We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matt Haugen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matt below.

Matt, appreciate you joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I am very happy as a business owner but I have thought about what it would be like to have a regular job as well. My journey in entrepreneurship has required me to make a ton of sacrifices such as my physical and mental health, having a relationship, social life, having hobbies, and even more. If I had a regular job I could have a more stable and consistent life and not make so many sacrifices. The risk an entrepreneur takes is that in the end they will be successful and have changed their life forever, thus making all the sacrifice worth it. My goal in like if to create a story worth telling, so for me the sacrifice is worth it because I wouldn’t reach my goal if I had a regular job.

Matt, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hey there! My name is Matt Haugen aka Haugen Racing. I’m from Scottsdale, Arizona and was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. I am a professional drift driver, SEMA car builder, and content creator. I love drifting, comedy, offroading, building cars, and making videos!

Our youtube channel is our largest focus right now, where we upload 5 times a week. Our content includes vlogs, sim drifting, reaction videos, How To Drift, drifting, video games, offroading, and more. We also have an online shop, Haugenracing.com where we create automotive and japanese inspired streetwear and accessories.

We always strive to find that perfect blend of style and functionality through the use of our vivid Yellow, Red, and Blue colors and taking inspiration from all corners of the custom car culture.

Cars have been in my blood since the day I was born. At age 16, my 2008 Toyota Tundra was my first SEMA Show car. Since then we’ve had over 7 vehicles in the SEMA show from our 1 of 1 Liberty Walk Lamborghini Murcielago to our 1JZ swapped Rocket Bunny 350z, dubbed the 351JZ. I fell in love with drifting and have been pursuing that professionally since 2017. We first competed in ProAm with our Hyundai Genesis Coupe powered by a CBM 4.0L Whipple Supercharged 425ci LS3. I know compete in Formula Drift Japan in my Nissan Skyline R32 with 1200 horsepower RB30.

Besides drifting, racing and building show cars, I am a big supporter of education. I recently acquired my Master of Science in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the University of Southern California.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Until February 2020 I always avoided making cars my main business. I always thought I’d build a business in a different industry and use that money to fund my racing. I started businesses in the golf industry, addiction treatment, streetwear fashion, and also was a crypto currency trader. After many failures, I finally decided to give Haugen Racing a chance and pivot my mindset to making money from my cars and drifting rather making money to fund it all. I have found I am much happier and fulfilled doing it this way but it required me letting go of my original vision and creating a new one.

How did you build your audience on social media?

For YouTube I treat it like a science. I study competitors channels and figure out how to do their videos better. It was a mindset change from doing what I want to do on Youtube to doing what the Youtube algorithm likes. Once I made this change my channel really started to grow. Also I never used advertising or growth tactics, they key is to make videos that lead people to fall in love with your channel and hit the subscribe button, all organic. That is the best way to grow on any social media channel.

You can build up an audience quickly by researching whats trending and jumping on the bandwagon with others on IG and TikTok. To create a truly great audience throughout many channels you have to have a plan and be consistent. Clearly branding yourself and showing people exactly who you are and what you do are critical. Each social media channel also has analytics, those are your friend, study them every week and let them guide the type of content thats resonating with the channel.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.haugenracing.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haugenracing/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HaugenR/
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/matthaugenracing
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@haugenracing92

Image Credits
Jacob Grimes @astral.photo David Lee @paparazzo_film Hannah @internetbunniphoto