By day, Justin Mondeik applies his technical skills in engineering; by night and weekend, he races Super Late Model cars.
From racing snowmobiles at age four to competing just one level below NASCAR, Justin has built a career on technical skill, hands-on passion, and relentless drive. In this episode, he shares how a technical education prepared him for success on and off the track—and how motorsports can help manufacturers reach the next generation of talent.
In this conversation, Justin takes us inside the highly technical world of racing—from chassis dynamics and car setups to the conditioning and precision it takes to win.
We explore how manufacturers are using racing sponsorships not just for brand exposure, but as a creative workforce strategy to recruit skilled, hands-on talent. It's a conversation that'll get you thinking about how education & industry can leverage ultra-creative ways to engage the next generation of workforce talent.
Listen to learn:
- Hear what it's like to be behind the wheel of a race car, and all the unseen work that goes into winning
- Why hands-on experience and technical training give racers an edge
- The science—and occasional mystery—behind setting up a winning car
- How educators can leverage students' hobbies to engage them in hands-on learning
- How companies can tap into motorsports to recruit the next generation of talent
3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:
1. Technical education can give students an edge—on and off the track. Justin’s background in mechanical design from Northcentral Technical College and Michigan Tech gives him a competitive advantage in racing—from car setup to real-time problem-solving. That same hands-on, systems-based thinking is exactly what manufacturers need in their workforce today.
2. Motorsports audiences are filled with future skilled workers. Fans who show up at the track tend to be mechanically inclined, hands-on, and deeply interested in how things work—traits that align closely with careers in manufacturing, machining, and engineering. These are often the same students who thrive in tech ed programs.
3. Industrial employers can benefit by getting creative with their workforce outreach strategies. One of Justin’s manufacturing sponsors used his car and race-day presence to launch a targeted hiring campaign—and successfully recruited new employees. Since there's so much overlap in racing fans and technical talent, it's a creative place for manufacturers to immerse themselves and engage with a potential workforce.
Resources in this Episode:
Connect with Justin Mondeik Racing: https://www.justinmondeikracing.com/
Connect with Justin on Social Media:
Facebook | Instagram | X | TikTok
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Matt Kirchner (00:00):
Matt, welcome into The TechEd Podcast. I am
(00:11):
your host. Matt Kirkner, this isthe number one podcast in all of
STEM and technical education,and to be honest, it isn't even
close. Why is that? Because wehave listeners from all over
stem and TechEd to join us everysingle week and join us for all
kinds of reasons. We talk aboutthings like careers in
manufacturing and how we findour way into STEM manufacturing
(00:33):
and TechEd type careers. Sothat's one topic we cover all
the time. We love to talk abouthow we can get more people, more
young people, especially intoSTEM and particularly advanced
manufacturing careers. And fromtime to time, we'll get into a
specific topic of humaninterest. One example might be
(00:53):
auto racing. And today we'regoing to cover all of three of
those things. We're going totalk about the world and a new
topic here on The TechEd Podcastof auto racing. We're going to
talk about how we can use thatparticular sport to get young
people excited aboutmanufacturing careers, and talk
about how that relates to stemand technical education. We are
doing all of this with a greatnew friend of The TechEd
(01:15):
Podcast. His name is JustinMondy. Justin is with Mondy
racing. Hey, Justin awesome tohave you with us.
Justin Mondeik (01:22):
Yeah, we're definitely really excited to be
on The TechEd Podcast. Yourracing
Matt Kirchner (01:26):
career in general has kind of an interesting story
behind it. So let's start withWhat first got you interested in
racing in the first place? Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (01:35):
I first started racing when I was extremely
young. I'm 28 years old now. Istarted in racing when I
Matt Kirchner (01:40):
was you're still extremely young. If you're 28
years old, yeah, I
Justin Mondeik (01:44):
hear you. I started when I was four. So it
was just at our local ice track,main Gleason Gleason
International Raceway is what wecalled it, man. My grandpa and
father at the time were racingsnowmobiles and go karts, and I
just kind of grew up at the racetrack throughout the winter
time, mainly, I just kind ofwanted to follow in their
footsteps. So when I was fouryears old, my parents got me a
(02:05):
kitty cat snowmobile, which is asmall snowmobile, of course, and
we kind of did traveling aroundCentral Wisconsin. That's how I
started to get my feet wet intoracing. And then when I was
five, we got into go karts justat our local track, low five
horsepower factory mini carts,and then from there, kind of
progressed up through largerframed go karts and micro
sprints on ice, and thencontinued into larger
(02:27):
snowmobiles, and then got intothe stock car world when I was
16. So definitely very familyoriented on the back side, that
was definitely my passion rightaway, and definitely the reason
that I got into racing. Well,it's
Matt Kirchner (02:38):
so amazing that you started that all the way
back when you were four yearsold. I think that really speaks
to our interests a lot of timesas young people, certainly not
generally before we're inkindergarten, for instance, but
certainly going back through ourlives, how those experiences
early on in our lives can sparka lifelong interest, and
certainly that interest that wasignited by both your father and
(02:58):
your grandfather. Super, superexample of that. Now you started
out doing things like racing, gokarts, racing, mini snowmobiles,
watching your father and yourgrandfather engage in racing in
the winter time, and now hereyou are in the world of super
late model racing. So tell us alittle bit about what is that.
What is super late model racing?
How does it compare to othertypes of motor sports that our
(03:19):
audience might be familiar with,like NASCAR, yeah,
Unknown (03:23):
of course. So when I was 16 at the time of the ISO
world track, I was verysuccessful at what I did. I was
brought up in it, and we werevery successful. We had good
equipment, and I was able togain my craft over a number of
years and really help that astime went on, I had a few
sponsors and private people thatsaid, if you really want to ever
go somewhere in racing, you needto get on circle track, you
(03:44):
know, asphalt. So we went out,we purchased my stock car, and
started off, I'm at the lowerlevels, and now we've progressed
up to super late models. Sosuper late model is the highest
level caliber of racing beforeyou would get to the
professional level of like theNASCAR craftsman truck series,
the XFINITY series and the cuplevel. So we're as high as what
you can get before you would gointo the three tiers of NASCAR.
(04:05):
So our cars are the best of thebest technology that you can
get. I do this as a second fulltime job. Of course, we'll get
into that later. I have aprimary full time job, but
there's teams and organizationsthat we run against that that's
all they do is race and they'reat a professional level. We go
and compete at that on anational level and also
regionally across the US. So
Matt Kirchner (04:25):
speaking of that spirit of competition, and you
talk about being 16 years oldand being successful as a 16
year old, and you talked aboutthe value of the equipment that
you had, you had success as a 16year old. What do you attribute
that to?
Justin Mondeik (04:38):
Well, I think really just having a ton of
laps. No matter if you're ondirt or asphalt or ice, any type
of racing that you go to,there's never bad seat time. I
feel anytime you're behind thewheel, it's good. So even though
it's a different platform, adifferent type of vehicle that
we were getting in, I still hada ton of laps in the past. So I
just think it kind of camenatural. Of course, there was a
(04:59):
huge. Learning Curve, just withthe equipment and different type
of machine, but we were able todevelop and grow that fairly
fast, and then kind of progressthrough the ranks and different
divisions. And we started out ina lower class and went to pro
late models, but now we're insuper late models. But like
said, super late model is thehighest you can get before you
start going into the threeNASCAR tiers. Got it.
Matt Kirchner (05:19):
I think it was Malcolm Gladwell, the author, if
I'm not mistaken, that talkedabout becoming an expert at
something takes 10,000 hours,and whatever that is, whether
it's being a violinist or it'sbeing really good at math, for
example, or in your case, beingawesome and being incredibly
successful at racing. And yousaid, part of what it takes is a
lot of laps. All those laps leadup to tons of races. How many
(05:41):
races these days are youcompeting in every year? Justin
every year?
Unknown (05:45):
Right now, we're averaging anywhere from 25 to 30
events per year. So the bulk ofour schedule in the Midwest
region is from May till the endof October, and then in the off
season through November throughMarch, we'll venture down to the
Florida, Alabama areas, and kindof get a lot. So before that,
when I was just doing ice yearsago, that was only five events a
year throughout the winter time,so that, of course, was a lot
(06:06):
less. And then probably aboutthree, four years ago, we were
doing, you know, 50 plus races ayear that just kind of dependent
on funding and where my life wasat and just what the priority
was. And of course, I have, youknow, full time jobs, and I just
got married and and life changeda little bit. Welcome to real
life, right? Well, exactly, butstill, at our level, 25 to 30
events, that's still on thehigher end, even in the Midwest,
(06:30):
for what people do per year. Sowe're definitely still on a
higher level.
Matt Kirchner (06:33):
So mid October, 25 to 30 events is, is it that,
like every weekend that you're Imean, that's five months of the
year that many events is howmany in a week? Or what does
that kind of
Justin Mondeik (06:42):
feel like? Yeah, it varies from week to week.
Like our Memorial Day week thisyear, we have races Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, Monday. So wehave four days in a row, and
then we have a stretch, or wedon't race for two weeks. But
for the most part, it's at leastonce a week, if not two days a
week. Normally it's a Friday,Saturday, or sometimes just a
Saturday. It just really dependson what specific track we're
(07:03):
running at that time, or if it'sa regional or national touring
series. It just kind of dependson the schedule that we're
running. So
Matt Kirchner (07:09):
a little bit of everything I have to ask you
this question. I'm certainly notan auto racer, but I did a lot
of cycling and a lot of bikeracing in my day. I had a good
friend of mine that was also abike racer, but before he was a
bike racer, he was an autoracer, and he told me this, he
said, and as you can imagine,bike racing is grueling. I mean,
we did what we call centuryrides, where you're going out
and riding 100 miles. I didseveral double centuries in a
(07:31):
day, where you're literallygoing out and riding 200 plus
miles on your bicycle in a day.
And he said that being in a racecar was every bit as grueling
physically as bike racing, whichreally surprised me. I mean, I
think about how beat I was atthe end of a bike race or a long
ride. Is it really thatphysically taxing on the driver
himself? Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (07:53):
so, I mean, a lot of our races are weekly
tracks that we go to, those areanywhere from like 50 to 75
laps. Those aren't too bad, butquite of our few races now, at
the level that we run at in theseries, they're anywhere from
200 to 250 laps with pit stops.
So you could be in the race carfor upwards an hour and a half
to two and a half hours to threehours. You're going extremely
fast. It's extremely hot in therace car, it takes a ton of
(08:16):
upper body strength and just armstrength. Even though you have
power steering, if you have acar that's, we'll call it on
rails, that's a really good car,and it does exactly what you
want it to do, then it's more ofan easier race, because it's
doing what you want to do. Butif you're dealing with the ill
handling car, then it reallystarts to fatigue you even more,
and then you need to bephysically prepared as much as
you can for that you're just
Matt Kirchner (08:38):
absolutely spent at the end of a race. Is that
right, when we
Justin Mondeik (08:41):
win and the adrenaline goes, Yeah, then it's
not as bad. But if we have arough race, and you run, say,
10th to 15th, and it's not agreat car and depending, it just
really comes down to thetemperature of outside and kind
of how long the race is. So whenit gets to the the 8080, plus
degrees and the humid, then,then it starts to get bad. Most
of our races are at night. Soit's not the end of the end of
(09:02):
the world because it starts tocool off, but when we have our
day races and the hot beatingsun, that's when it really
starts to get taxing. Got
Matt Kirchner (09:09):
it and is there conditioning you have to do in
addition to being in the car, oris like the practice in the car
enough to kind of condition yourbody to be able to handle the
rigors of a race?
Justin Mondeik (09:18):
That's quite a bit. But I try to lift weights
when I can and do someconditioning and cardio, fitting
in with my busy schedule, but weget stuff to balance it all. But
definitely I feel staying inshape, you know, within the race
car, just because we do it sooften. And of course, you know,
you're working in the shop everynight, so you're washing haulers
and you're changing tires, andyou're doing this and doing
that. It's just it's very easyto stay in shape, absolutely.
Matt Kirchner (09:39):
So all this physical preparation that you
do, both intentionally andunintentionally along the way
preparing for a car race. Whatabout technically? What are some
of the technical aspects that gointo making sure you're ready
for race day? Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (09:50):
so there's so much body templates. All our
bodies are identical in ourclass, except for the noses. So
you have a Toyota nose, a Fordnose, and a Chevy nose. And the
Dodge nose, but the rest of thebody is the same. So you have a
series of aluminum templatesthat they'll set on the race car
at the race track, and that bodyhas to contour to that template.
(10:11):
So we have those in the shop.
That's preparation every race.
We have what's called a referee.
So the car will physically rollthrough this device, and chains
hang down, and the car has to beat a minimum or maximum height.
Based on that, the car has to bea minimum overall weight with
the driver in it. So we scaleand prep that every single week
in the shop, the car can onlyhave so much overall left side
percentage. So that's where it'sa perk of myself being a smaller
(10:34):
driver, because you can placethen the lead on the race car
where you want. So let's justsay, if I, if I'm only 135
pounds, compared to a 300 poundguy, you have all that weight in
the driver's seat, you can'tmove that weight around where
you want to, because, of course,you want a certain corner to be
heavier. You want this wheelweight to be different. There's
(10:54):
certain percentages on the racecar that you want. Well, if you
just have all that weight,there's not a whole lot that you
can do with that. So our cars,we build them as light as we
possibly can, but then there'sabout 350 pounds of lead on them
as well. So makes a whole lot ofsense when you spend all this
money to have everything lightand then you just add all this
lead balance, or at least, youcan control where you want it.
Tire sizes are huge, sothroughout the week we have
(11:17):
practice tires. We'll prep thoseas far as circumference an
overall tire stager, so our leftside tires are smaller than our
right side stagger. So thebigger that split is from right
to left, it'll make the car turnmore. You can tighten it up with
less stagger, etc. All our shockpackages. Cast your camber bumps
to your toe, a ton of frontgeometry work that we have to do
(11:37):
and change throughout week toweek, and every different track
that we go to. So I could spendthe whole hour podcast here
talking about the technologybehind it, but there's
definitely a lot of variablesand a lot of different areas
that we have to cover week in aweek
Matt Kirchner (11:51):
out. But of course, being technical people
ourselves, that whole aspect ofit fascinates us, and how much
of that is like experience andgut feel and intuition, and how
much of it is is just a ton ofscience that goes behind the
physics of racing and beingsuccessful. I
Justin Mondeik (12:08):
would like to say 100% of physics is behind it
going to school and goingthrough the tech trades. You
understand technology, and youunderstand engineering and
forces and how things gotogether and how things should
react and mechanisms and momentof inertia and everything behind
it, but at the end of the day,we'll make changes at the race
track and and we know that inthe engineering world, if you do
(12:31):
this, it should react a certainway, and nine times out of 10,
it does, but there's always thatone time that it's like, Okay,
it's done this for how manytimes, and you can't get it to
work out. And then you dosomething theoretically that
should not work, that should nothelp at all, and then you make
that change, and then that caris dominant that night. So for
the most part, physics help itbehind it, but you do have those
(12:54):
kind of anomalies once in awhile that it's the wild card.
Yeah,
Matt Kirchner (12:58):
life is a little bit like that, right? We can do
all the preparation, all thestudying, and have all the data
behind us. But in the end,sometimes it does come down to a
little bit of intuition and somegood fortune and a combination
of all that to be successful.
But interesting to hear howimportant that technical part of
what you do is you mentionedyour education and having a STEM
education. So I want to diveinto that a little bit, because
I don't know if that's unique inthe world that you're in, or not
(13:20):
just in. But you went toMichigan Tech, which is a
revered stem and engineeringschool, but you didn't go
directly there. Tell us how youstarted your academic career
post secondary after you wereout of high school. Yeah.
Justin Mondeik (13:33):
So just a little bit in high school, I worked
with an employer in town. Did alot of youth apprenticeship
through that way. I already hadthe job before youth
apprenticeship, but I used YouthApprenticeship so I could, you
know, work during school hours,and then from there, I just knew
I wanted to be in theengineering world. I really
enjoyed the design aspect of it,but also being hands on in that
world. So I decided to go to NTCand get my two year mechanical
(13:57):
design, engineering technologydegree, mechanical design. I
chose to go to NTC just becauseof what our right does for the
stem route. Of course, it'scheaper job placement right
away. You can stay close tohome, you can stay working. It's
honestly a no brainer. So I wasable to do that for two years,
and then at that time, and theystill currently have it, you
could transfer out of NTC to anyUW school for engineering hood,
(14:21):
as well as Michigan Tech. And Ihad a technical excellence
scholarship at that time that ifyou stayed at a tech school, you
would get so much per semester.
So at that time, the agreementwas you could stay at NTC for an
additional semester, and thenyou would only have to go to
Michigan Tech for a year and ahalf. So I was able to get that
scholarship for anothersemester, of course, stay at
(14:41):
home, stay working, etc, andthen I only had to go to
Michigan Tech for a year and ahalf to come out with my
Mechanical EngineeringTechnology degree. But we moved
up into Houghton in the middleof winter. Not sure that was
necessarily the right thing todo, but we made it through. So
Matt Kirchner (14:57):
let's dissect that a little bit. The whole
youth apprentice. Upside of it,and we've got that. You and I
both live in the state ofWisconsin. Wisconsin has a great
ya program across the state tothe point that you just made it
enables students to spend sometime both going to school and
working while they're still inhigh school. So talk a little
bit more about that. What youthapprenticeship program were you
in while you were in highschool? Justin,
Justin Mondeik (15:18):
it was pertaining to manufacturing,
mechanical design, but the youthapprenticeship, there was a ton
of different ones that you couldgo into. You could go into
automotive, electrical, really,anything in the trades world. So
I went into the manufacturingside and the mechanical design.
I just really enjoyed it. I waskind of doing some mechanical
design and CAD work offlinebefore I even had classes in
(15:40):
high school, and I continue tojust do every TechEd class that
I could in high school, and Iwanted to continue to do that
for a job. So it definitely madesense, because you got high
school credit for it, so youdidn't have to take other
classes, and then you also couldget work release through youth
apprenticeship, so you didn'thave to be at school as much.
And you're also getting paid onthe job to do it, to also
progress your career. So itdefinitely was a no brainer,
(16:02):
very thankful everything whatthe youth apprenticeship did for
me, and it kind of catapulted meinto North Central Technical
College for my two year degree,and then progressed on from
there. So
Matt Kirchner (16:11):
do you have a tech ed teacher while you were
in high school? Sounds like yougravitated into that programming
while you were in high schoolthat really stands out to you
and had a huge impact on yourlife? My
Justin Mondeik (16:20):
cat instructor in high school was Mr. Shield.
Was his name. He was just sopassionate about it. But he was
just, you know, he was just anormal guy, right? He was
definitely caring, normal guy,outdoors man, you know, would do
anything for you. You had thepersonal relationship, but then
you also had the respect of thatit's a professional relationship
as well. So he was just one ofthose guys that would kind of go
(16:41):
above and beyond to make surethat you're adapting to what you
need to and you're getting whatyou need out of the curriculum.
Just really thankful for therelationship I had with him.
Matt Kirchner (16:49):
That's awesome.
I'm glad you had an opportunityto shout him out. It's it's
amazing how many people we haveon the podcast, especially those
that were in STEM and TechEdprograms, that'll point back to
a high school teacher or twothat just had a huge impact on
on them and on their careerpathway. So so awesome that you
were able to have that, have aperson in your life that had
that kind of an impact. And asyou were thinking about in high
school Justin, what would comenext? Were you always planning
(17:11):
on going to a technical college?
Or how did you settle on thatroute? Obviously, the economic
side of it sounds like that wasan important factor in the you
know, the ease of being able totransfer so many credits would
put at what point kind of inyour high school career? Did you
say that Technical College isthat next step was the right one
for you? Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (17:30):
I wasn't always like, Yeah, I'm definitely gonna
go do it a two year school. Ofcourse, my family backing and
support is very big intoeducation and the technical
world. So of course, I heard itat home, but at the end of the
day, it's my life, and I neededto figure it out and live what I
wanted to live. But when I wasgoing through high school and
just figuring out what I wantedto do, I was never that kid,
(17:53):
thankfully, that struggled toknow what they wanted to do in
life. Just growing up throughracing and being involved with
putting things together andalways being in the shop and
being hands on. I know I wantedto do something in the trades,
dabbling in high schoolthroughout different classes.
And I mentioned, you know, theprevious my cat instructor, I
just kind of fell in love withmechanical design. And then, of
course, it just it made sense tokeep my job, save a bunch of
(18:15):
money not going to a four yearschool right away when you're
just taking your gen edsanyways. And then you can stay
at home. You don't have to payrent, and then you can, you
know, keep your job. And just,it made a lot of sense. So
really happy with the route Iwent. I still hear of people,
you know, it's like they'll goto, you know, a four year right
away, and it's like, I get it ifthey want to go off and do what
they want to do. And everybodyhas their own reasons for doing
(18:37):
what they want to do, but itmakes sense to do at least a
year and a half, two years at atech school, get all the gen ed
stuff all out of the way thatyou kind of and just you save a
bunch of money, and I feel likeyou have a better knowledge base
because it's more hands on rightaway, smaller classes, et
cetera.
Matt Kirchner (18:53):
Absolutely. And for as long as you mentioned
your family, we might as welllet our audience know if your
last name sounds familiar to anyof the folks in Wisconsin. Your
mom, of course, Dr Shelly Mandy,who is the president of mid
State Technical College, andactually a great personal friend
of mine as well. So for as longas you brought that up, we might
as well let your mom have alittle time in the limelight
here. And obviously, raised anincredible son and a really
sensible son in terms of how youplanned your your career, both
(19:16):
professionally and and theeducation path to get there.
Let's finish off with a littlebit on Michigan Tech. How far
along did you get at MichiganTech? And tell us a little bit
about this study that you didthere?
Justin Mondeik (19:26):
Yeah. So we had a really good environment at
NTC. So there was about eight to10 guys that was really in our
core group of friends. We reallyhad a lot of fun. But there was
a couple that went on toPlatteville, couple went on to
Milwaukee, and then a couplewent on to Michigan Tech, for
Matt Kirchner (19:40):
our audience that isn't here in Wisconsin. So UW
University Wisconsin,Platteville, University
Wisconsin, Milwaukee, orMichigan Tech, which, of course,
is up in the up in the UpperPeninsula of Michigan. So go on.
Yep,
Justin Mondeik (19:51):
I actually my best man for my wedding, and I
was also the best man for hiswedding. He was my roommate.
Mitch rosenski. Is his name. Wemet at NTC and just became.
Great friends, and now he reallyhelps me a lot with my racing,
and it's just a greatrelationship. But he was one of
them that we went to MichiganTech together. Were roommates.
It just was great to have thatrelationship throughout NTC, but
(20:11):
also to continue that up northand Houghton, to continue the
relationship and just havesomeone that you trust and
someone that you know. Becauseof course, you could work on
schoolwork together, projects oranything under the sun that way.
So I studied MechanicalEngineering Technology up there
with Mitch together. But it wasjust cool being in that
atmosphere together. But thenyou could go snowmobile riding
(20:32):
whenever you wanted. Of course,you had tons of snow. And when
they say it literally snowsevery day, like it's not like it
snows a dusting, it's like twoto three inches every day. At
least I was up there, so justpretty crazy environment, but it
was just great to see thedifferent level of instructors
and just the vast variety of theengineering capabilities that
they had there, man, thetechnologies, and just the
(20:53):
industry backing at that timefrom various companies. It was a
great eye opening experience forme, and I gained a lot of
valuable relationships from it.
And
Matt Kirchner (21:02):
I suppose if you grew up on ice ovals, then going
up to the just again, for ouraudience that may not be
familiar with that geography,Houghton, Michigan, is way up on
Lake Superior in the uppermidsole in Michigan. And it does
get just huge lake effect snow.
Just gets absolutely poundedsome years, hundreds of inches
of snow in that area, which weyou wouldn't expect in the
Midwest, but we get that here.
(21:23):
And so it really, yeah, it takesa tough and unique person to
persevere through, especiallyfour or five years, as some some
students do, the year and a halfthat you were up there,
certainly takes a certain amountof toughness. But the education
you get there, the technicalbackground and the understanding
that you gain from an experiencelike the one that you get at
Michigan Tech invaluable in yourcareer. We're going to get into
(21:44):
that, I would imagine,invaluable in racing as well. We
talked a little bit about someof the technical aspects of
racing, but But talk to me abouthow that formal STEM experience
and your education pathway feedsinto the work that you're doing
in the racing world.
Justin Mondeik (21:58):
So I've always been, like said before, just
very passionate about racing andthe industry as a whole, but
just grew up in the shop here,I've just always been extremely
hands on and willing to work. SoI think just that passion for
wanting to be hands on and tolearn from my dad and others of
how stuff goes together and whatmakes things tick, necessarily,
(22:18):
that really helps. I think ourprogram, because there's a lot
of teams now that we runagainst, a lot of drivers that I
personally race against thatdon't necessarily work on the
cars whatsoever. They're morepay to play. So they pay other
teams like I if I had a teamlike what I do here, if you had
a son or daughter, you could payme and they could drive my stuff
right. So they could just hop inand drive right. Sure those kids
(22:40):
and adults, they necessarilydon't have that hands on
experience. They don't have thatfeel. They don't have the
appreciation for what it takesto put these cars together and
how much work it truly is andthe technology behind it. So I
think that's where it sets usapart, because I'm a big help
and putting them together,seeing how they go together. I
put the setups in them. I do allthe shock packages so I know how
(23:02):
stuff should react, so I atleast know what to anticipate
when we get to the race track.
And then from there, obviouslytake good notes, and you can go
back and you can say, this, didthis. And of course, it's a
mental note. It's a feel in theseat. Then from there, you go
from race track to race track,and you kind of learn over time
what works and what doesn'twork. And sometimes you stumble
across a great setup thatdoesn't make any sense, but it's
(23:24):
bad fast, and you continue to goon. But I feel like having the
engineering background and thestem behind it just helps us
unload at the race track and bea little more on pace right
away,
Matt Kirchner (23:36):
that engineering background and stem that you had
in a formal sense and in youreducation path, and also, in an
informal sense, being around inworking on things with your dad
and others as you were growingup. Really important. We have a
lot of students that are likethat, right? A lot of young
people, they like buildingthings. They like things like
engines and how do we power carand and so on. You know, all
kinds of kids are wired thatway. Talk a bit about how, you
(24:00):
know that technical educationopportunity in high school and
beyond might be able to opensome doors for them
professionally that they haven'treally thought about or
considered as they were growingup. Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (24:10):
I feel like it's just the opportunity and the
relationships you gain in theindustry. So you I've always
been in the manufacturing world,but just the relationships that
you gain because of that. Itmight be other electrical
subcontractors, or it might beplumbers, or you name it. And
you might, you might come acrossthis great relationship, and it
might open another door, and younever know where it can take
(24:32):
you. So I just, I truly feellike it's just a great avenue to
go down, and it opens a lot ofdoors, because you're not
necessarily this stem is so hugeright you can be on the way left
side of it, or the way rightside of it, as far as industry.
So really, there's so manyopportunities that you can go
down, and you really never knowwhere that path is gonna lead.
But so far, it's been leading medown a great path, and been very
(24:54):
fortunate to meet a lot ofamazing people,
Matt Kirchner (24:56):
leading you down a great path, for sure, a path,
by the way, that doesn't. Comefor free, right? I mean, just
looking at all those things, butall that and all that equipment
behind you, obviously, there's atremendous amount of funding
that goes into running a programlike mondeck racing. So let's
talk a little bit about thatfunding. I don't know if you can
tell us what the annual budgetlooks like. Would be interested
in in that, but also, where doyou go to find sponsors? How do
(25:19):
you do you fund all this out ofyour own pocket. Do you get some
help? How does that all work?
Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (25:23):
I definitely do not fund all of this out of my
own pocket. When we started inthe stock car world, my parents,
we kind of brainstormed and howcan we do this? And we started
off at a very small level, asfar as operation. I think my
first car that we bought waslike $3,000 compared to our
super late models. Now, if youwould build one from the ground
up, there over 100 they're over$100,000 just to show that the
(25:44):
difference, it's amazing. Butwhen we started, my parents, you
know, they said, We'll dowhatever we need to do, you
know, we already had the shop.
So my dad's like, you know, youcan have the shop and I'll
always work for you. But at theend of the day, it's like,
you're gonna start a business,but you're gonna go and find out
your own partners and your ownsponsors. And that really drove
me to work hard, because, ofcourse, the harder that I would
work on the back side, the morepartnerships and sponsorships
(26:06):
that I would be able to get. Andof course, the better people
that you can get around you, andthe better equipment, and then
so on. And at the end of theday, at what we do, everybody
has the best of the bestequipment, and it comes down to
the knowledge in the driver'sseat, and then knowledge, as far
as tire specialists and crewchiefs and so much behind the
scenes that that goes into it tomake a successful operation. And
(26:26):
it truly is a full time job forme. But at the end of the day,
it's a business as well. Sowe're here to make money, but
we're here to have a hell of agood time. Yeah,
Matt Kirchner (26:36):
absolutely. Well, that's what life is all about.
If you can wrap both of thoseinto one career and, or in your
case, two careers, becauseyou've got multiple things that
you have going on in your life,all the better. So as far as the
sponsors are concerned, I knowas we're warming up and kind of
learning a little bit about thework that you've done, some of
your sponsors have found somereally, really unique benefits
to being part of the racingscene, particularly
(26:57):
manufacturing companies. Yeah,you would think that maybe
there's, there's just brandawareness and making people
aware of whatever a company'sbrand is. And certainly that's
one reason to sponsor, you know,a racing program, but lots and
lots of others. And tell us alittle bit, as you were telling
our producer about this, whatone of your sponsors discovered
as they were out doing work withyou and found some unexpected
(27:20):
benefits. So talk about that.
Justin Mondeik (27:21):
Yep. So everywhere now, of course, is
struggling for employees,especially good and talented
employees, no matter where youare, everybody's crying for
more. So we did a HR hiringcampaign with the company. We
had stuff on the car all year.
We had a QR landing page on ourhero cards, which are
autographed cards. If you wouldscan the QR code, it would go
right to Justin mondackracing.com but then it would
(27:43):
also push it to their landingpage for their hiring area. But
then they would also come to therace track and have kind of a
hospitality booth. They'd handout free stuff, of course, get
everybody talking. And then fromthere, they were able to get a
couple hires and new hires outof it. So it was successful. So
it's definitely a greatopportunity to get companies in
front of the racing world,because at the end of the day,
(28:05):
you're always trying to get newfans into the racing world, but
it's a lot of blue collar, hardworking men and women, hands on,
that come to the race track,right? So of course, in the
manufacturing setting, it'sdefinitely a hot bed for
opportunity with employees. And
Matt Kirchner (28:21):
is that what sponsors are finding that the
motor sports fans tend to be thekinds of folks that would excel
and would enjoy careers inmanufacturing? Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (28:28):
it definitely comes down to the hands on the
passion for engineering andmanufacturing. And just at the
end of the day that they'recrazy about the sport and
they're they're gear heads,right, absolutely.
Matt Kirchner (28:40):
So is that, I mean, if you think about a young
student or a young person thathas an interest in motor sports,
did those skills and thoseinterests? Do they they span,
and I know you've spent time inmanufacturing, do they port over
pretty well to manufacturing asfar as skills and aptitudes are
concerned, yeah,
Justin Mondeik (28:56):
it comes down to simple math and understanding
procedures in a manufacturingfacility or a shop. I mean,
today's world, if you have theknowledge with what you're
gaining in the STEM world, thattranslates so well to the
manufacturing world. And ofcourse, just training on the
job, you can't beat that.
Matt Kirchner (29:14):
So we have a lot of employers that listen to this
podcast every week, people thatare running small to mid size
manufacturing companies. We'vehad a lot of guests from Fortune
500 manufacturing companies onthe podcast over the years, so
lots and lots of folks aretuning in and tapping into The
TechEd Podcast for all kinds ofideas, including, how do we
inspire this next generation ofSTEM and workforce talent into
(29:35):
careers like advancedmanufacturing? So let's say that
I'm a manufacturer, small to midsized company, and I'm listening
to this podcast, you know, whatadvice would you have for them
of how they, both companies andeducators can use platforms like
motor sports to get a hold ofand get excited this next
generation of manufacturingtalent?
Justin Mondeik (29:54):
Yeah, it's just the next generation that's going
to the race track and being apart of it. So of course, that.
Say, reach out to myself atJustin Monday Grayson, in
reality, just getting in frontof different teams or
organizations, also you can teamup with the series or the
tracks, whatever that might be,because there's a lot of
partners that we work with thatnecessarily don't want to
(30:16):
partner with an individual.
Maybe they want to do more of anorganization or a track. And a
lot of our partners, they'vesponsored us on the personal
level, but they've also gaveback and sponsored series or
tracks as well. So there'sdefinitely a gateway, and I
would love to express all thevarious opportunities that we
can go down
Matt Kirchner (30:33):
just a Monday, if just a Monday, racing is our
guest in this episode of TheTechEd Podcast. We've got enough
time for two more questionshere, Justin as we close out our
time together, it's been a realfascinating conversation. The
first one is this, we all haveour own journey through
education. You referenced alittle bit earlier, a specific
teacher, a TechEd teacher thathad a particularly important
influence on your life and yourcareer and so on, and so glad
(30:56):
that you had that experience,and such a great example for our
teachers in terms of the impactthat they can have on people's
lives, but we all have our ownjourney through education.
Education works in differentways for different people. And
would love to know if there'ssomething about education that
you learned along your paththrough education that would
surprise some people, is theresomething you believe about
(31:17):
education that not too manyother people would believe? If
Justin Mondeik (31:19):
you want to take a minor in something, if there's
something if there's somethingelse that you're interested in,
do it while you're in thatschool mode, while you're there,
or if you want to do continuingeducation to get your MBA, or
your master's or your doctorate,if you can afford to do it, and
at the time in your life,continue to do that, because at
the point you know where I amnow, it's just life goes on and
(31:40):
life gets busy, and there'snever a good time to truly go
back and do it. But I know how Iwas at the end of the four
years. You just wanted to getout and work full time and you
wanted a little relief. But nowlooking back at it, it's like
you kind of wish you would havejust went on, but that would be
my advice well, and I do
Matt Kirchner (31:56):
want to extract something from that last answer
that I think is interesting whenyou talk about, you know, maybe
consider a minor that somethingthat is, something that
interests you. You think aboutso many people go into their
education post secondary, andthey pick a major because it's
something that's interesting. Orsometimes people say, follow
your passion. And my answer isalways, yeah, follow your
(32:16):
passion, but you better makesure that there's a job
available to you at the end ofthat passion, or you're going to
spend a lot of money getting adegree that doesn't necessarily
help you along professionally.
So here, what I hear you sayingis, hey, we can pick a degree
that has a job at the end of it,and that's exactly what you did,
but along the way, it doesn'tmean you can't take some classes
or even explore a minor insomething that's really
(32:38):
interesting to you, that may ormay not lead to a professional
career, but but you're exploringthis interest at the same time
you're gaining competencies inwhatever your field of study is,
your primary field of study thatwill probably lead to your
primary career after youcomplete that education journey.
So I think that's really, reallya pointed thing for our young
people to think about. It's okayto major in something that leads
(33:01):
to an awesome career, but alsopick some interests and some
clubs or a minor or otheracademic endeavors that may
interest you a little bit more.
I think that's really, reallygood advice. Speaking of good
advice, Justin, we want to giveyou an opportunity to give some
good advice to your 15 year oldself. No, I'll be honest with
you, at the age of 28 a lot ofthe people we posed this
(33:22):
question to are quite a bitfurther along from the age of 15
than maybe you are. But turningthat clock back 13 years ago,
you're a 15 year old, maybesophomore in high school growing
up there in central Wisconsin.
And if you could go back andgive that young man one piece of
advice, what would it be
Justin Mondeik (33:37):
my words of advice to the 15 year old self
was, take that $10,000 that youbought that snowmobile with and
invest it in stocks or somethinglike that. That would be my
words of advice. There
Matt Kirchner (33:49):
you go, and that's pretty good. And looking
at the stock market has doneover the course of the last 13
years, that might not have beenbad advice. On the other hand,
with this, this passion that youmanaged to garner throughout
your life, so far toward towardracing and motor sports and so
on, you never know if maybe yourlife would have turned out a
little bit different. Butreally, really interesting
advice to take that money thatyou spent at the age of 15 and
(34:11):
invested in the stock marketthat I think there's a lot of us
that probably, if we had life todo it over again, might have
spent a little bit more timefocusing our assets on that
particular endeavor. So really,really good advice. There Justin
great advice across the board,and a great conversation that
we've had here about JustinMondy racing and the great work
that you're doing, all theexpenses that go into running a
(34:33):
great racing team, all thetechnical aspects of it. With
that, I found that particularlyinteresting, and then this
opportunity for companies toreach out to young people that
are in the motor sports scene,that are fans of motor sports,
probably a little bit benttoward hands on, a little bit
bent toward technical maybe alittle bit more bent toward a
non traditional journey througheducation. So I think all of
(34:56):
that just had a great timeexploring all that with you.
Justin and can thank you enoughfor. Coming onto The TechEd
Podcast and sharing all thatwith us here.
Justin Mondeik (35:03):
Absolutely, I appreciate you letting me be a
part of it, and everything thatyou do, just for stem and the
TechEd area all across the boardand except just really
appreciate you letting me comeon here and telling a little bit
about myself and Justin monkracing. Well, it's
Matt Kirchner (35:17):
a perfect example of how we secure the American
Dream for the next generation ofSTEM and workforce talent.
Frankly, we talent. Frankly, wedo it for people like you or the
people that you were 10 yearsago. All these great
opportunities in manufacturingand in STEM and in technology,
you've managed to pull that alltogether into two separate
careers, and really had funtalking about that. So what a
(35:38):
great episode we've had today onThe TechEd Podcast with Justin
Mondy. Want to point everybodyto the show notes. You'll see
all kinds of resources there.
We'll make sure we point you toJustin's website as well, so you
can learn more about JustinMondy racing if you choose to do
that, any of the resources thatwe talked about here on The
TechEd Podcast today, we willlink up in those show notes. We
do have the best show notes inthe business, and you will find
(35:59):
them for this particular episodeat TechEd podcast.com/mandy that
is TechEd podcast.com/m. O, n,d, e, i, k, when you're done
there, of course, we talkedabout social media. Justin's use
of social media and his team'suse of social media. We make
great use of social media hereat The TechEd Podcast as well.
(36:21):
So check us out. We are all oversocial media. You will find us
on LinkedIn, you'll find us onInstagram, you'll find us on
Facebook, you will find us onTiktok, wherever you go to find
your social you will find TheTechEd Podcast, and you'll find
us here again next week. Lookingforward to seeing you then
thanks for being with us. You
Matt, welcome into The TechEd Podcast. I am
(00:11):
your host. Matt Kirkner, this isthe number one podcast in all of
STEM and technical education,and to be honest, it isn't even
close. Why is that? Because wehave listeners from all over
stem and TechEd to join us everysingle week and join us for all
kinds of reasons. We talk aboutthings like careers in
manufacturing and how we findour way into STEM manufacturing
(00:33):
and TechEd type careers. Sothat's one topic we cover all
the time. We love to talk abouthow we can get more people, more
young people, especially intoSTEM and particularly advanced
manufacturing careers. And fromtime to time, we'll get into a
specific topic of humaninterest. One example might be
(00:53):
auto racing. And today we'regoing to cover all of three of
those things. We're going totalk about the world and a new
topic here on The TechEd Podcastof auto racing. We're going to
talk about how we can use thatparticular sport to get young
people excited aboutmanufacturing careers, and talk
about how that relates to stemand technical education. We are
doing all of this with a greatnew friend of The TechEd
(01:15):
Podcast. His name is JustinMondy. Justin is with Mondy
racing. Hey, Justin awesome tohave you with us.
Justin Mondeik (01:22):
Yeah, we're definitely really excited to be
on The TechEd Podcast. Yourracing
Matt Kirchner (01:26):
career in general has kind of an interesting story
behind it. So let's start withWhat first got you interested in
racing in the first place? Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (01:35):
I first started racing when I was extremely
young. I'm 28 years old now. Istarted in racing when I
Matt Kirchner (01:40):
was you're still extremely young. If you're 28
years old, yeah, I
Justin Mondeik (01:44):
hear you. I started when I was four. So it
was just at our local ice track,main Gleason Gleason
International Raceway is what wecalled it, man. My grandpa and
father at the time were racingsnowmobiles and go karts, and I
just kind of grew up at the racetrack throughout the winter
time, mainly, I just kind ofwanted to follow in their
footsteps. So when I was fouryears old, my parents got me a
(02:05):
kitty cat snowmobile, which is asmall snowmobile, of course, and
we kind of did traveling aroundCentral Wisconsin. That's how I
started to get my feet wet intoracing. And then when I was
five, we got into go karts justat our local track, low five
horsepower factory mini carts,and then from there, kind of
progressed up through largerframed go karts and micro
sprints on ice, and thencontinued into larger
(02:27):
snowmobiles, and then got intothe stock car world when I was
16. So definitely very familyoriented on the back side, that
was definitely my passion rightaway, and definitely the reason
that I got into racing. Well,it's
Matt Kirchner (02:38):
so amazing that you started that all the way
back when you were four yearsold. I think that really speaks
to our interests a lot of timesas young people, certainly not
generally before we're inkindergarten, for instance, but
certainly going back through ourlives, how those experiences
early on in our lives can sparka lifelong interest, and
certainly that interest that wasignited by both your father and
(02:58):
your grandfather. Super, superexample of that. Now you started
out doing things like racing, gokarts, racing, mini snowmobiles,
watching your father and yourgrandfather engage in racing in
the winter time, and now hereyou are in the world of super
late model racing. So tell us alittle bit about what is that.
What is super late model racing?
How does it compare to othertypes of motor sports that our
(03:19):
audience might be familiar with,like NASCAR, yeah,
Unknown (03:23):
of course. So when I was 16 at the time of the ISO
world track, I was verysuccessful at what I did. I was
brought up in it, and we werevery successful. We had good
equipment, and I was able togain my craft over a number of
years and really help that astime went on, I had a few
sponsors and private people thatsaid, if you really want to ever
go somewhere in racing, you needto get on circle track, you
(03:44):
know, asphalt. So we went out,we purchased my stock car, and
started off, I'm at the lowerlevels, and now we've progressed
up to super late models. Sosuper late model is the highest
level caliber of racing beforeyou would get to the
professional level of like theNASCAR craftsman truck series,
the XFINITY series and the cuplevel. So we're as high as what
you can get before you would gointo the three tiers of NASCAR.
(04:05):
So our cars are the best of thebest technology that you can
get. I do this as a second fulltime job. Of course, we'll get
into that later. I have aprimary full time job, but
there's teams and organizationsthat we run against that that's
all they do is race and they'reat a professional level. We go
and compete at that on anational level and also
regionally across the US. So
Matt Kirchner (04:25):
speaking of that spirit of competition, and you
talk about being 16 years oldand being successful as a 16
year old, and you talked aboutthe value of the equipment that
you had, you had success as a 16year old. What do you attribute
that to?
Justin Mondeik (04:38):
Well, I think really just having a ton of
laps. No matter if you're ondirt or asphalt or ice, any type
of racing that you go to,there's never bad seat time. I
feel anytime you're behind thewheel, it's good. So even though
it's a different platform, adifferent type of vehicle that
we were getting in, I still hada ton of laps in the past. So I
just think it kind of camenatural. Of course, there was a
(04:59):
huge. Learning Curve, just withthe equipment and different type
of machine, but we were able todevelop and grow that fairly
fast, and then kind of progressthrough the ranks and different
divisions. And we started out ina lower class and went to pro
late models, but now we're insuper late models. But like
said, super late model is thehighest you can get before you
start going into the threeNASCAR tiers. Got it.
Matt Kirchner (05:19):
I think it was Malcolm Gladwell, the author, if
I'm not mistaken, that talkedabout becoming an expert at
something takes 10,000 hours,and whatever that is, whether
it's being a violinist or it'sbeing really good at math, for
example, or in your case, beingawesome and being incredibly
successful at racing. And yousaid, part of what it takes is a
lot of laps. All those laps leadup to tons of races. How many
(05:41):
races these days are youcompeting in every year? Justin
every year?
Unknown (05:45):
Right now, we're averaging anywhere from 25 to 30
events per year. So the bulk ofour schedule in the Midwest
region is from May till the endof October, and then in the off
season through November throughMarch, we'll venture down to the
Florida, Alabama areas, and kindof get a lot. So before that,
when I was just doing ice yearsago, that was only five events a
year throughout the winter time,so that, of course, was a lot
(06:06):
less. And then probably aboutthree, four years ago, we were
doing, you know, 50 plus races ayear that just kind of dependent
on funding and where my life wasat and just what the priority
was. And of course, I have, youknow, full time jobs, and I just
got married and and life changeda little bit. Welcome to real
life, right? Well, exactly, butstill, at our level, 25 to 30
events, that's still on thehigher end, even in the Midwest,
(06:30):
for what people do per year. Sowe're definitely still on a
higher level.
Matt Kirchner (06:33):
So mid October, 25 to 30 events is, is it that,
like every weekend that you're Imean, that's five months of the
year that many events is howmany in a week? Or what does
that kind of
Justin Mondeik (06:42):
feel like? Yeah, it varies from week to week.
Like our Memorial Day week thisyear, we have races Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, Monday. So wehave four days in a row, and
then we have a stretch, or wedon't race for two weeks. But
for the most part, it's at leastonce a week, if not two days a
week. Normally it's a Friday,Saturday, or sometimes just a
Saturday. It just really dependson what specific track we're
(07:03):
running at that time, or if it'sa regional or national touring
series. It just kind of dependson the schedule that we're
running. So
Matt Kirchner (07:09):
a little bit of everything I have to ask you
this question. I'm certainly notan auto racer, but I did a lot
of cycling and a lot of bikeracing in my day. I had a good
friend of mine that was also abike racer, but before he was a
bike racer, he was an autoracer, and he told me this, he
said, and as you can imagine,bike racing is grueling. I mean,
we did what we call centuryrides, where you're going out
and riding 100 miles. I didseveral double centuries in a
(07:31):
day, where you're literallygoing out and riding 200 plus
miles on your bicycle in a day.
And he said that being in a racecar was every bit as grueling
physically as bike racing, whichreally surprised me. I mean, I
think about how beat I was atthe end of a bike race or a long
ride. Is it really thatphysically taxing on the driver
himself? Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (07:53):
so, I mean, a lot of our races are weekly
tracks that we go to, those areanywhere from like 50 to 75
laps. Those aren't too bad, butquite of our few races now, at
the level that we run at in theseries, they're anywhere from
200 to 250 laps with pit stops.
So you could be in the race carfor upwards an hour and a half
to two and a half hours to threehours. You're going extremely
fast. It's extremely hot in therace car, it takes a ton of
(08:16):
upper body strength and just armstrength. Even though you have
power steering, if you have acar that's, we'll call it on
rails, that's a really good car,and it does exactly what you
want it to do, then it's more ofan easier race, because it's
doing what you want to do. Butif you're dealing with the ill
handling car, then it reallystarts to fatigue you even more,
and then you need to bephysically prepared as much as
you can for that you're just
Matt Kirchner (08:38):
absolutely spent at the end of a race. Is that
right, when we
Justin Mondeik (08:41):
win and the adrenaline goes, Yeah, then it's
not as bad. But if we have arough race, and you run, say,
10th to 15th, and it's not agreat car and depending, it just
really comes down to thetemperature of outside and kind
of how long the race is. So whenit gets to the the 8080, plus
degrees and the humid, then,then it starts to get bad. Most
of our races are at night. Soit's not the end of the end of
(09:02):
the world because it starts tocool off, but when we have our
day races and the hot beatingsun, that's when it really
starts to get taxing. Got
Matt Kirchner (09:09):
it and is there conditioning you have to do in
addition to being in the car, oris like the practice in the car
enough to kind of condition yourbody to be able to handle the
rigors of a race?
Justin Mondeik (09:18):
That's quite a bit. But I try to lift weights
when I can and do someconditioning and cardio, fitting
in with my busy schedule, but weget stuff to balance it all. But
definitely I feel staying inshape, you know, within the race
car, just because we do it sooften. And of course, you know,
you're working in the shop everynight, so you're washing haulers
and you're changing tires, andyou're doing this and doing
that. It's just it's very easyto stay in shape, absolutely.
Matt Kirchner (09:39):
So all this physical preparation that you
do, both intentionally andunintentionally along the way
preparing for a car race. Whatabout technically? What are some
of the technical aspects that gointo making sure you're ready
for race day? Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (09:50):
so there's so much body templates. All our
bodies are identical in ourclass, except for the noses. So
you have a Toyota nose, a Fordnose, and a Chevy nose. And the
Dodge nose, but the rest of thebody is the same. So you have a
series of aluminum templatesthat they'll set on the race car
at the race track, and that bodyhas to contour to that template.
(10:11):
So we have those in the shop.
That's preparation every race.
We have what's called a referee.
So the car will physically rollthrough this device, and chains
hang down, and the car has to beat a minimum or maximum height.
Based on that, the car has to bea minimum overall weight with
the driver in it. So we scaleand prep that every single week
in the shop, the car can onlyhave so much overall left side
percentage. So that's where it'sa perk of myself being a smaller
(10:34):
driver, because you can placethen the lead on the race car
where you want. So let's justsay, if I, if I'm only 135
pounds, compared to a 300 poundguy, you have all that weight in
the driver's seat, you can'tmove that weight around where
you want to, because, of course,you want a certain corner to be
heavier. You want this wheelweight to be different. There's
(10:54):
certain percentages on the racecar that you want. Well, if you
just have all that weight,there's not a whole lot that you
can do with that. So our cars,we build them as light as we
possibly can, but then there'sabout 350 pounds of lead on them
as well. So makes a whole lot ofsense when you spend all this
money to have everything lightand then you just add all this
lead balance, or at least, youcan control where you want it.
Tire sizes are huge, sothroughout the week we have
(11:17):
practice tires. We'll prep thoseas far as circumference an
overall tire stager, so our leftside tires are smaller than our
right side stagger. So thebigger that split is from right
to left, it'll make the car turnmore. You can tighten it up with
less stagger, etc. All our shockpackages. Cast your camber bumps
to your toe, a ton of frontgeometry work that we have to do
(11:37):
and change throughout week toweek, and every different track
that we go to. So I could spendthe whole hour podcast here
talking about the technologybehind it, but there's
definitely a lot of variablesand a lot of different areas
that we have to cover week in aweek
Matt Kirchner (11:51):
out. But of course, being technical people
ourselves, that whole aspect ofit fascinates us, and how much
of that is like experience andgut feel and intuition, and how
much of it is is just a ton ofscience that goes behind the
physics of racing and beingsuccessful. I
Justin Mondeik (12:08):
would like to say 100% of physics is behind it
going to school and goingthrough the tech trades. You
understand technology, and youunderstand engineering and
forces and how things gotogether and how things should
react and mechanisms and momentof inertia and everything behind
it, but at the end of the day,we'll make changes at the race
track and and we know that inthe engineering world, if you do
(12:31):
this, it should react a certainway, and nine times out of 10,
it does, but there's always thatone time that it's like, Okay,
it's done this for how manytimes, and you can't get it to
work out. And then you dosomething theoretically that
should not work, that should nothelp at all, and then you make
that change, and then that caris dominant that night. So for
the most part, physics help itbehind it, but you do have those
(12:54):
kind of anomalies once in awhile that it's the wild card.
Yeah,
Matt Kirchner (12:58):
life is a little bit like that, right? We can do
all the preparation, all thestudying, and have all the data
behind us. But in the end,sometimes it does come down to a
little bit of intuition and somegood fortune and a combination
of all that to be successful.
But interesting to hear howimportant that technical part of
what you do is you mentionedyour education and having a STEM
education. So I want to diveinto that a little bit, because
I don't know if that's unique inthe world that you're in, or not
(13:20):
just in. But you went toMichigan Tech, which is a
revered stem and engineeringschool, but you didn't go
directly there. Tell us how youstarted your academic career
post secondary after you wereout of high school. Yeah.
Justin Mondeik (13:33):
So just a little bit in high school, I worked
with an employer in town. Did alot of youth apprenticeship
through that way. I already hadthe job before youth
apprenticeship, but I used YouthApprenticeship so I could, you
know, work during school hours,and then from there, I just knew
I wanted to be in theengineering world. I really
enjoyed the design aspect of it,but also being hands on in that
world. So I decided to go to NTCand get my two year mechanical
(13:57):
design, engineering technologydegree, mechanical design. I
chose to go to NTC just becauseof what our right does for the
stem route. Of course, it'scheaper job placement right
away. You can stay close tohome, you can stay working. It's
honestly a no brainer. So I wasable to do that for two years,
and then at that time, and theystill currently have it, you
could transfer out of NTC to anyUW school for engineering hood,
(14:21):
as well as Michigan Tech. And Ihad a technical excellence
scholarship at that time that ifyou stayed at a tech school, you
would get so much per semester.
So at that time, the agreementwas you could stay at NTC for an
additional semester, and thenyou would only have to go to
Michigan Tech for a year and ahalf. So I was able to get that
scholarship for anothersemester, of course, stay at
(14:41):
home, stay working, etc, andthen I only had to go to
Michigan Tech for a year and ahalf to come out with my
Mechanical EngineeringTechnology degree. But we moved
up into Houghton in the middleof winter. Not sure that was
necessarily the right thing todo, but we made it through. So
Matt Kirchner (14:57):
let's dissect that a little bit. The whole
youth apprentice. Upside of it,and we've got that. You and I
both live in the state ofWisconsin. Wisconsin has a great
ya program across the state tothe point that you just made it
enables students to spend sometime both going to school and
working while they're still inhigh school. So talk a little
bit more about that. What youthapprenticeship program were you
in while you were in highschool? Justin,
Justin Mondeik (15:18):
it was pertaining to manufacturing,
mechanical design, but the youthapprenticeship, there was a ton
of different ones that you couldgo into. You could go into
automotive, electrical, really,anything in the trades world. So
I went into the manufacturingside and the mechanical design.
I just really enjoyed it. I waskind of doing some mechanical
design and CAD work offlinebefore I even had classes in
(15:40):
high school, and I continue tojust do every TechEd class that
I could in high school, and Iwanted to continue to do that
for a job. So it definitely madesense, because you got high
school credit for it, so youdidn't have to take other
classes, and then you also couldget work release through youth
apprenticeship, so you didn'thave to be at school as much.
And you're also getting paid onthe job to do it, to also
progress your career. So itdefinitely was a no brainer,
(16:02):
very thankful everything whatthe youth apprenticeship did for
me, and it kind of catapulted meinto North Central Technical
College for my two year degree,and then progressed on from
there. So
Matt Kirchner (16:11):
do you have a tech ed teacher while you were
in high school? Sounds like yougravitated into that programming
while you were in high schoolthat really stands out to you
and had a huge impact on yourlife? My
Justin Mondeik (16:20):
cat instructor in high school was Mr. Shield.
Was his name. He was just sopassionate about it. But he was
just, you know, he was just anormal guy, right? He was
definitely caring, normal guy,outdoors man, you know, would do
anything for you. You had thepersonal relationship, but then
you also had the respect of thatit's a professional relationship
as well. So he was just one ofthose guys that would kind of go
(16:41):
above and beyond to make surethat you're adapting to what you
need to and you're getting whatyou need out of the curriculum.
Just really thankful for therelationship I had with him.
Matt Kirchner (16:49):
That's awesome.
I'm glad you had an opportunityto shout him out. It's it's
amazing how many people we haveon the podcast, especially those
that were in STEM and TechEdprograms, that'll point back to
a high school teacher or twothat just had a huge impact on
on them and on their careerpathway. So so awesome that you
were able to have that, have aperson in your life that had
that kind of an impact. And asyou were thinking about in high
school Justin, what would comenext? Were you always planning
(17:11):
on going to a technical college?
Or how did you settle on thatroute? Obviously, the economic
side of it sounds like that wasan important factor in the you
know, the ease of being able totransfer so many credits would
put at what point kind of inyour high school career? Did you
say that Technical College isthat next step was the right one
for you? Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (17:30):
I wasn't always like, Yeah, I'm definitely gonna
go do it a two year school. Ofcourse, my family backing and
support is very big intoeducation and the technical
world. So of course, I heard itat home, but at the end of the
day, it's my life, and I neededto figure it out and live what I
wanted to live. But when I wasgoing through high school and
just figuring out what I wantedto do, I was never that kid,
(17:53):
thankfully, that struggled toknow what they wanted to do in
life. Just growing up throughracing and being involved with
putting things together andalways being in the shop and
being hands on. I know I wantedto do something in the trades,
dabbling in high schoolthroughout different classes.
And I mentioned, you know, theprevious my cat instructor, I
just kind of fell in love withmechanical design. And then, of
course, it just it made sense tokeep my job, save a bunch of
(18:15):
money not going to a four yearschool right away when you're
just taking your gen edsanyways. And then you can stay
at home. You don't have to payrent, and then you can, you
know, keep your job. And just,it made a lot of sense. So
really happy with the route Iwent. I still hear of people,
you know, it's like they'll goto, you know, a four year right
away, and it's like, I get it ifthey want to go off and do what
they want to do. And everybodyhas their own reasons for doing
(18:37):
what they want to do, but itmakes sense to do at least a
year and a half, two years at atech school, get all the gen ed
stuff all out of the way thatyou kind of and just you save a
bunch of money, and I feel likeyou have a better knowledge base
because it's more hands on rightaway, smaller classes, et
cetera.
Matt Kirchner (18:53):
Absolutely. And for as long as you mentioned
your family, we might as welllet our audience know if your
last name sounds familiar to anyof the folks in Wisconsin. Your
mom, of course, Dr Shelly Mandy,who is the president of mid
State Technical College, andactually a great personal friend
of mine as well. So for as longas you brought that up, we might
as well let your mom have alittle time in the limelight
here. And obviously, raised anincredible son and a really
sensible son in terms of how youplanned your your career, both
(19:16):
professionally and and theeducation path to get there.
Let's finish off with a littlebit on Michigan Tech. How far
along did you get at MichiganTech? And tell us a little bit
about this study that you didthere?
Justin Mondeik (19:26):
Yeah. So we had a really good environment at
NTC. So there was about eight to10 guys that was really in our
core group of friends. We reallyhad a lot of fun. But there was
a couple that went on toPlatteville, couple went on to
Milwaukee, and then a couplewent on to Michigan Tech, for
Matt Kirchner (19:40):
our audience that isn't here in Wisconsin. So UW
University Wisconsin,Platteville, University
Wisconsin, Milwaukee, orMichigan Tech, which, of course,
is up in the up in the UpperPeninsula of Michigan. So go on.
Yep,
Justin Mondeik (19:51):
I actually my best man for my wedding, and I
was also the best man for hiswedding. He was my roommate.
Mitch rosenski. Is his name. Wemet at NTC and just became.
Great friends, and now he reallyhelps me a lot with my racing,
and it's just a greatrelationship. But he was one of
them that we went to MichiganTech together. Were roommates.
It just was great to have thatrelationship throughout NTC, but
(20:11):
also to continue that up northand Houghton, to continue the
relationship and just havesomeone that you trust and
someone that you know. Becauseof course, you could work on
schoolwork together, projects oranything under the sun that way.
So I studied MechanicalEngineering Technology up there
with Mitch together. But it wasjust cool being in that
atmosphere together. But thenyou could go snowmobile riding
(20:32):
whenever you wanted. Of course,you had tons of snow. And when
they say it literally snowsevery day, like it's not like it
snows a dusting, it's like twoto three inches every day. At
least I was up there, so justpretty crazy environment, but it
was just great to see thedifferent level of instructors
and just the vast variety of theengineering capabilities that
they had there, man, thetechnologies, and just the
(20:53):
industry backing at that timefrom various companies. It was a
great eye opening experience forme, and I gained a lot of
valuable relationships from it.
And
Matt Kirchner (21:02):
I suppose if you grew up on ice ovals, then going
up to the just again, for ouraudience that may not be
familiar with that geography,Houghton, Michigan, is way up on
Lake Superior in the uppermidsole in Michigan. And it does
get just huge lake effect snow.
Just gets absolutely poundedsome years, hundreds of inches
of snow in that area, which weyou wouldn't expect in the
Midwest, but we get that here.
(21:23):
And so it really, yeah, it takesa tough and unique person to
persevere through, especiallyfour or five years, as some some
students do, the year and a halfthat you were up there,
certainly takes a certain amountof toughness. But the education
you get there, the technicalbackground and the understanding
that you gain from an experiencelike the one that you get at
Michigan Tech invaluable in yourcareer. We're going to get into
(21:44):
that, I would imagine,invaluable in racing as well. We
talked a little bit about someof the technical aspects of
racing, but But talk to me abouthow that formal STEM experience
and your education pathway feedsinto the work that you're doing
in the racing world.
Justin Mondeik (21:58):
So I've always been, like said before, just
very passionate about racing andthe industry as a whole, but
just grew up in the shop here,I've just always been extremely
hands on and willing to work. SoI think just that passion for
wanting to be hands on and tolearn from my dad and others of
how stuff goes together and whatmakes things tick, necessarily,
(22:18):
that really helps. I think ourprogram, because there's a lot
of teams now that we runagainst, a lot of drivers that I
personally race against thatdon't necessarily work on the
cars whatsoever. They're morepay to play. So they pay other
teams like I if I had a teamlike what I do here, if you had
a son or daughter, you could payme and they could drive my stuff
right. So they could just hop inand drive right. Sure those kids
(22:40):
and adults, they necessarilydon't have that hands on
experience. They don't have thatfeel. They don't have the
appreciation for what it takesto put these cars together and
how much work it truly is andthe technology behind it. So I
think that's where it sets usapart, because I'm a big help
and putting them together,seeing how they go together. I
put the setups in them. I do allthe shock packages so I know how
(23:02):
stuff should react, so I atleast know what to anticipate
when we get to the race track.
And then from there, obviouslytake good notes, and you can go
back and you can say, this, didthis. And of course, it's a
mental note. It's a feel in theseat. Then from there, you go
from race track to race track,and you kind of learn over time
what works and what doesn'twork. And sometimes you stumble
across a great setup thatdoesn't make any sense, but it's
(23:24):
bad fast, and you continue to goon. But I feel like having the
engineering background and thestem behind it just helps us
unload at the race track and bea little more on pace right
away,
Matt Kirchner (23:36):
that engineering background and stem that you had
in a formal sense and in youreducation path, and also, in an
informal sense, being around inworking on things with your dad
and others as you were growingup. Really important. We have a
lot of students that are likethat, right? A lot of young
people, they like buildingthings. They like things like
engines and how do we power carand and so on. You know, all
kinds of kids are wired thatway. Talk a bit about how, you
(24:00):
know that technical educationopportunity in high school and
beyond might be able to opensome doors for them
professionally that they haven'treally thought about or
considered as they were growingup. Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (24:10):
I feel like it's just the opportunity and the
relationships you gain in theindustry. So you I've always
been in the manufacturing world,but just the relationships that
you gain because of that. Itmight be other electrical
subcontractors, or it might beplumbers, or you name it. And
you might, you might come acrossthis great relationship, and it
might open another door, and younever know where it can take
(24:32):
you. So I just, I truly feellike it's just a great avenue to
go down, and it opens a lot ofdoors, because you're not
necessarily this stem is so hugeright you can be on the way left
side of it, or the way rightside of it, as far as industry.
So really, there's so manyopportunities that you can go
down, and you really never knowwhere that path is gonna lead.
But so far, it's been leading medown a great path, and been very
(24:54):
fortunate to meet a lot ofamazing people,
Matt Kirchner (24:56):
leading you down a great path, for sure, a path,
by the way, that doesn't. Comefor free, right? I mean, just
looking at all those things, butall that and all that equipment
behind you, obviously, there's atremendous amount of funding
that goes into running a programlike mondeck racing. So let's
talk a little bit about thatfunding. I don't know if you can
tell us what the annual budgetlooks like. Would be interested
in in that, but also, where doyou go to find sponsors? How do
(25:19):
you do you fund all this out ofyour own pocket. Do you get some
help? How does that all work?
Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (25:23):
I definitely do not fund all of this out of my
own pocket. When we started inthe stock car world, my parents,
we kind of brainstormed and howcan we do this? And we started
off at a very small level, asfar as operation. I think my
first car that we bought waslike $3,000 compared to our
super late models. Now, if youwould build one from the ground
up, there over 100 they're over$100,000 just to show that the
(25:44):
difference, it's amazing. Butwhen we started, my parents, you
know, they said, We'll dowhatever we need to do, you
know, we already had the shop.
So my dad's like, you know, youcan have the shop and I'll
always work for you. But at theend of the day, it's like,
you're gonna start a business,but you're gonna go and find out
your own partners and your ownsponsors. And that really drove
me to work hard, because, ofcourse, the harder that I would
work on the back side, the morepartnerships and sponsorships
(26:06):
that I would be able to get. Andof course, the better people
that you can get around you, andthe better equipment, and then
so on. And at the end of theday, at what we do, everybody
has the best of the bestequipment, and it comes down to
the knowledge in the driver'sseat, and then knowledge, as far
as tire specialists and crewchiefs and so much behind the
scenes that that goes into it tomake a successful operation. And
(26:26):
it truly is a full time job forme. But at the end of the day,
it's a business as well. Sowe're here to make money, but
we're here to have a hell of agood time. Yeah,
Matt Kirchner (26:36):
absolutely. Well, that's what life is all about.
If you can wrap both of thoseinto one career and, or in your
case, two careers, becauseyou've got multiple things that
you have going on in your life,all the better. So as far as the
sponsors are concerned, I knowas we're warming up and kind of
learning a little bit about thework that you've done, some of
your sponsors have found somereally, really unique benefits
to being part of the racingscene, particularly
(26:57):
manufacturing companies. Yeah,you would think that maybe
there's, there's just brandawareness and making people
aware of whatever a company'sbrand is. And certainly that's
one reason to sponsor, you know,a racing program, but lots and
lots of others. And tell us alittle bit, as you were telling
our producer about this, whatone of your sponsors discovered
as they were out doing work withyou and found some unexpected
(27:20):
benefits. So talk about that.
Justin Mondeik (27:21):
Yep. So everywhere now, of course, is
struggling for employees,especially good and talented
employees, no matter where youare, everybody's crying for
more. So we did a HR hiringcampaign with the company. We
had stuff on the car all year.
We had a QR landing page on ourhero cards, which are
autographed cards. If you wouldscan the QR code, it would go
right to Justin mondackracing.com but then it would
(27:43):
also push it to their landingpage for their hiring area. But
then they would also come to therace track and have kind of a
hospitality booth. They'd handout free stuff, of course, get
everybody talking. And then fromthere, they were able to get a
couple hires and new hires outof it. So it was successful. So
it's definitely a greatopportunity to get companies in
front of the racing world,because at the end of the day,
(28:05):
you're always trying to get newfans into the racing world, but
it's a lot of blue collar, hardworking men and women, hands on,
that come to the race track,right? So of course, in the
manufacturing setting, it'sdefinitely a hot bed for
opportunity with employees. And
Matt Kirchner (28:21):
is that what sponsors are finding that the
motor sports fans tend to be thekinds of folks that would excel
and would enjoy careers inmanufacturing? Yeah,
Justin Mondeik (28:28):
it definitely comes down to the hands on the
passion for engineering andmanufacturing. And just at the
end of the day that they'recrazy about the sport and
they're they're gear heads,right, absolutely.
Matt Kirchner (28:40):
So is that, I mean, if you think about a young
student or a young person thathas an interest in motor sports,
did those skills and thoseinterests? Do they they span,
and I know you've spent time inmanufacturing, do they port over
pretty well to manufacturing asfar as skills and aptitudes are
concerned, yeah,
Justin Mondeik (28:56):
it comes down to simple math and understanding
procedures in a manufacturingfacility or a shop. I mean,
today's world, if you have theknowledge with what you're
gaining in the STEM world, thattranslates so well to the
manufacturing world. And ofcourse, just training on the
job, you can't beat that.
Matt Kirchner (29:14):
So we have a lot of employers that listen to this
podcast every week, people thatare running small to mid size
manufacturing companies. We'vehad a lot of guests from Fortune
500 manufacturing companies onthe podcast over the years, so
lots and lots of folks aretuning in and tapping into The
TechEd Podcast for all kinds ofideas, including, how do we
inspire this next generation ofSTEM and workforce talent into
(29:35):
careers like advancedmanufacturing? So let's say that
I'm a manufacturer, small to midsized company, and I'm listening
to this podcast, you know, whatadvice would you have for them
of how they, both companies andeducators can use platforms like
motor sports to get a hold ofand get excited this next
generation of manufacturingtalent?
Justin Mondeik (29:54):
Yeah, it's just the next generation that's going
to the race track and being apart of it. So of course, that.
Say, reach out to myself atJustin Monday Grayson, in
reality, just getting in frontof different teams or
organizations, also you can teamup with the series or the
tracks, whatever that might be,because there's a lot of
partners that we work with thatnecessarily don't want to
(30:16):
partner with an individual.
Maybe they want to do more of anorganization or a track. And a
lot of our partners, they'vesponsored us on the personal
level, but they've also gaveback and sponsored series or
tracks as well. So there'sdefinitely a gateway, and I
would love to express all thevarious opportunities that we
can go down
Matt Kirchner (30:33):
just a Monday, if just a Monday, racing is our
guest in this episode of TheTechEd Podcast. We've got enough
time for two more questionshere, Justin as we close out our
time together, it's been a realfascinating conversation. The
first one is this, we all haveour own journey through
education. You referenced alittle bit earlier, a specific
teacher, a TechEd teacher thathad a particularly important
influence on your life and yourcareer and so on, and so glad
(30:56):
that you had that experience,and such a great example for our
teachers in terms of the impactthat they can have on people's
lives, but we all have our ownjourney through education.
Education works in differentways for different people. And
would love to know if there'ssomething about education that
you learned along your paththrough education that would
surprise some people, is theresomething you believe about
(31:17):
education that not too manyother people would believe? If
Justin Mondeik (31:19):
you want to take a minor in something, if there's
something if there's somethingelse that you're interested in,
do it while you're in thatschool mode, while you're there,
or if you want to do continuingeducation to get your MBA, or
your master's or your doctorate,if you can afford to do it, and
at the time in your life,continue to do that, because at
the point you know where I amnow, it's just life goes on and
(31:40):
life gets busy, and there'snever a good time to truly go
back and do it. But I know how Iwas at the end of the four
years. You just wanted to getout and work full time and you
wanted a little relief. But nowlooking back at it, it's like
you kind of wish you would havejust went on, but that would be
my advice well, and I do
Matt Kirchner (31:56):
want to extract something from that last answer
that I think is interesting whenyou talk about, you know, maybe
consider a minor that somethingthat is, something that
interests you. You think aboutso many people go into their
education post secondary, andthey pick a major because it's
something that's interesting. Orsometimes people say, follow
your passion. And my answer isalways, yeah, follow your
(32:16):
passion, but you better makesure that there's a job
available to you at the end ofthat passion, or you're going to
spend a lot of money getting adegree that doesn't necessarily
help you along professionally.
So here, what I hear you sayingis, hey, we can pick a degree
that has a job at the end of it,and that's exactly what you did,
but along the way, it doesn'tmean you can't take some classes
or even explore a minor insomething that's really
(32:38):
interesting to you, that may ormay not lead to a professional
career, but but you're exploringthis interest at the same time
you're gaining competencies inwhatever your field of study is,
your primary field of study thatwill probably lead to your
primary career after youcomplete that education journey.
So I think that's really, reallya pointed thing for our young
people to think about. It's okayto major in something that leads
(33:01):
to an awesome career, but alsopick some interests and some
clubs or a minor or otheracademic endeavors that may
interest you a little bit more.
I think that's really, reallygood advice. Speaking of good
advice, Justin, we want to giveyou an opportunity to give some
good advice to your 15 year oldself. No, I'll be honest with
you, at the age of 28 a lot ofthe people we posed this
(33:22):
question to are quite a bitfurther along from the age of 15
than maybe you are. But turningthat clock back 13 years ago,
you're a 15 year old, maybesophomore in high school growing
up there in central Wisconsin.
And if you could go back andgive that young man one piece of
advice, what would it be
Justin Mondeik (33:37):
my words of advice to the 15 year old self
was, take that $10,000 that youbought that snowmobile with and
invest it in stocks or somethinglike that. That would be my
words of advice. There
Matt Kirchner (33:49):
you go, and that's pretty good. And looking
at the stock market has doneover the course of the last 13
years, that might not have beenbad advice. On the other hand,
with this, this passion that youmanaged to garner throughout
your life, so far toward towardracing and motor sports and so
on, you never know if maybe yourlife would have turned out a
little bit different. Butreally, really interesting
advice to take that money thatyou spent at the age of 15 and
(34:11):
invested in the stock marketthat I think there's a lot of us
that probably, if we had life todo it over again, might have
spent a little bit more timefocusing our assets on that
particular endeavor. So really,really good advice. There Justin
great advice across the board,and a great conversation that
we've had here about JustinMondy racing and the great work
that you're doing, all theexpenses that go into running a
(34:33):
great racing team, all thetechnical aspects of it. With
that, I found that particularlyinteresting, and then this
opportunity for companies toreach out to young people that
are in the motor sports scene,that are fans of motor sports,
probably a little bit benttoward hands on, a little bit
bent toward technical maybe alittle bit more bent toward a
non traditional journey througheducation. So I think all of
(34:56):
that just had a great timeexploring all that with you.
Justin and can thank you enoughfor. Coming onto The TechEd
Podcast and sharing all thatwith us here.
Justin Mondeik (35:03):
Absolutely, I appreciate you letting me be a
part of it, and everything thatyou do, just for stem and the
TechEd area all across the boardand except just really
appreciate you letting me comeon here and telling a little bit
about myself and Justin monkracing. Well, it's
Matt Kirchner (35:17):
a perfect example of how we secure the American
Dream for the next generation ofSTEM and workforce talent.
Frankly, we talent. Frankly, wedo it for people like you or the
people that you were 10 yearsago. All these great
opportunities in manufacturingand in STEM and in technology,
you've managed to pull that alltogether into two separate
careers, and really had funtalking about that. So what a
(35:38):
great episode we've had today onThe TechEd Podcast with Justin
Mondy. Want to point everybodyto the show notes. You'll see
all kinds of resources there.
We'll make sure we point you toJustin's website as well, so you
can learn more about JustinMondy racing if you choose to do
that, any of the resources thatwe talked about here on The
TechEd Podcast today, we willlink up in those show notes. We
do have the best show notes inthe business, and you will find
(35:59):
them for this particular episodeat TechEd podcast.com/mandy that
is TechEd podcast.com/m. O, n,d, e, i, k, when you're done
there, of course, we talkedabout social media. Justin's use
of social media and his team'suse of social media. We make
great use of social media hereat The TechEd Podcast as well.
(36:21):
So check us out. We are all oversocial media. You will find us
on LinkedIn, you'll find us onInstagram, you'll find us on
Facebook, you will find us onTiktok, wherever you go to find
your social you will find TheTechEd Podcast, and you'll find
us here again next week. Lookingforward to seeing you then
thanks for being with us. You
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