Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jill Williams. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Jill, thanks for joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
For years 25yrs Brian learned, assisted and then started building Race team Machine shops. From starting in Indy Car, to Nascar and ending in Formula 1. He was able to do so many things that many will never see including racing the Dakar in Africa. When the first start up of Formula 1 ended in the USA (prior to Haas), Jill and Brian were ready to try this on their own together. Time to build our own shop.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
In 2010 we opened up Carolina Metal Masters with a partner and started taking on job shop work. Many of the old teams, knowing Brian’s ability, sent him jobs; however, this was not the desired path. It paid the bills. After a year of doing this and plenty of designs in his head, it was time to venture off by ourselves and into the Jeep Market. One of the very first products ever made by Carolina Metal Masters was the Jeep TJ / JK / JKU Grab Bar for the passenger side. Originally it came with a ball mount for phones, tablets, etc. As we evolved and more products were created we started separating ourselves by customizing our product. The grab bars along with most of our other products could have custom paint colors in house. Jill was the painter and Brian was the machinist. The goal was to make premier products that can be moved from one Jeep to the next and not just replacement parts. We continue this model today while growing our product and always keeping a pulse on our customer service. Since the start, we have now moved to Tennessee to be closer to family, changed our name to CMM Offroad, added team members and started opening doors to other product markets. Coming soon, CMM Housewares! Cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings, but no matter what our number one is customer satisfaction.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Do to an unfortunate time as a family came the back bone of who we are now. Brian grew up in Indiana and spent many weekends and summers on the family farm with his grand dad. His grand dad persuaded him from farming as he never wanted Brian to work as hard as he had to. TO LATE! He had already instilled in Brian the work ethic that still drives him today. Brian’s grand dad passed away leaving a piece of his investments that he had to each of his grandchildren. What better way to use it than the making of Brian’s dream to have his own machine shop. It may not be a farm, but he works just as hard with a funny twist, we are back to farming…Thank you Grandpa Blaine for allowing us this opportunity and helping us keep our families close.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
This is a hard business to be in the front of everyone. We still have numerous people that come and tell us they never knew we existed. So we continue to pound the pavement, do jeep, overloading and off-road shows. Push social media even harder. While still staying true to who we are. We are race quality parts in the public sector. We manufacture our parts without compromise. From the design to the machining, to the coating and to the customer service. ALL done in house here in Tennessee. We do not outsource and we keep a pulse on our customers. This is who we are. Hope to see you on the road.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cmmoffroad
- Instagram: @cmmcnc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMMOffroad/
- Twitter: @CMMCNC
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPujkUE4OiRxNVOmY6qE6kw
- Other: TikTok : @cmmoffroad