Today we’d like to introduce you to Kai Smith.
Hi Kai, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, business owner, I just wasn’t sure what I wanted to do… I have always loved cars, the way they look, the way they sound, the feeling you get when you drive them. My earliest memories as a child all involve cars, weather is was sitting on my grandmas lap and making countless laps around her yard when I was 4 in her Chevy Tracker, or sitting in their living room building car garages out of legos and filling them up with my hot wheels cars, all while asking my grandpa what his favorite car he’s ever had was and why.
When I went to college, I studied business with a focus in marketing at MTSU, for the longest time I thought I could do something in the automotive marketing department of one of the big 3 in Detroit, but the older I got the more I missed that small town that I fought so hard to get out of, so on weekends I would drive back home in my jacked up Jeep and work on other jeeps with my best bud, we would stay up till 2-3 in the morning shaping engines and transmissions just to get an old jeep running and driving, sell it and move on to the next project. At the time it seemed like something to occupy our weekends, but looking back it was further carving out the path for my future.
I graduated from MTSU in 2018 and did what I thought I was supposed to do, I got a job. I was lucky enough to land at a local White House company called TATE ORNAMENTAL, doing commercial sales and estimating. I didn’t necessarily love my job duties, but I did love my co-workers and the owner of the company Mr. Joey Tate has been and still is a huge role model in my eyes. I stayed there for about 5 years, still working on cars on nights and weekends, I could shake the feeling that I just wasn’t meant to sit in an office. I felt like I was cut out for something else, I wanted to make a difference in some way.
One Sunday morning, drinking my coffee and watching the car shows like I always did, I saw a commercial for a mobile sandblasting trailer, coming from the marketing world, I should’ve seen right through what they were saying but they got me, hook line and sinker. I spent the next couple weeks/months doing market research to see if it was something that I could make a profitable business out of, what I discovered, was that although there were a few companies offering sandblasting, not many of them were mobile. I felt like I could do it.
So with half a plan in place, I pulled the trigger and started the business. I had a conversation with my wife, I told her if this works out, maybe in 5 years I can do it full time and be my own boss…well after about 6 months of trying to work a full time job and juggle this new business I decided I couldn’t do both, it wasn’t fair to my employer and it wasn’t fair to myself if I was going to make this business work, I needed to go all-in. I sat down with my wife, and our at the time 5 month old daughter, and said honey if I don’t take the leap now, I don’t think I ever will. She told me to go for it. That was over 3 years ago and although it hasn’t been sunshine and rainbows, I would say I’m doing the best I can. I have met some really cool people in the industry and been to some cool places, but most importantly to me, I have felt like I have made an impact. I have helped people get their projects started on the right foot.
Since 2021, I have blasted countless classic cars, log cabins, office building ceilings, elevator shaft pits, parking garages, fire places, stair cases, railings, bridges, airplane and boats. My phone could ring at any moment with something crazy that needs to be sandblasted and that is so exciting to me.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Anything but smooth, starting from 0 was probably the hardest part. The first year I worked 7 days a week. I would go call on people all the time, drop off business cards, do work for free, anything to get them to remember me and call me back.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a sandblaster.. long story short I remove coatings off a variety of surfaces. Steel, concrete, wood, pretty much anything with a coating on it can be stripped down to either be re-coated or preserved in its raw form.
I specialize in sandblasting cars.. cars are a little tricky because the metal is so thin. You have to be very careful when stripping a car because if the metal gets too hot while you’re blasting it will “warp” it which then leads the body shop/ painters to either spend countless hours repairing it or worse if its a classic car with original sheet metal, replace with aftermarket panels.
So far, I am most proud of some work I did for one of my idols in the car world. I was able to blast a car for Derek Bieri, he runs a YouTube channel called Vice Grip Garage. Just to be able to collaborate on something with him was so surreal, I have been watching his channel since around 2016. The fact that I was able to start a business in the car industry and then was able to work with someone that I have watched and looked up to for so long was just too cool for me and will be very hard to top.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
My wife Is my biggest supporter/cheerleader, she has never questioned me and always remained faithful and supportive no matter how hard the season was. She never let me give up, and believe me there have been multiple days where I questioned if I could keep going. She is just the greatest person I’ve ever met, so to have her in my corner is like a a cheat code.
My parents have also been incredibly generous and supportive, they have invested in me and the business and lent me a piece of their property to use as a workshop.
Without these people I would not be where I am today, I owe them a tremendous amount and hope that one day its all worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.midtennmediablasting.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Mid-Tenn-Media-Blasting-100073016112976/
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@mid-tenn.mediablasting8304
