Family man, Michael Brassanini on chasing dreams in Episode 234

Meet Michael Brassanini, the newly crowned WE Rock Unlimited Champion; all-in family man, keeper of dreams, and seeker of goals. Michael fulfills his kid's dreams, too. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

4:07 – As a kid there didn’t seem like there was a lot to do, looking back, the world was our oyster. 

11:11 – It was hard as a kid being taken away from your family, but looking back, it definitely saved me             

17:28 – I got hurt a lot, but girls like cowboys, and I like girls!

23:17 – A lot of cold, lonely nights, but I had a drive and a focus and had goals. 

28:84 – Motors, big tires, and being outside, wheeling with my friends attracted me to rockcrawling

35:18 – we have a great community of guys and gals that get out, almost on a daily basis there are drivers headed out 

41:59 – there are moments in life when you have this epiphany, I had one in Boulder Canyon near Montrose

48:38 – And once you do that stuff in competition, you go out on the trail, and you’re like, oh, hey, maybe this drop isn’t as bad as I thought it was

Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.

Transcript

[00:00:00.200] - 

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview-style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the off-road industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call off-road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off-road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off-road.

[00:00:46.570] - 

Whether you're crawling the Red Rocks of Moab or hauling your toys to the trail, Maxxis has the tires you can trust for performance and durability. Four wheels or two, Maxxis tires are the choice of champions because they know that whether for work or play, for fun or competition, Maxxis tires deliver. Choose Maxxis. Tread victoriously.

[00:01:13.030] - 

Have you seen 4Low magazine yet? 4Low magazine is a high-quality, well-written, four-wheel drive-focused magazine for the enthusiast market. If you still love the idea of a printed magazine, something to save and read at any time, 4LOW is the magazine for you.  4Low cannot be found in stores, but you can have it delivered to your home or place of business. Visit 4Lowmagazine.com to order your subscription today.

[00:01:39.250] - Big Rich Klein

On this week's episode of Conversations with Big Rich, we start with humble beginnings, a life changing moment, hard work, setting goals, and seizing opportunities can get you far in life. Don't ever look at my next guest and think or say, It must be nice. It's been hard work and goals. My guest this week is Michael Brassanini. Hello, Michael Brassanini. How are you doing today?

[00:02:07.030] - Michael Brassanini

I'm good. How about you?

[00:02:08.910] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. It's good to have you on the podcast here. Looking forward to this one. We've known each other for a while, but we really don't know each other. I think this will be a good chance, not only for me to get to know you, but along with a lot of our listeners, too, that enjoy rock crawling and off-road motor sports. So let's get started. Real simple question, where were you born and raised?

[00:02:36.190] - Michael Brassanini

I was born in Boulder, Colorado. And when I was very young, my parents moved to West Yellowstone, Montana, where my grandparents had bought a lodge. And we'd lived there for a couple of years and then moved over into Island Park, Idaho, where they had bought another lodge, the Island Park Lodge. And that's where I spent most of my childhood.

[00:03:02.930] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. So you were pretty rural being West Yellowstone and Island Park.

[00:03:10.980] - Michael Brassanini

Oh, yeah, very rural, lots of snow and Lots of snow and lots of outdoor exploration to be had.

[00:03:19.320] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Not a lot of probably organized like school sports or anything like that.

[00:03:24.560] - Michael Brassanini

We definitely had organized school sports. I started wrestling I was really, really young, and then played football and wrestled all the way through high school. I think we had a wrestling program in Ashton started in first or second grade.

[00:03:44.070] - Big Rich Klein

Well, what was it like living there? I've been up there. I've done some snowmobiling in that area. I lived in Blackfoot, Idaho for a while with Shelley, and they vacationed there a lot But what was it like growing up in basically a vacation area?

[00:04:07.630] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, back then it was, like you said, very, very rural. Snowmobiling hadn't at the time, taken off to the sport that it is. Nowadays, it was mainly just trail riding and that thing. So there wasn't a ton of people. As a kid, it didn't seem like There was a lot to do. But now, as I reflect back on my childhood, it was like, I think that we had everything to do. And the world was our oyster, so to speak. We could go out and do whatever we wanted. We'd go play in the woods in the summer and light stuff on fire like most kids do.

[00:04:53.070] - Big Rich Klein

There's a story there somewhere.

[00:04:55.800] - Michael Brassanini

Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, the fire department may or may not have showing up a couple of times. And then in the winter, yeah, pretty much everything we did was revolving around snowmobiles. So back then it was a lot of trail riding and stuff. And as we got older, I would say my freshman year in high school, started exploring backcountry and modifying snowmobiles. And as horsepower started coming on, we really started getting to be able to access the backcountry and the mountains of Island Park, which is nowadays we take it for granted with the evolution of the sport, where you can buy a snowmobile that'll get you anywhere you want to go, really, from the factory. When we were younger, you couldn't do that.

[00:05:48.550] - Big Rich Klein

No, they were pretty basic. I remember the first time I rode a snowmobile was at Squaw Valley. They had a little rental thing, and you just made laps in this little track area, and it was like parking lot track. But they were so basic. I mean, now they're just every single thing you can buy off the shelf is full race ready.

[00:06:16.170] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, they're pretty incredible machines nowadays.

[00:06:20.460] - Big Rich Klein

So growing up back then, was school something you were interested in? Were you a good student?

[00:06:28.090] - Michael Brassanini

I was. Yeah, I loved school. Well, we didn't have a lot of kids that lived right by us, so it was a good place for me to see my friends and get out of the cold, if you will. But no, I absolutely loved school. I had really good grades and was a good student, I thought.

[00:06:51.640] - Big Rich Klein

What was your favorite course of study?

[00:06:55.740] - Michael Brassanini

I always liked math.

[00:06:58.210] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, you're one of those. Yes. That likes math.

[00:07:02.920] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, I like math. And when you're in school, you're like, how am I ever going to use this in my day to day life? You question why you were taking all of these studies. But in my current job, my business, everything we do revolves around mathematics and building. So it actually was a very natural fit for me. Perfect.

[00:07:28.390] - Big Rich Klein

And what did your parents do for work? They were running the lodges?

[00:07:33.630] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, so I actually had a pretty wild childhood. My mom, she helped run the lodge that my grandparents had owned My grandma passed away when I was eight or nine. I don't recall exactly how old I was. She had ovarian cancer. My family ended up having to sell the lodge to help cover some of her medical bills. And I was a product of high school relationships, so my birth father was never really involved in my life. I had a rough childhood at home, I should say. And that's probably why I love school so much, because it allowed me to maybe escape my home, if you will. So I was actually taken out of my home when I was in fourth grade by the state of Idaho and was put into the foster care system where I was adopted by a dairy farmer who lived out in Mud Lake, Idaho. And spent my childhood from 10 to about 16 and a half working on the farm and milking cows. Wow.

[00:08:57.960] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:08:58.550] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah. Yeah.

[00:09:00.700] - Big Rich Klein

Interesting. And I had no clue. So that experience then was positive in your life?

[00:09:14.200] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, it was At the time, as a kid, you question why me and that thing. But now as I look back on it, I know that there was somebody up above looking out for me. I certainly wouldn't be the person I am today or in the position I am today without that intervention, if you will. Who I considered to be my dad as my adopted father, he was a Brazilian immigrant, came to the United States in the '50s on an LDS mission to St. Anthony, Idaho, where he served the LDS Church. And after he was released from his mission, he moved back to the area, worked on a dairy farm, and was able to save enough money to buy a farm. And him and his wife couldn't have kids. So by the time I came along, he was in his 50s and wanted to adopt a son. And I was put up for adoption, and they adopted me. And then I ended up being baptized into the LDS Church, was taught the gospel and graduated from seminary and did all those things as a young man, went through the Boy Scouting program. I got my Eagle Scout when I was 13 and really enjoyed that aspect of growing up, that part of my childhood was very enjoyable because I think the scouting program brought me a lot of joy and love for the outdoors, which I already had growing up.

[00:10:56.910] - Michael Brassanini

My younger childhood in Island Park. But it was a really good fit for me. Excellent.

[00:11:03.950] - Big Rich Klein

I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad to hear that a soul was rescued, basically.

[00:11:11.890] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah. That's awesome. It was It was hard as a kid to be in your mind, taken away from your family. But looking back on it now, it definitely saved me for sure.

[00:11:26.290] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I have no experience experience in anything like that. My upbringing was completely different. I had friends that grew up in divorced families. In fact, both of my close friends were that way. And they, one was a real easy, was pretty easy for them. The other one wasn't so much because the stepfather was, well, he was an asshole. We all agreed on that, even to this day. But there was, they both of them were able to find their way into successful careers. So it's good to know that that happens out there and not everybody falls through the cracks.

[00:12:16.530] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, for sure.

[00:12:18.790] - Big Rich Klein

And it probably makes you a better parent.

[00:12:22.320] - Michael Brassanini

Oh, 100 %. Yeah, I remember being a little kid, going through some of the abuse that I was experiencing and thinking to myself that I would never treat my kids that way. And that was the mindset of a seven or eight year old kid, having those thoughts. And it was... Maybe I spoil my kids a little bit, probably too much now, but for good reason, I guess.

[00:12:49.080] - Big Rich Klein

Right. That's okay, though. That's okay because I've met your kids and they're growing up right.

[00:12:58.050] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, they're really good kids. I'm blessed. I can't say enough good things about them, really. Good grades, very respectful, and they listen, they do their chores, they help us around the house, they do everything we ask them to do, and I can't complain at all. Right.

[00:13:19.160] - Big Rich Klein

So becoming a dairy farmer. Oh, boy. Was that manually milking cows, or was it machine milking?

[00:13:28.320] - Michael Brassanini

We had We had a pneumatic milking system where you could milk six cows on either side, so 12 cows at a time. We had about 200, 220 head of cows, so it'd get up about three o'clock in the morning. I would milk cows until I had to leave to go to school. I'd go to school, get out of school, and come home and milk cows. I mean, if you're not familiar with dairy industry, you have to milk cows twice a day. You don't have a choice. There's no days off. There's no vacations. It's a very labor-intensive industry, and they don't make a lot of money. So we were fairly poor. We always had food on the table and always had something to do. Between milk and cows and raisin hay, we had 400 acres of alfalfa. Some of it was irrigated Irrigated with center pivots, irrigation system, and some of it was handline irrigation. So it's been a lot of time in the summer moving handlines, irrigation pipe.

[00:14:42.720] - Big Rich Klein

That looks like a fun job Oh, yeah.

[00:14:47.080] - Michael Brassanini

Twice a day moving handlines. But my friends and I, we would do it and we would race it, moving handlines, and kept us in shape for football season.

[00:15:01.140] - Big Rich Klein

I would imagine. I would imagine. Yeah.

[00:15:04.890] - Michael Brassanini

It was rewarding work. I look back on it now thinking that I wish that my kids could experience some of that so that they wouldn't take for granted the luxuries that we have.

[00:15:19.760] - Big Rich Klein

Well, you know there's a way to do that. You could ship them off to a work camp type of summer camp. Hey, you're going to learn what it was like.

[00:15:32.330] - Michael Brassanini

That's right.

[00:15:33.180] - Big Rich Klein

You may hate me while you're doing it, but you'll appreciate it when you get older.

[00:15:39.030] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, that's for sure. Now, it was I had a really good childhood on that front. We had a lot to do, had really good friends. And after I was adopted, I had really learned what a loving family was all about. So Excellent. Excellent.

[00:16:01.460] - Big Rich Klein

And so you went to high school in the Mud Lake, Idaho area?

[00:16:08.530] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, West Jefferson, out of Terreton. Okay. Yep.

[00:16:12.470] - Big Rich Klein

Go ahead.

[00:16:15.260] - Michael Brassanini

Played football and wrestled and then started my friends and I, well, having a dairy farm, we would have bull calves. So I talked my dad and let me raise a couple of bull calves, and then we would riding those buggers around. So we started rodeoing in junior high and ended up riding bulls in high school for high school rodeo. Got a few- That A few injuries.

[00:16:45.430] - Big Rich Klein

That's not something I think... I mean, I enjoy watching bull riding, but I've never had the desire to try it. I mean, I've jumped off cliffs with my skis on. I've free-climbed 30, 40 feet up rock faces. I've done some stuff that people would consider dangerous, but getting on a bull and trying to stay on is just not something that I ever thought would be fun. Yeah, it was...

[00:17:28.130] - Michael Brassanini

If you like adrenaline on that part of it was fun. I wasn't very good at it, I'll be honest. I got hurt a lot, but girls like cowboys, and I like girls. What can I say?

[00:17:43.290] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, there you go. That works. That works. That's why I like skiing. There was a lot of snow bunies.

[00:17:50.480] - Michael Brassanini

There you go. But yeah, then my junior year, I moved back Island Park because my maternal family was still there. My birth mom was still there and I had still maintained a relationship with her. So my junior year in high school, I moved back to Island Park, got a job where they would give me housing. So at that point, I went out on my own, about 16 and a half, 17 years old and had a job and went to school. And Ended up graduating early so that I could go into the workforce.

[00:18:34.840] - Big Rich Klein

And what job was that that you had housing?

[00:18:37.920] - Michael Brassanini

I worked at Ponds Lodge in Island Park, started out washing dishes and bussing tables, and eventually ended up being a chef, a line cook there. Did that for a few years, and then I was always a little bit jealous of the construction workers that got to work out in the sun. They would come in for lunch and leave. It's nice outside, and I'm stuck in this hot kitchen. I reached out to one of the general contractors and asked him if he would give me a job. He asked if I had any experience. I said, No, but I know how to work. He said, Well, we'll give you a shot. He told me, Give me a list of tools to go buy. I went and bought my first set of tool bags and showed up all raring to go, and he handed me a shovel. I ran that shovel for about weeks before I ever swung a hammer. I felt like he was trying to break me to see if I would show up and actually work. I did. After that, he never questioned it again. He put me to work and started teaching me how to frame and do siding.

[00:19:48.120] - Michael Brassanini

That was the beginning of my career. I really fell in love with building. It came very easily to me. I can look at a set of blueprints and visualize what needs to happen very quickly and see the end result from a piece of paper. So it was a really good fit for me.

[00:20:09.490] - Big Rich Klein

So do you use that same thing with people that you've hired, where you try to break them first? I know we did that. I did that when I was a landscape contractor, is I'd get all these high school students that wanted, typically football players, that wanted to wanted to work outdoors, stay in shape, they thought, Oh, yeah, I can do this. And most of them didn't last a week.

[00:20:39.320] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, nowadays, it's such a fast-paced environment that really people we hire, we're looking for skilled individuals that want to join our team and just produce at a high level. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of time to really teach that labor-intensive grunt work, if you will. I run a framing company, so there's not a lot of shoveling that needs to be done. Maybe hauling equipment and putting in blocking and nailing offhangers and stuff like that would be considered bottom of the totem pole work. But as far as the initiation period, we don't really approach things like It's a different day and age, I guess.

[00:21:32.010] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I guess it is. So your job now consists of you're doing your framing projects, it's not a complete finish out?

[00:21:41.580] - Michael Brassanini

Correct. Yep. Yeah, on a framing company, we've got Just over 40 guys. Wow. We run about seven crews. Yeah, we do a mixture of residential and commercial framing in Southern Utah. After Well, when I was 20, I moved to Colorado, left Island Park and moved to Breckenridge chasing the ski bunnies like yourself. I moved there for a winter. I had a motor cycle. I sold that in Island Park, bought a 1974 Dodge power wagon. My mom helped me buy a little slide in camper. And I lived in the woods in Island Park for a summer, saved all the money I could to basically buy supplies and fuel to get to Breckenridge. And we rolled in, my buddy Tony and I, left Island Park in September and rolled into Breckenridge thinking that we were going to jump right into the job market. And we had a plan to go there and camp until we could find a place to rent. And that quickly fell apart, realizing that we came into a ski town in September when there's no snow, so no one was hiring. So that was probably not a very smart decision. But luckily, I picked up a local paper and there's a contractor looking for a carpenter and was able to get on a framing crew there.

[00:23:17.800] - Michael Brassanini

The job I left in Island Park was paying seven bucks an hour. I walked on this crew making 20, and it felt like I hit the jackpot. Right. But, yeah, I had everything I owned in that pickup in that sliding camper and found a spot in the woods and posted up and lived in that thing for a couple of years and just put my head down and went to work. Didn't really have much to my name and other than work ethic and my tools. So a lot of cold, lonely nights, but I just had a drive and a focus and had goals and wasn't really distracted by other things.

[00:24:04.470] - Big Rich Klein

So what happened to your buddy, Tony? Did he get on with the framing crew, too, or what happened with him?

[00:24:10.150] - Michael Brassanini

No, he ended up... He hired on with the restaurant, Rasta Pasta. I don't know if you've ever been to Breckinridge, but this place called Rasta Pasta. He worked there for about six months and then ended up moving back to Southeastern, Idaho. And then, actually, now, I think he lives in Cedar City. Okay. Yeah But he bailed on that program and I stuck it out.

[00:24:34.530] - Big Rich Klein

And what was that goal? You said you had life plans or a goal.

[00:24:40.440] - Michael Brassanini

Well, I just wanted to have a successful life Build success and own my own home and have a family. That's what my goals were at the time. Always had an idea that I wanted to run my own company. And so When I got hired on with that framing crew, I worked for them for about nine months, and the general contractor saw some potential in me. When that framing crew finished with his home and they moved on, he asked me to stay on and offer me a job working for him. I stayed on and helped him finish out that home and went to work. Well, I worked for him for a couple of years. After 9/11, And when that happened, he decided he wasn't going to build spec homes anymore. So I hired on with another company, Apex Mountain Homes, and ended up working for those guys for about eight years. And I just looked at it as though I was being taught how to run a company. They offer me a position as a lead guy. I didn't have any experience in managing a crew or managing a home from start to finish, but I was open to learning and looked at it like, like I said, like I was being taught or going to college, basically, but being paid at the same time on how to run a business and how to build a home and contract homes and all that stuff.

[00:26:16.260] - Big Rich Klein

So Whatever happened with that with that Dodge pickup?

[00:26:21.300] - Michael Brassanini

I really wish I had it back as I sold it for $400, and I bought my first off-road buggy with that money. And now I'm like, Man, I really wish I could have it back. I needed a transmission, and at the time, I didn't have a shop to put a tranny in it. It's funny. I'll have to show you a picture of it sometime, but the thing was beat to hell. I think I got 400 bucks for it, and I bought an XJ. Then it was just that was it for me, man. As soon as I started off roading, we went and ran Chinaman's Golch. You're familiar with that in Buena Vista. My first time out ever on a trail, and I was hooked. From that minute forward, everything I wanted to do was just off roading.

[00:27:13.920] - Big Rich Klein

You were an XJ guy. I knew there was a reason I liked you.

[00:27:18.470] - Michael Brassanini

It didn't last long. I put a Dana 60 under it, and it wasn't very well built. So it cut everything from the firewall, back off of it. And those things are a monobody. So they have a channel for a frame that rivets to the body, to the floor pan. So I ended up building a two by four square or rectangle tube frame with a roll cage and laid it in there and stitched it all together and made it work. Took it to Moab a couple of times and realized what a piece of crap it really was and sold it and then decided to build a full on buggy, rooster buggy. And back then was the pirate days. So Rockwell's 49s and full tube chassis is the direction I went.

[00:28:16.030] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. From an XJ with 60s to Rockwells.

[00:28:19.410] - Michael Brassanini

To Rockwells with rooster and 49s.

[00:28:22.860] - Big Rich Klein

You jumped a whole bunch of stages by going.

[00:28:27.670] - Michael Brassanini

I did, yeah. I wasn't very patient.

[00:28:32.960] - Big Rich Klein

Those early years of rock crawling, what was it about that that grabbed you?

[00:28:44.840] - Michael Brassanini

Motors, big tires, and being outside, wheeling with my friends, camping. I mean, everything about it, just the outdoor life, it always appealed to me being outside, living in a camper in Colorado. And now this is a sport that I get to go do and I'm outside. And the freedom to go explore Southern Utah, Colorado, the mountains of Colorado, just Having dirt bikes and snowmobiles and all that stuff that was just the next level, the next step. Now I've got a car that I can go drive with my friends, can go with me. It's great. The people, the environment, everything about it. I love it. Absolutely love it.

[00:29:34.940] - Big Rich Klein

Cool. And when did... So you're working in Breckenridge for the guy. You went to APEX. Apex was in Breckenridge as well?

[00:29:49.450] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, they're based in Frisco.

[00:29:51.360] - Big Rich Klein

Frisco, okay. And so you guys were doing... You were learning on very nice houses then, which is Yeah, high-end custom homes.

[00:30:05.420] - Michael Brassanini

Right.

[00:30:06.230] - Big Rich Klein

And that's what you do now, right? Or are you guys framing out housing developments?

[00:30:16.650] - Michael Brassanini

Actually, a little bit of both. Yeah, we do a lot of high-end custom stuff, and commercial buildings as well. We've got a big development in St. George that we're working on right now that's 300, 400, 1,000 square feet of framing with a multitude of different buildings. But the majority of our work is still residential home framing. Cool.

[00:30:44.210] - Big Rich Klein

And so when When did family life come around for you?

[00:30:50.360] - Michael Brassanini

Oh, early 2000s. In 2008, we had Sawyer, my first son and my first child. And man, that was just... Parenthood, fatherhood was just the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I absolutely love it. Everything I do revolves around my kids.

[00:31:17.370] - Big Rich Klein

Let's start with the wife, your better half. So how did you meet her?

[00:31:24.120] - Michael Brassanini

We were just mutual friends. In our circle of friends there in Colorado, we ran together. Always had a crush on her, but didn't really have the balls to talk to her, so to speak. I don't know, finally it got up the nerve and asked her out to coffee, and she fell in love with my boyish charm.

[00:31:55.350] - Big Rich Klein

Did she say, Finally?

[00:31:57.980] - Michael Brassanini

Well, finally, yeah, right? Yeah, that's how it usually works, right? She said, Oh, yeah, I always had a crush on you, too. I'm like, Well, why didn't she say something?

[00:32:08.770] - Big Rich Klein

She was like, Well, because you didn't.

[00:32:11.880] - Michael Brassanini

That's right. Yeah, exactly.

[00:32:14.650] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, that's great. Yeah. So talk about your kids.

[00:32:20.510] - Michael Brassanini

Sawyer is 16 now, junior in high school, plays football, lacrosse, just really He's a good kid. He's going through a little bit of a struggle right now. He broke his back on his dirt bike about six weeks ago. So he was unable to play football this year. And we're trying hard to keep him focused mentally and keep him happy and engaged, as you can imagine, being a 16-year-old and having that taken away from you can be difficult because he's very athletic. But there's always next year, I guess. And then Annabelle is the next one in the line. She's my daughter. She is 13, and Great kid, great student. She's got a little boyfriend now, so we're entering into that phase of life. Yes, which is great.

[00:33:28.790] - Big Rich Klein

Did you actually just say that's great?

[00:33:32.270] - Michael Brassanini

Oh, it's good for her. It gives her an outlet and somebody to talk to besides us.

[00:33:40.870] - Big Rich Klein

A bunch of boys, right? There you go.

[00:33:43.930] - Michael Brassanini

That's going to happen. You might as well embrace it. True. You have Colter, my youngest son. He's twelve. You guys all know him. He drives the laser nut buggy now. And he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was two. So we've had that struggle in our life, but it's something that we deal with on a daily basis. It'll never get better. It's just something you manage. We've really focused on education and acceptance of that with him and trying to just not have him embrace it, so to speak, but just not have it hold him back. You can do whatever you want to do. You can be whatever you want to be. But this is just one more thing you have to deal with. And then our youngest, Reagan, she is nine, actually just had surgery this morning on her wrist. She fell off the monkey bars last week and broke her wrist and her elbow. So she's had a rough week, but she's the apple of my eye, Daddy's little baby. So, yeah, two boys, two girls, and we're blessed. I love it. It's great.

[00:35:07.980] - Big Rich Klein

And you live there in real close to Sand Hollow.

[00:35:14.250] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, Dixie Dixie Springs.

[00:35:15.300] - Big Rich Klein

Dixie Springs with a lot of other wheelers.

[00:35:18.880] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, it's amazing. We have a great community of guys down here and gals that get out. I mean, it's almost on a daily basis. We have a big group text that is going on, and it's almost daily that there's a number of drivers headed out and everybody's meeting in the park and going and wheeling. So if you don't go out, it's your own fault because there's always somebody to go out with. And how we came to St. George, we bought a house down here in 2019 as a second home. My wife was born and raised in Breckenridge. And with me being in Southeastern, Idaho, we both grew up in colder climates and we're ready for a change. We had looked into moving to maybe the Cottonwood area of Arizona, by Sedona. But I had been coming out to Southern Utah for Trail Hero and just loved it here. I loved the sense of community. It felt like home, even though it wasn't yet with the LDS community. And although I'm not active in the church, just that sense of community that comes with that. It was really natural for us. So I kept telling her every time I'd come home from Trail Hero, I'd say, hey, we're going to buy a house in Southern Utah.

[00:36:43.090] - Michael Brassanini

She's like, Well, I've never even been there and blew it off. And the next year I'd come to Southern Utah, to Trail Hero. And I'd be like, there's this little subdivision Dixie Springs. It's right by the park. There's a lake. It's fantastic. We got to buy a house. And so finally she said, well, if you're really that serious about it, let's book a vacation. Let's go out there. So we came to Trail Hero in October. That spring for Easter and April, I had booked a vacation. We rented a home in Dixie Springs, and I lined up 10 showings for houses. And by the time we left from our vacation, we were under contract on a house.

[00:37:29.720] - Big Rich Klein

Is So you bought the one you're in now?

[00:37:31.760] - Michael Brassanini

No. So we bought the one actually right next door to us, smaller home. And we started coming, if not every weekend, it was every other weekend. We just absolutely loved it. It was great to get away from Colorado. So we had it as a second home, basically for that first nine months to a year. And then when COVID happened in 2020, Summit County being a very transient community with the ski resorts and everything, people coming and going from all over the world. We were one of the first counties in the state of Colorado to have a positive case. And at that point, the school system was giving us the option to go to remote learning or continue in-person learning. And with Colter being a diabetic with immune-compromised situation, we all didn't really know what to expect, right? The news is telling us, this is very deadly. If you're immune compromised, stay indoors, hide away, whatever. And so we were like, well, if we're going to go to remote learning, let's go to Hurricane. We got a swimming pool. It's warm. At that point, it was March in Colorado, so there's still a buttload of snow.

[00:38:49.120] - Michael Brassanini

So we came down here for remote learning. And after a couple of weeks, I see all these houses going up. I got bored, talked to a builder, and He said, yeah, if you want to frame a house, let's see what you're capable of. So I threw my bags on, brought a couple of my guys down from Colorado, and we threw this house up quick for him. And he said, Well, if you can do it that quick, he's like, I'd give you all my work. So at that point, we had to make a decision if we're going to try to move the business down here or part of the business and start spending more time here. And we both agreed that it was something that we wanted to do. We loved the community, the schools. Everything about it was just really a good fit for us. So we decided at that point, let's move down and we can make the business work. We'll make it work. So over the course of the next year, as we were finishing projects in Colorado, I would bring my guys down. So we ended up moving down here with like 35 guys.

[00:39:50.150] - Michael Brassanini

Wow. Brought our entire company down over the course of the next year and quickly realized that our second home was not nearly big for our family and all of our stuff. So we bought the two lots next door to us and built a new home with a big shop and I moved into that. I guess it's just been over two years and then sold our sold our initial home that we had bought here.

[00:40:17.920] - Big Rich Klein

I know. We went to go look at the house that Little Rich was getting ready to buy or had bought, and they hadn't moved in yet or something. But we drove down the street and I go, Wow, look at that house. That's really cool. And it was like, No, that's the garage. That's the shop. And I'm like, What? Who the hell? Oh, that's Mike's. I'm like, What? That's nice. So when you held your block party, I understood why it was called a block party.

[00:40:51.550] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, we bought the whole end of the block. So it was a change for us where we lived in Colorado. It was pretty rural. We lived outside of town. We were up against a big ranch. We had nothing between us. We had the Blue River right below us, nothing between us and the mountains. So it was very rural, very quiet. And then to move into a neighborhood like this, it's definitely been a change for us, but it's been great. We love it. Kids can walk to the school bus. That's something that I never had as a kid, and we didn't have in Colorado for them either. So It's been really nice.

[00:41:31.500] - Big Rich Klein

And a lot of kids in the neighborhood as well.

[00:41:33.850] - Michael Brassanini

And a lot of kids in the neighborhood. Yeah, we have a lot of friends in the neighborhood, so it's really cool.

[00:41:40.810] - Big Rich Klein

Let's talk some more about your wheeling. You build a buggy, Rockwell's, big tires, rear steer. How did you go from there? What was your passion?

[00:41:59.250] - Michael Brassanini

Well, it was funny. There's always these moments in your life where you have this epiphany. And I remember my friend Cory and I were in Montrose. We were getting ready to run Boulder Canyon. We had heard about this crazy trail, Boulder Canyon and Montrose. We got to find it. We got to we got to go run it. So we go down there. We're all geared up. Back then, it was like we loaded everything. We had all our tools, every spare part we could even muster was loaded in the cars and trucks and trailers were headed down. So we go to Montrose and we walk into Boulder Canyon, and we're both like, holy crap, this is enormous. I can't even believe people are driving up it, but we can see the line, so let's try it. So we get in there, and he's in a Toyota. I think he had 40s on it at the time. And we get maybe 200 feet into the trail. And by this time, we've already broke three Ring opinions in his Toyota. I've run out of fuel, broken a stab shaft. It was just a hot mess. So We spend all freaking day in this trail, packing parts in and out, fixing it.

[00:43:20.880] - Michael Brassanini

We run out of third members for the Toyota, and I end up stacking probably 30,000 pounds of rock and winching to the point where we got the cars about halfway through the trail. It's now midnight, and I'm like, I'm done. I can't move any more rocks. We walk back down to camp. So next morning I wake up, we're cooking breakfast, and I hear these buggies just ripping by us one after another, just on the road. And I'm like, Holy cow, we got a whole ass. Our buggies are in the trail. We don't want to be those guys that are blocking the trail. So we drive up there in a pickup, we hike down on the trail, and it's Walker Evans and his crew. And these guys, it was amazing to watch. Those guys came in in their buggies. No one was spotting each other. They had their little headsets on. They were talking, and they walked through the gatekeeper of that trail like it wasn't even there. And it blew my mind. I couldn't freaking believe it. So we ended up, we hiked up. We, again, didn't want to block the trail. We ended up getting our cars out.

[00:44:28.470] - Michael Brassanini

And when we got back to camp, I I told him, I told Cory, I said, I have to sell my car. I said, I want that. That was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life. It blew me away. And now I think back to where we're at now when we go and we wheel and we're very much on that same page where we don't spot anybody. We're going and running the hardest trails we can find. But at that moment in my life, I was like, That's where I want to be. So how do I get to that point? So back then was maybe 2009, 2010, sold the Rockwell buggy. If you remember, Tim Cameron had the fat girl bouncer.

[00:45:14.690] - Big Rich Klein

Yes.

[00:45:15.760] - Michael Brassanini

And there's a video of him doing this wheelie. And I was like, oh, that's the coolest shit ever. So I started looking for a bouncer. So I ended up, I bought a Jimmy Smith bouncer, quickly realized that it's not a rock Crawler, it's a bouncer. But I liked the lines of the chassis, so I turned it into a Crawler. So I regeared the whole thing, built a rear steer for it, put a 14 volt rear steer underneath it, and turned it into a Crawler. Well, that along comes Kevin Carroll in a red dot one day, we're out in Moab, and I just was like, I've got to have it. And so I started saving money, saving money, and was able to buy a red dot, and that car changed my life. When you buy a car of that caliber, it actually is a driver, it puts a lot of pressure on you because now you no longer have the excuse, Well, my car didn't make it. It was the buggy's problem. It's me as a driver that I suck. Buying a car like that, it was like, All right, I need to start stepping my game up.

[00:46:30.100] - Michael Brassanini

And I'm seeing Kevin going out here running all these trails and McKinley and Kyleman and all of these guys that I look to up in the sport. Now, I've got the same equipment they do. It's on me to elevate my game to be able to do that. And yeah, just kept pushing the envelope, pushed the envelope. And then I got into We Rock. If you remember, that was 2020. I think you guys did nationals in Cedar. And I showed up with the red dot.

[00:47:04.590] - Big Rich Klein

Because of COVID, they'd shut down farming. All in New Mexico.

[00:47:10.150] - Michael Brassanini

So I showed up to the National's event, just went up there with the car. I was like, Oh, well, I might as well try it. Why not? I didn't even have a spotter. And Val actually stepped in and spotted for me. And we did all right. I actually placed at podium. I think I got second or something. I was like, Man, this is cool. I might do it again. I believe after that, we did a couple of Super Crawl events that summer before the next season of We Rock had started and did pretty good in those and podiumed in them. The thing about those style of events, it helped me elevate my driving very rapidly because if you want to win, you're forced to put yourself and your vehicle in situations where you might otherwise take a bypass if you were out on a trail. Big drops, big climbs, off-camber stuff. And Supercrawl was the same way. Rich was definitely wanted to push the envelope with the capability of the cars and the drivers. So that forced me to do bigger obstacles than I probably was very comfortable with. But I wanted win. So we challenge accepted, I guess.

[00:48:38.970] - Michael Brassanini

And then once you do that stuff in competition, you go out on your trail will and you're like, Oh, hey, maybe this drop isn't as bad as I thought it was, and I bypassed it 10 times. I'm going to start pushing myself to do this stuff when I'm not in competition. Right.

[00:48:55.130] - Big Rich Klein

And you guys out there in that area. You guys don't have a club or anything like that, except your group text. You guys really do push the envelope down there. You're always looking for something new and something that may not be able to be conquered.

[00:49:20.520] - Michael Brassanini

Right.

[00:49:21.360] - Big Rich Klein

And that helps push the sport along.

[00:49:26.690] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, it's been great coming down here. And I got that opportunity that same year to run as a just spent in the LCQ for Trailbreaker, which having come to the Trail Hero events and volunteering as a guide, recovery was the very first event I volunteered for recovery. And then every year after that, I volunteered as a guide and had always been a big fan of the event and watching these drivers that I looked up to, Heilman and Steve Nantes and Jeff McKinley, these guys that are, Cody Wagner, these guys that are in the Trailbreaker event and watch them do these events. And it's just blowing my mind. Rich approached me in 2019 and asked me if I was interested in doing an LCQ. I believe it was the first year he actually did an LCQ event. I said, Yeah, I love the opportunity. I didn't sleep. For two days before that, I was so scared. I was super nervous because we went out walking. It was enormous. I'm like, Oh, what did I get myself into? I start questioning my abilities, but went out, sucked it up, went out and did it, and felt like I held my own, and with a lot of encouragement from the other drivers that I had looked up to and really helped me with my confidence levels.

[00:51:06.480] - Michael Brassanini

So that's been great. I love it.

[00:51:11.000] - Big Rich Klein

And this year, you jumped in, and I think this is the first year you guys really went for it. Is that correct?

[00:51:21.670] - Michael Brassanini

It is. Yeah. So I had bought one of Jesse Haynes' Competition Moon Buggies and did a couple of events in that car, Super Crawl, a few events, and a couple of standalone events in We Rock with that car. But this year was really the year that we were going to put our heads down and try to go for the national title in Unlimited. And we got pretty darn close. I think we missed it by one cone for the national title. So we did pretty well. We chased it all over the country, East Coast, West Coast. I mean, shoot, we were all the way up in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and all over the East this summer, Tennessee, and then clear over to Goldendale. So we really went for it this year and had a whole lot of fun doing it.

[00:52:25.630] - Big Rich Klein

And you brought Colter along as well, didn't you?

[00:52:28.690] - Michael Brassanini

Yes. This year, so after the Cedar event, Cody Wagner with Laser Nut called me and said that he really wasn't feeling it and wanted to do something to give back to the sport and was really liked where we were headed as a family and with our kids and wanted to be a part of what we were doing. And his idea was to basically sponsor our team with MoonShine, his personal Moon Buggy, and have Cole to drive it and have Sawyer spot it. In the sportsman's class, to get him some seat time because he is only 12. Get him some experience and some seat time. And so how do you say no to that opportunity? Cody and I are friends, and that was my biggest concern, first and foremost, was, Look, our friendship comes first. I don't want there to ever be any ill feelings between us regarding this sponsorship and or the vehicle or whatever. If there's ever any issue, let's be open and talk about it because I don't want to compromise our friendship. But yeah, it's been a great partnership. He's super cool dude. To offer that thing for my kids was just it blew my mind, honestly.

[00:53:59.280] - Michael Brassanini

I got got a little emotional when he was telling me about it. I was like, I don't even know what to say. That's the coolest thing anybody's ever done. And Coltr was in tears. We did this. Cody had the idea to do a big unveiling at Laser Nut Racing in California. And so we booked a trip on Mother's Day and went out. Coltr knew nothing about it. We were just going to stop and say hi to Cody. And when we went into the shop, they had the car all cleaned up with some green balloons. And Coltr's favorite color is green. So they did this big presentation for them. It was very cool, very humbling to have somebody to do that for us.

[00:54:40.160] - Big Rich Klein

So very cool. Our community is awesome.

[00:54:44.120] - Michael Brassanini

It is. So I believe that he's going to extend that into next year. And I'm building a new single seat Moon Buggy for myself to drive, and then Sawyer is going to take over the car that I was driving this year and compete in Unlimited as well. So it's really become a family deal for us and for me to be able to do it with my boys and travel and compete. And my wife handles all of our media with the girls and all our schwag and team apparel and all that stuff. And it's really become a family thing. And It's awesome.

[00:55:32.770] - Big Rich Klein

So what was it like going back east? Did you have time to take the boys to any of the national parks and that stuff, or was it pretty much business of the rock crawling?

[00:55:48.840] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah, it was pretty action-packed between the traveling. We went to Good Evening Ranch in West Virginia for that first event. And then from there, we went up to Pennsylvania for the X Rock the next weekend. And so it took us a day and a half to get there or so. And we went to Roush, wheeled there for a day, and then went over to famous Redding to prepare for the X Rock event. And Sawyer ended up driving in that event and did well. He placed a podium in that event. Then after the X Rock, we drove. That would be Father's Day weekend, so we drove down and went to Arlington, which was very cool to take them to. We got to see the changing of the guard. What a humbling experience. I mean, jeez, I think every citizen should have to go and go through that place because it's a very humbling sacrifice that those people have made for our freedoms.

[00:57:00.730] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. So it's very cool to share that with my boys on Father's Day.

[00:57:06.500] - Michael Brassanini

Then we drove down to Charlotte to leave our vehicles and camper and trailer at Greg Higgs' place there in Charlotte. We flew home for a few weeks. And then we flew back to attend the Daten, Tennessee, We Rock event. And then we drove home from there. So it was pretty action-packed, lots of driving, lots of traveling. So we didn't We get to see too many state parks or national parks, if you will. But just traveling through the country was amazing. And we loved going back there on wheeling with everybody. We met a ton. I mean, everybody that we got to hang out with, the East Coast crowd, if you will. They're super nice, very welcoming, very helpful. If you needed parts, even at an event, if you're broken, they helped us on our cars. It was very cool.

[00:57:57.860] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent.

[00:57:59.450] - Michael Brassanini

And then- Go ahead. They put together a white water rafting trip before the Tennessee event on Saturday morning, which was super awesome. Yeah. So we went and did that, and that was a lot of fun. Hopefully, we get to do it again next summer Excellent.

[00:58:16.270] - Big Rich Klein

So you're going to go for it again next year with three buggies?

[00:58:20.390] - Michael Brassanini

I think so, yeah. I think Colton is going to do the sportsman's A again, just to continue to build on his skill set, getting him more and more comfortable in the car. And then, yeah, we'll have two cars in the unlimited class next year.

[00:58:39.520] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. A little father-son rivalry.

[00:58:42.960] - Michael Brassanini

Oh, yeah. We got to figure that whole thing out, too. See how many... If we're going to share some secrets or not. I love to spot for him, but I think I got a couple more years of driving to me.

[00:58:57.720] - Big Rich Klein

There you go.

[00:58:59.390] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah.

[00:59:00.310] - Big Rich Klein

You got Trail Hero coming up again this year. Are you competing at the Trailbreaker event?

[00:59:06.800] - Michael Brassanini

I am, yeah. So next week, the LCQ on Tuesday. If we're fortunate enough to make it through that, the main event is on Thursday. And then the We Rock is doing another rock-crawl event on Friday, and the boys are signed up for that. Sawyer's signed up on Unlimited and Culture will be in the sportsman's class. I think we We have we have MoonShine back at Laser Nut Racing right now getting prepped for Cema. Cody is going to put that buggy in his booth at Cema this year, and the boys are going to go down and sign autographs and do that thing. So it'll be a good experience for them. That's awesome. So that car won't be here for Trail Hero, but we just finished building a couple of new trail cars for the boys. So Holtz will drive his new trail car in the in the We Rock event on Friday. Excellent.

[01:00:00.810] - Big Rich Klein

And those are two identical cars, are they not?

[01:00:03.970] - Michael Brassanini

Yeah. So we use the Holtz engineering chassis, Richard Holtz's design, out of Grand Junction, and built two identical portal cars. It presents challenges doing two at a time, but it's also somewhat easier because once you figure out the bugs on one, you just put the other one together. But it's really cool to be blessed to be able to do that for them and get to share this sport with them.

[01:00:39.600] - Big Rich Klein

It's all about the family.

[01:00:42.560] - Michael Brassanini

That's right. Yeah, for sure.

[01:00:45.150] - Big Rich Klein

And it's great that you guys all have a passion for doing this so that it is a family affair. That's awesome. Yeah.

[01:00:52.920] - Michael Brassanini

We just got those cars done, got them back from wiring last week. So we did shake down on them last weekend, and I think they're good to go for this week, hopefully.

[01:01:05.050] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Well, Michael, I want to say thank you so much for sharing your life with us. I mean, it was very nice that you opened up like you did and shared how you became who you are. Now I understand you much better, and And I appreciate that.

[01:01:31.820] - Michael Brassanini

Thank you for the opportunity. It's always a pleasure to chat with you.

[01:01:37.920] - Big Rich Klein

So you go out and have a great day framing houses and making sure your crews are working and give all those kids a hug for me. And hopefully we'll see you guys soon.

[01:01:48.130] - Michael Brassanini

Awesome. Sounds good.

[01:01:49.620] - Big Rich Klein

All right, Michael, thank you so much.

[01:01:51.440] - Michael Brassanini

Yep. Thank you.

[01:01:52.790] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Bye-bye. Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have or if there's anybody that you have that you would think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.