cultural barrier. Loads of people around the world, obviously share this passion. And that’s one of the most, I think, fascinating things that I feel so excited and a position I’m lucky to be in that I, wherever I go around the world, I can probably meet somebody who is in the same, of the same mindset. I think it’s, you know, obviously from being recognised places, it’s funny still to me, when I like somebody in my building where I live or something like that, that says, like hello, Oh, can you hide anywhere? But I know, I’m not complaining about it. Because it’s, it’s a really cool thing where this is kind of evolved

 

Amanda Stretton 

You never expected it in the beginning.

 

Shmee150 

No. And you know, this is this goes back, I think, again, to if somebody starts on social media, now there’s an understanding of where it can go and what it can become. But obviously, I’ve kind of been riding that wave the whole way through and learning as we go, because there was nothing to look at, or nothing to take an example from.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Were there ever times, because as you say, social media, and the platforms that you can broadcast on has just exploded? Were there ever times where you thought, oh, okay, I’m not sure I might oversharing. Where does that line?

 

Shmee150 

Yeah, you know, it’s, it’s really hard because where you obviously have to find this balance. And there are lots of different channels who go about things in different ways, we always, almost consider it’s a bit like you either have a relationship type channel with your audience, or you have an ideas based channel. And we’re planning our content more towards the idea. So every video focuses around a particular activity, or an event or a new car, or something that’s almost a bit more standalone, as opposed to the daily vlogging, where you would film your breakfast and you know, your whole family and that kind of thing. So it’s one of the things that’s actually really, I think, helped keep me, let’s say, a little bit more sane going through it all is by having this split between watch me and what’s Tim? Yeah, which, which certainly helps a lot.

 

Darren Selig 

So you started out as a hobby, you were had a day job in the city somewhere, doing something i don’t know boring, like me.

 

Shmee150 

Working working banking in the finance industry.

 

Darren Selig 

And, and so where was the tipping point where you thought, Oh, this is quite cool, I can actually earn an income out of this, and, you know, and then take that plunge to make the move.

 

Shmee150 

So in the early days, and this is one of the things a lot of people don’t realise now, but back in 2010, for example, you didn’t earn any money, uploading a video to YouTube, that was not a thing. This has all happened since. So it was all very much passion led at the beginning. But I think in late 2010, maybe 2011 that came in. And, you know, I remember getting my first month and it was like a £1.60. I was like, Yeah, this is cool. wasn’t gonna make me leave my job for that. But it built up a little bit. And you know, it got to a point after a couple of years, maybe three years or so not where it was going to be paying, you know, paying off my monthly lease on a nice car or something like that. But it was a little bit of money. And I was thinking, hey, maybe, you know, maybe if I go at this more, more full on that would be possible to do something. And I was super lucky that I worked in a very small company, a boutique firm and had a good relationship with the CO CEOs. And they made it possible effectively for me to go from a full time salary to a four day, three day and open up a bit more time to do this as well. And obviously, without them, I wouldn’t have been able to make that leap because I wouldn’t have been, I don’t think I would have been mad enough at the time to say yes, I’m giving up my job to go fully, you know, fully on for this. And then eventually, you know, it started building up a bit more and I said to myself, you know if I’m ever going to give it a go, now’s the time. It was a difficult year after that. I’m not going to lie because things are kind of peaked and then fell off a little bit afterwards. But I was persistent and kept going. And thankfully all kind of turned around started.

 

Darren Selig 

Well, I think your, kind of onto something. I mean, how many YouTube followers do you have? Now?

 

Shmee150 

It’s a big old number now. Yeah, I think it’s about 2.3 million subscribers on YouTube plus a similar number on Facebook and Instagram. So it’s, it’s taken off a bit.

 

Amanda Stretton 

You must have to pinch yourself. But obviously, with that many subscribers and followers, there is a expectation and a desire for you to keep pushing out more and more content. How I mean, you’ve talked about that being ideas based now, rather than what was the other relationship relation or the daily vlogging? So how do you come up with that? And how, you know, how do you finance it? Because of course, you know, once you’ve done a video on one of the cars, you know, how do you plan it? Because obviously, you’re not going to get rid of them what you might, but…

 

Shmee150 

Some, some do. No. So it’s, you know, from the outset, obviously, I’m lucky to be working in an industry where there are constantly new things coming along. Yeah, there are always new cars, it’s been a slower year, as manufacturers have backed off the pace a little bit. But in general, general terms, there are always new cars coming along. So that almost opens up the opportunity to I’m not gonna say completely redo something you’ve already done. But you know, there are lots of new cars to try to test drive to feature content around and new storylines to build up as well. I think in total, I’ve made approximately 5000 YouTube videos now. So there’s a lot of stuff I’ve done that I can’t even remember. Yeah, it’s it’s, it’s quite serious. Sometimes I look at a video from kind of five years ago that I shall say, Wow, I completely forgot I did that.

 

Darren Selig 

You need to give me a bit of training. I’m still on photographing what I’ve had for breakfast part.

 

Shmee150 

But noo, obviously, one of the fundamental niches for me has always been our tagline, which is living the supercar dream and sharing the whole experience around cars, you know, such as the main cars in the garage here. And that almost runs right through from the first time seeing a new model to the first time getting to drive it to going through the specifications, going through the delivery, taking it for the first time on a road trip, first track day, laps of the Nurburgring, modifying the car, whatever it might be down the line, and almost building those storylines and bringing the audience along for the journey.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Are you slightly surprised that people are interested in that much detail?

 

Shmee150 

No, well, I understand it, because it’s what I wanted to watch. And it wasn’t out there. So it was what I was fascinated to watch that I couldn’t really see, I now really enjoy sharing, because you know, I meet so many people along the way. And this is one of the crazy things I meet so many people who are inspired by what they’ve seen or, you know, enjoy both entertainment and the information side of this kind of content. And I think it’s one of the most rewarding things is knowing that other people really enjoy what you’re doing and pushes you forward with doing it.

 

Darren Selig 

But so, so you’re living the supercar dream. That’s your, your tagline so to speak. And clearly you are living the supercar dream is that what inspired you to move from chasing cars down the road to actually buying and owning your own collection, so to speak, because, you know, you can still produce content without actually owning, I’m not even going to count. But alot of cars.

 

Shmee150 

It’s been an evolutionary process for me, you know, I think, going through time, social media has changed in terms of how much of what type of content is out there, you know, at the start, I was one of the only people who was car spotting, I then became one of the only people who was going initially to the early test drives and manufacturers. Now I was building those relationships that motor shows and events with the PR representatives, for example, from car companies to go on the global media launches, and feeling very lost at the time, you know, when I was sitting there with the array of journalists who I was reading and following, and wondering what on earth I was doing, but somehow that became possible. And you know, that then has grown a lot. So I became much more about sharing a bit more of the ownership experience and the road trip experience with different cars. And now that’s become much more covered, let’s say in the industry and now it’s more about managing and maintaining a car collection. So it’s something that’s grown. I think this is the you know, the interesting connection to what you were saying when it comes to cars, for example, you know, obviously for me, being able to finance a car can be part of let’s say that cars or almost strange to set that business plan because it’s part of what could I purchase? What would be interesting, what storyline would we make around this what the audience wants to see? So it’s, it might become long term, everything hangs around because I’m a bit of a hoarder. I don’t want to let anything go.

 

Amanda Stretton 

But presumably everything that you’ve decided to buy, you’ve decided to buy for a reason.

 

Shmee150 

Yeah. So you know, it’s a really difficult one because if you were playing, let’s say purely for the clicks, you would be Lamborghini, Lamborghini, Lamborghini Lamborghini throwing the occasional Ferrari or Porsche because that’s what how the internet works. So I’ve not ever played it completely like that?

 

Amanda Stretton 

There isnt a Ferrari?

 

Shmee150 

Not at the moment. So very soon. I’ve recently said fairwell to one but have one or maybe more than one coming. Little teaser. Yeah. But for me, it’s you know, I was always a big McLaren fan as they’ve been growing and coming up through the ranks. I’ve owned a number of different Mclarens. And I really like brands who cover, let’s say, the entire spectrum, which is a personal thing, but also a content and audience type thing. For example, Mercedes and Ford are the two brands from whom I own the most cars because you have everything with Ford, from hot hatch to a muscle car to the GT supercar. Same with Mercedes they make pickup trucks, G waggons, but also the AMG, one hypercar. And I think it’s, you know, there’s so much more connection with a brand like that, because it’s more relatable on so many levels, which is always obviously played through on the content, as well as being my, like, personal interest. So it’s, it’s kind of led from both sides.

 

Amanda Stretton 

I guess, with that mind to evolution, it’s easy to then find more ideas for content, because you’re not just sticking to one, one channel or one idea and just, you know, making a new video.

 

Shmee150 

Exactly. It’s always, it’s always a bit of an experiment, you need to not be afraid to try things. So for example, the schmuseum now has its own channel that comes along with it. And this was one of the things I wanted to do to make it much more of the relationship daily vlog. So the content that we create here is much more about what’s going on with the garage, even if it’s something as simple as a car has a leak, or needs an MOT annual roadworthiness check, or whatever it might be. That’s the thing that a lot of people around the world wouldn’t really know about, and a lot of people are interested in. Because the reality is, yeah, it’s very easy to look around and say this looks amazing. But if you think about it with a garage of 18 odd cars or something, that’s pretty much like two a month going out for something, or maybe more. And that’s before I take trips and something inevitably happens, whatever needs to be done with it.

 

Darren Selig 

Okay, I’ve got a question for you. And I’ve been thinking about this since I’ve arrived. Which one of these cars could you fit two Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs into. Becuase Amanda has two dogs and she’s desperately trying to find a car to fit them into.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Right I have two dogs. Well, I now no longer need to drive my children around. So I don’t need a big SUV. I’m trying to downsize. But I still need to carry my dogs.

 

Shmee150 

Are smaller cars a bit dogs then?

 

Amanda Stretton 

Yeah they are big dogs.

 

Darren Selig 

I said downgrade the dogs. But that wasn’t going to work.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Every time every time we’ve done this conversation, it’s yeah, we talk about what can I get my dogs in the back?

 

Shmee150 

That’s not a problem I’ve ever tried to.

 

Amanda Stretton 

If you have any good ideas do Yeah, because I’m trying to I’d like to go smaller.

 

Shmee150 

You need like a hatch or something that doesn’t, that isn’t an extended thing. Something like a defender 90 or something like that.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Once again, it’s just still too big. I’d like to go small. I’d like to go small. Anyway, we digress.

 

Shmee150 

You could get a hatch back and take out the rear seats.

 

Darren Selig 

 We still haven’t resolved this long burning issue.

 

Amanda Stretton 

I’m still waiting for somebody to come up with a solution for me. But anyway. So if you weren’t doing this, what do you think your life would have been? Like?

 

Shmee150 

I think I probably had my life much more or less mapped out before, which would have been staying in my office job and you know, progressing through a career path and business as usual, I guess we could say, and this was a bit of a curveball.

 

Amanda Stretton 

You would of just stayed in banking? I personally,

 

Shmee150 

I mean, it’s impossible to know, right? I’ve always been a person who’s kind of taken chances we could say and just go out and try things. Like when I was I’ve always been trading things online as selling a lot of things on eBay as a 14 year old, for example.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Given the amount of storage and building, yeah, and sold anything.

 

Shmee150 

Yeah, so that’s all a lot of things, thankfully, well, when I was 19 actually then opened a shop in London to sell electronics that I was importing. And then a few months later, I sold out that business and went and became a ski instructor for a bit and then came back and worked in the city. So I literally, I just decided spontaneously, it’s time for something new.

 

Darren Selig 

Let’s face it when you came home until your family

 

Shmee150 

I’m leaving my job.

 

Darren Selig 

We can make videos on cars they probably thought that was quite normal.

 

Shmee150 

Well, normal kind of response for me, but this would be odd now. Put yourself back in 2013. Yeah, that concept was completely kind of alien people like well, what do you do? How does that work? How do you make any money doing this

 

Amanda Stretton 

I remeber the first time I heard that expression, influencer? Yeah. Thinking what what is that? Is that what does that mean?

 

Shmee150 

It’s such a such a strange one because you know, I see obviously every side of the tub and you know, people I see a lot of, you know, let’s say derogatory comments of, you know, what’s the point in this what can it possibly mean? But I found out the other day that so I have a tendency of changing the colour of my cars and respraying them and this kind of thing and, and one I had done was my or is my SLS Black Series which I painted in a specific blue and put silver wheels on it, which is a controversial move for a car like that to not be in a factory spec. I just found out the other day that somebody in Brazil has done exactly the same to there’s literally copied the specification in mine. I think it’s really, really cool. But yeah, it goes to show you that it’s a limited edition car, worth half a million pounds or so. And somebody painted it to match the same as the one they’ve seen on the internet.

 

Amanda Stretton 

So what do manufacturers make of that?

 

Shmee150 

What do you know, I think I have a very well, I know I have a very close relationship with a lot of manufacturers, because, you know, everybody watches social media, watches content, whether it’s somebody you know, whether it’s a youngster who’s dreaming one day of owning a Ferrari or something, or literally, whether it’s somebody choosing the specification for the next Bugatti, they’re probably watching videos about it. And you know, I have a lot of this relationship with clients of these cars around the world. And I do a lot of things both with manufacturers now. And with private collectors, that was a big inspiration to this because of how many different collectors I’ve visited over the years. And, you know, the manufacturers directly see that, if I shoot a video around one of their new cars, customers will watch the video and then customers will reach out to the manufacturers saying I’ve seen this video, how does this work? And you know, I’ve seen that spec option or this, that and the other. So I get that feedback, you know very much firsthand.

 

Amanda Stretton 

But even when you’re going against, as you say you have a limited edition car, you’re going against what would be a factory option?

 

Shmee150 

Well, the GT black series? Yeah, the very bright yellow one is a great example of this, because in some markets for some VIPs, they would paint the cars in one off colours, but UK cars not possible somebody in my position not possible. And you know, I had the dream that I wanted that car in that particular colour. And it was a funny conversation. I was begging and pleading with AMG, please can we do it? Please? Can we do this in Solar Beam yellow. And the long story short was that if we do it for you, we have to do it for everyone. Okay, I get that. So I’ll go and do it myself. But please don’t do it yourself. Because it doesn’t look good that we wouldn’t. Yes. And I was like, Do you know what, I’m just gonna do it. Because at the end of the day, you know, for me, I’m acquiring the cars that I want to use, right to be able to go through that whole story. And to be able to make it personal and a car like that. I’m going to take hopefully around the world and do a load of content.

 

Darren Selig 

I’m going to make a prediction here. Yeah. And you heard it here first for me. I predict sometime in the next few years, a manufacturer will do a Shmee150 limited edition. Oh, could be could you see that happening? I think I think you have the the brand and following that would make a manufacturer wants to do that. Why not?

 

Shmee150 

You know, it’s really interesting. We obviously talk at our end, and I have a whole team that works with me with Shmee150. You know, it’s not just a one person effort. It’s a series of employees and you know management.

 

Amanda Stretton 

I just imagined you in a room with screens?

 

Shmee150 

Yeah. Well, a lot of people do. Because this is in so many ways how we create the content, right? But you know, while we’re sitting here, somebody is editing a video, somebody is planning the next video, somebody is having the meetings about the things that are further down the line. And it makes my life easier because I just turn off point a camera and move on. And it still makes for long days, I’m not gonna pretend it’s pretend it’s super easy. But it’s, it’s, you know, so much more of what I’m trying to say like, you know, this, this whole kind of team setup to make everything happen, that everybody doesn’t necessarily realise.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Going back to the relationship with manufacturers, obviously, in the very beginning, you said you were sitting, going to the press launches of cars, sitting there amongst a bunch of journalists, you know, old school print. Journalists, the reviews would come out in two months, three months time. And how is your relationship with the manufacturers developed over that time, and also with some of those traditional media outlets.

 

Shmee150 

So it’s actually a really interesting space because so I think I can say that I was the first person in the social media influencer space to go on automotive media launches, kind of full stop. And that was because my lead business manager who who’s worked with me pretty much for a decade now came from more of a journalistic background. So although in technology and mobile phones, for example, but in the way that he knew how to approach people, and how to explain what value we could bring to the manufacturer, to effectively have the opportunity to go on these launches. And it was very interesting, let’s say seven or eight years ago, six, seven years ago on press launches, how they were so set up obviously, for written media, you know, you had a full shedule followed by three course dinner followed by this which is lovely, the hospitality is great, but if you need to do a stop and stand up film clip, and you need to edit a video, there isn’t exactly any time for that. So those have evolved significantly and most main cars launching now will have social media rotations. They’ll have Let’s say a day for automotive social media followed by a day for multiple different fields from the influence of space attending. And obviously, in the early days, you know, when I’m sitting there with the likes of Steve Sutcliffe and Chris Harris and Andrew Frankel, and people I’ve been reading for years, and you know, I’m kind of Starstruck at that stage by Who am I sitting around? How is this possible? And not really knowing what to say? And I think everyone’s looking at me, like, Who’s this guy? What’s he doing? And why is he holding a camera in his hand? You know, because he was doing video at that time had a camera, man, it wasn’t the Hold your hand out with a camera on the end of it. But what’s been, I guess, difficult for me is how that’s actually evolved since because it has become very competitive. Obviously, in recent years, magazines and traditional media have been declining and social media has been growing. And you feel that tension. Which, you know, bothers me, because obviously, that’s what I follow. You know, I read my EVO cars and follow that that news and always having my guess always will. But there are certainly been times recently where the industries have got quite cagey with one another.

 

Shmee150 

And also, there’s just so many more influences out there.

 

Shmee150 

And it’s getting more and more niche, you know, not many years ago, you would have a person who covers everything like myself. Now, you’ll have influencers who work only with one brand with, you know, everybody, if you if you look at people who cover just Mercedes, or just Porsche or just BMW, there’s a long list for each now, not something that’s changed and changing very fast. It’s often referred to as the micro influencer, people who have a smaller following, but a more dedicated following. And that’s a direction that’s really picking up at the moment.

 

Amanda Stretton 

That’s where I think you need to go.

 

Darren Selig 

Very, very, very niche. Well talking on breakfast, I mean, any plans to open a schmu-restaurants?

 

Shmee150 

What could we call that? Not currently

 

Darren Selig 

There seems to be a trend in the automotive industry? Lots of dealerships, I think restaurants, you’ve got the engine rooms that hexagon classic. So I dont knoe if you have tried it out, but its pretty good.

 

Shmee150 

I think one of the interesting things for me is, is the transition from here, you know, as quickly as social media has risen, I don’t know how long it’s going to be around for but I’ve, you know, I’ve got involved more recently, and this is one of the reasons for growing out my own Shmee150 team is to give myself a little bit more time. And I’ve got involved in more other businesses and small projects and things that, you know, might kick off and might become the next thing, but to, through people I’ve met, but also with the contacts, you know, that I know in this world now to help grow those different,

 

Darren Selig 

It’s interesting you say that because one of the most fascinating rewarding things I’ve found coming into the industry from the finance angle is, is the people, our customers, and the people that I’ve met over the last 20 years and, and I spent time with people that possibly would have had no other reason to be in front of or have the privilege of being with and being invited to their house is seeing their cars and they love to talk about the cars, it’s just something they’re so passionate about. And you know, they can be billionaires and it makes no difference. Or they could be just, you know, an enthusiast who’s got, you know, smaller collection. But that that is being the fascinating things and but I’ve seen some amazing garages but not quite as amazing as the ones you’ve seen. So I think my question would be, what’s the most amazing garage that you’ve had the privilege to, to step inside of.

 

Shmee150 

I’ve certainly been lucky to see some things I can’t talk about. It gets to that level? No, I completely agree with you. And it’s it’s what I said earlier, one of the things that I appreciate the most out of what I do is is how the automotive industry is such a positive industry, people are generally working in this world because they love the subject and it brings you together instantly with anybody from any walk of life anywhere. And it’s one of the things that I always feel the most I guess lucky position to be in is that if I go pretty much anywhere, it doesn’t even have to just be the the cliche spots of you know, London, Monaco or Los Angeles or Dubai or something, but literally anywhere. There’s somebody to meet to talk cars.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Because you didn’t even need to own the cars. Do you? You just need to appreciate them.

 

Darren Selig 

What’s the barriers existed or could have exist? Just they’re gone?

 

Shmee150 

They’re gone completely, completely

 

Darren Selig 

Gone? Yeah. It’s amazing.

 

Shmee150 

Yeah. And, you know, it’s it’s things like I think one of the best examples is probably Jay Leno, in his position, you know, you meet him, he’ll talk to anybody who likes cars, because he’s, it’s his passion. Yeah. And you know, that brings down any boundary that you have between different people. And I think that’s one of the things for me as well. You know, I love if I’ve picked up somebody somewhere or if I’m at a petrol station or somebody wants to talk about cars, you end up being there for longer than you had ever planned.

 

Amanda Stretton 

You were at petrol stations far longer than you plan these days anyway.

 

Shmee150 

Yes, that’s true unless you’re driving an electric car.

 

Amanda Stretton 

So what’s next obviously schmuseum in his infancy, but there are big plans.

 

Shmee150 

There are some very big plans. One of the things about this space is and a lot of people said, you know, it’s just a ban on a farm. Yes, it is just a ban on a farm. Obviously, a lot of work had to go into even having a floor lighting, security and all of this stuff. But it’s about bringing the audience on the journey. Yeah, when Has anybody ever covered the transition of a barn into a 20, 30 car garage. And that’s what I want to bring the audience along, because that’s something I’ve been fascinated by for recent years visiting, you know, been to incredible collections filled with dream cars everywhere from, you know, Tokyo to Toronto. And it’s something that I’ve got so many ideas about from all the places that I filmed myself, and being trying to formulate, so we’re going to be putting up a nice office, bringing a theme to the garage, and doing all of this, but bringing the audience along that journey as well. So they’ll see what it looks like now. And they’ll see what it looks like in a year’s time, which will be completely different.

 

Amanda Stretton 

We just have to talk very quickly about track. Yes, because we were sort of just before we started filming this, we were talking about motorsport, and whether or not you’re going to follow some of the other guys into a sort of more motorsport. Now, obviously, you take a lot of these cars out on track, but my question was, there’s track driving. And there’s motorsport where you lose wing mirrors, and wings and stuff like that. Are we ever gonna see you doing that sort of thing.

 

Shmee150 

I mean, I’ve done a little bit of racing, I have a race licence. And I did some races with the mini challenge. And with the Audi TT Cup, which was, which are both like fantastic fun. And I’ve done some outings with the Ferrari 488 challenge Evo and 911 cup car as well, and had a bit of a taste there. And you know, know what’s involved. I obviously tend to head towards the road legal equivalence, let’s say, which will never offer quite the same performance, or quite the same involvement, but are in so many more ways more relatable to the audience, which is one of the reasons why I go down that path, it’s more relatable to take a road car on a racetrack than a race car on a racetrack for some reason. And this is a trend that my colleagues in the social media industry all see the same, the same with, I very much would like to do more racing. And you know, this venue will be themed along the motorsports lines. But it’s something I feel like I’m almost saving a little bit until I’ve got a bit more time to do it. You know, attending a racing weekend knocks it out of you, right, and it’s a lot of work. You know, don’t get me wrong, I go to a lot of different races, from the M24 to the 24 hours of le mans to various formulae 1 events. So spend a lot of time around the racing world. But it’s more like to have that four day weekend. Yeah. Travelling somewhere, going through the practice getting set up and everything. And the budgets, obviously. Another relevant topic, you know, if you want to jump in at the deep end running it, yeah, Ferrari Challenge car. Yes. It’s a big commitment. It’s a big commitment. And it’s, you know, it’s not like yes, okay, the car has a value, but the commitments of the entry fees and whatnot is not like buying a road car where it will generally keep a large chunk of its value over time. So I guess I’m just waiting for the right stage the right time to do it and say never right. There will certainly be some more racing in future. It’s just a case of what and when, and, you know, quite fancy the Ferrari Challenge series. So maybe that will be the one when the time is right to do so.

 

Amanda Stretton 

Well, Tim, it’s been an absolute pleasure and fascinating talking to you. Thank you so much for hosting us.

 

Darren Selig 

Thank you, Tim. Once again,

 

Shmee150 

Thank you for coming down.

 

Amanda Stretton 

So from Damron, Tim, and myself. Thanks for joining us, and we’ll see you next time.