On today's episode of The Solopreneur Hour, we'll be talking with three remarkable solopreneurs I met over the weekend. During a 3 day car tour (called a "Targa") in Mexico, I had a chance to sit down with  Steve Foster of SWB Studios, Radu Muntean of Tesla, and Dave Bouzaglou of TRE Motorsports,  one of the premier Porsche tuning and restoration shops in America.

The theme of episode 184 is "passion".  Oh...and going 150 mph in front of the Federales! Have a listen for all of that and more on today's show.

More About This Show

One of the greatest things about being a solopreneur is doing what you want, when you want and with whomever you want. And I had that chance yet again this weekend at Targa California.

On other episodes I've talked about the restoration process and the man hours that went into preparing my Porsche 911 for this trip, and I give you an additional update today. But in essence I crammed what should have been a 6-month project into 3 weeks; I burned the midnight oil more than a few times!

My Porsche definitely was and is a passion of mine, and cars are a passion for the three men you're about to hear. First we talk with Steve Foster of SWB Studios. For his entire life, Steve has been an artist. But it wasn't until his mid-20s that he started earning a living as one. He had always doodled as a child but in his mid-20s a friend asked him to create a rendering of his Ducati (a high end motorcycle).  His friend paid him and Steve saw a viable business opportunity.

Over the next few years people began to come back to him for additional renderings and they also referred their friends to him. Steve knew he was doing something right when that happened! By the age of 30 SWB Studios was born and has continued to thrive. Today Steve makes gorgeous renderings for people primarily using watercolors. His renderings are so detailed and life-like you have to study them to see that they aren't photographs! They're incredible.

Our second guest on today's show is Radu Muntean, a car designer for Tesla Motors. Radu is a Romanian native who immigrated to Los Angeles. And like Steve, he has been an artist his entire life. In fact he says he's been drawing so long he can't remember when he began! And he's been fascinated by cars almost the same length of time. Growing up in Romania there weren't any new, flashy cars; they were a Communist country at the time so all they had were old cars from the US and Russian cars. But Romania did have one automotive publication and Radu collected as many copies of it has he could.

And he studied the cars; in fact, he studied anything he could get his hands on about cars. Almost intuitively he combined both of his passions and started drawing cars. Naturally he went to school for automotive design - he says he wasn't good enough at anything else! But clearly when you hear him speak on today's episode you'll hear that automotive design was and is a passion of his. Today he's one of a few thousand people in the world who work in his field and he's fortunate enough to work for Tesla Motors.

The Finer Details of The Show Include:

* What were everyone's favorite parts of the trip?

* What are Steve's two sources for retirement investments?

* Radu shares how long it takes to actually design a car.

* The Porsche Singer 911: Radu discusses designing it.

* When did Dave hold the first Targa California?

* And so much more!

For our third and final chat I talk with Dave Bouzaglou. Dave is the owner and proprietor of TRE Motorsports in Los Angeles, CA. Keeping with the theme of today's show Dave is a passionate auto enthusiast. He grew up racing cars with his friends in the twisty hills of Mulholland Drive. And one day one of his friends suggested they get a resale number and start buying parts wholesale....