Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Selman.
Hi Michael, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Tough Enuff came together from me just wanting to meet friends that were into cars. I grew up in Austin and had never had many car friends. I was a person who worked on them alone and really wanted to gain some friendships and learn in some areas I knew that friends would provide. I started this with a friend Mike we started at Better Half about 8 years ago and it was called Better Lot. We did that for a few meets and were given the opportunity to move over to the east side (Kinda Tropical) closure to both were Mike and I lived. As time progressed and after so many years of low turnouts and confidence killer meets with no one coming the crowds and folks finally started coming. Mike has since split off to pursue music and his graphics business and I support the meets on my own. As time went on and from word of mouth and social media I have learned alot about how to make these work from a live in person meet up to the promotion of the meets them selves. Now I do meets all over town. I am very lucky these have caught on and love the impact they have had on the community/hobby here in Austin. I am also lucky that we are able to bring out all ages to these meets which is huge for the hobby. People in their teens often come out with their cars or their hunger to learn. Its very humbling what this has turned into to be honest. The true stars of this community are the photographers. They are the ones that make us look cool and catch the eye of other people.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a long road. I am not sure id say smooth or rocky just long. I would say easily the first 3 years were pretty much the same 3-10 cars that would come. Very low turn outs were often, and did hit my confidence level. Its really about making sure you are committed and keep coming back and trying to stay positive. The biggest part of this was the people and the community. Making sure I greet every person with an open hand is the thing that keeps people coming. The last thing I wanted was for someone to come out with the car or truck they built and they park and then no one approaches them. We are pack animals and crave interaction, and sometimes the car community can be intimidating if you don’t know alot of folks in the scene and or maybe feel like you don’t have a ton of knowledge. I wanted all of these worries to fall aside, I started this meet with those same worries and hated going out to a car show with something I built just to be greeted with crossed arms and dudes just kind of tearing your car apart.
Now I am at a level with these that bars and locations are coming to me which is amazing. It took a long time to get here. I am so happy to see the other car nights that have seen what was happening at TE and started their own. I never want anyone to think this is a copyrighted idea or that there is only a certain number of these meets available in the city. The more the merrier I feel. Big shout out to Chrome Nights & Gruppechat. They both are doing it right and I’m so happy they are having big success in this world.
I also feel that an obstacle for me was understanding my strengths and weakness and allowing folks with strengths in my weakness areas to help me. Big example is graphics. In the beginning I was always trying to make flyers my self. The end results were not great and taking me forever and I was putting in a ton of energy. Once i started hiring people in this filed it helped TE take off. My buddy Ben Tipton does most if not all of my graphics and I love hiring him for work. He is apart of the hobby so he gets it. Understanding when your can put your energy into other areas that you are good at and letting others help you is huge!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My day job I work for Amazon/Whole Foods in the audio visual field. I have been with Whole Foods for 20 years. Tough Enuff is a side gig/passion I have had since I was a kid. Now I have been able to turn it into a small business with merch and promotion and car meet ups. I have learned so much about promotion via these car meets. Social media used to be a thing we all used as a fun little journal of our lives basically, Today since its absolutely the best marketing you can have in any filed you either jump in or kind of get left behind. Tough Enuff would be no where without Facebook & Instagram & TikTok. Understanding what to post where is huge and just loosing your ego is the another thing. To answer the question I think my specialty area is just being friendly, and engaging. We all want to belong to something and in my community and hobby Tough Enuff is not exactly mine, its all of ours that show up and support it. The only thing I know that sets Tough Enuff apart is the lack of guard rails we have in the auto community. We have no year cut offs or regulations of make or models. Basically if you have an automobile that you are tinkering on or building up at a shop that your into, bring it! So you’ll see prewar cars sitting next to 90s LS swapped BMWs at a Tough Enuff meet. This is special and not something you see often in the car meet/show scene. Normally its all only area of classics or type of car.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
A want to meet and learn from others in my community. I am a self taught pre internet auto hobbyist. When i was young i had to learn from shop manuals and other older guys showing me how to do stuff. Now I am meeting people at my meets that are teaching me stuff all the time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://toughenuff-1315.myshopify.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tough_enuff/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/tough_enuff/100046444195236/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ToughEnuff
Image Credits
Graphics and or flyers here are all done by my good friend Ben Tipton (Lowsinthe70s) The photos provided were taken by Craig Forster & Smitty Smith
