Battle Approved

Matt Martelli is the founder of Mad Media, a multidisciplinary creative and marketing firm and CEO of Off-Road Racer, UTV Underground, The Mint 400, The California 300, and Dirt Co. Matt is one of the biggest influences in Off-Road Racing today.

Battle Approved Motors (BAM for short) want their Electric UTV to be like Ferrari meets Tesla in the dirt. Battle Approved develops electric vehicle technology for work and performance-based off-road vehicles. Chris James also has a podcast with the same name and speaks with people he feels are battle approved in their line of expertise.

After the sad and shocking news of Ken Block's passing on January 2, 2023, we felt it was appropriate for us to engage in a discussion with Hoonigan Industries about the brand, the YouTube channel, the company's history, and its current and future endeavors moving forward.

In this episode of the Battle Approved podcast, we are joined by Ron Zaras, SVP of Hoonigan, who enlightens us on all things Hoonigan and provides insights into what lies ahead, including their Gymkhana Grid series later in the year.

Ken Block, an American professional rally driver, was associated with the Hoonigan Racing Division, previously known as the Monster World Rally Team. He was also the co-founder of DC Shoes. Ken actively participated in various action sports events, such as skateboarding, snowboarding, and motocross, and co-established Hoonigan alongside Brian Scotto. As of today, the Hoonigan YouTube channel alone, has garnered over 1.15 billion views.

In this episode we chat with Michelle Waterson-Gomez, who is a professional MMA Fighter and Battle Approved Motors' investor.

Michelle fights in the UFC Women's Strawweight Division and is currently ranked #10 in the World.

We talk family, off-road, fighting, business, and her connection to Battle Approved Motors

Bruce Buffer is an American professional mixed martial arts ring announcer and the official octagon announcer for UFC events, introduced on broadcasts as The Voice of The Octagon. 

Buffer's catchphrase is "It's Time!", which he announces before the main event of the UFC. He is also the half brother of the boxing and professional wrestling ring announcer Michael Buffer.

Galiano Tiramani (Boxabl Co-Founder) chats with Chris James (Battle Approved Motors Founder) at BlueWire Studios at the Wynn Vegas. 

Boxabl has created a building system that's compatible with scalable factory mass production. Their mission is to significantly lower the cost of homeownership for everyone. Boxabl's room module, the Casita, folds up to a shippable dimension, and upon arrival unfolds and sets up to a complete house in just a few hours.   

Battle Approved Motors (BAM for short) want their Electric UTV to be like Ferrari meets Tesla in the dirt. Battle Approved develops electric vehicle technology for work and performance-based off-road vehicles. Chris James also has a podcast with the same name and speaks with people he feels are battle approved in their line of expertise.

Galiano is an entrepreneur who has founded successful startups. Notably a cryptocurrency exchange and ATM network which acts as a custodian for customer funds with an annual trade volume in excess of $10m.

His new company Boxabl has created a building system that's compatible with scalable factory mass production. Their mission is to significantly lower the cost of homeownership for everyone. Obsessively designed to the highest standards of quality, strength, and sustainability to last for generations. Boxabl's room module, the Casita, folds up to a shippable dimension, and upon arrival unfolds and sets up to a complete house in just a few hours. 

Battle Approved want their Electric UTV to be like Ferrari meets Tesla in the dirt. Battle Approved Motors (BAM) develops electric vehicle technology for work and performance-based off-road vehicles. Chris James also has a podcast with the same name and speaks with people he feels are battle approved in their line of expertise.

Keegan Kincaid is a Short-Course Off-Road Racer. He is the current Red Bull Crandon World Cup Champion, reigning Champ Off-Road (COR) Pro 2 Truck Champion, and a former X-Games athlete. Keegan spent his childhood watching his father, Jeff Kincaid score seven Off-Road Championships. Keegan took up short-course in his early 20s and has raced across the country in multiple series. Today he spends his days building and fabricating Championship winning off road trucks with his dad.

Pete O'Heeron is the Founder and CEO of FibroBiologics. FibroBiologics is committed to developing therapeutics to treat chronic diseases and regenerative medicine using fibroblasts. With a history of working in the country music industry, as well the biotechnology industry, Pete is skilled in Business Start-ups.

In this episode Chris James talks with his dad, taking a trip back into time; before he was even born. 

What was Formula Racing like back in the late 50s / early 60s? How has Formula 1 progressed over time? All of this and a lot more, including what it was like living as a kid in Manchester during World War II, Ben Johnson's 1988 Olympic 100 Meters Iconic Race, Lance Armstrong, to a family fave; comedian Harry Hill. 

Ricardo Briceno is Vice President Franchise Management at Mattel.

In this episode Chris James talks with Ricardo about how he got started in marketing and of course the Hot Wheels brand. Find out about Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live, Hot Wheels Legends Tour, other Mattel brands like Barbie, plus the extremely successful Hot Wheels YouTube channel.

Conceived in 1968 by an innovator, a rocket scientist and a car designer, Hot Wheels 1:64 scale die-cast cars were designed to look awesome and perform like no other toy. Five decades later, Hot Wheels is the number one selling toy in the world* with more than 16.5 cars sold every second. The brand has evolved from a simple, yet beloved, toy car with orange track system into a global franchise powerhouse that offers fans of all ages multi-channel play experiences.

Farah Hannoun is a reporter for MMA Junkie / USA TODAY.

Peter Gough is the founder and managing partner at ORM. ORM helps its clients do better business through the use of innovative digital. 

In this episode, we take a trip back into time, before music went digital and the iPhone. Both Pete and I stormed through the 90s in the music biz in London, England and we caught up to talk about what it was like in those days. Plus Pete explains how digital technologies still excite him.

ORM continues to expand new business opportunities and leading its growth as they head toward being a Top 30 digital agency, as well as one of the coolest places in the UK to work. 

Extreme Sports announcer Dave Arnold is also known as The Voice of Off-Road. 

If you've been to the Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series, it's highly likely you've heard Dave's voice. He's announced multiple events, over numerous decades; from SuperCross to X-Games, and he loves Off-Road! "It's the most incredible, physical racing you're ever going to see!"

So just how did Dave get into announcing? Well, he was recuperating from a broken clavicle the day he went to watch some friends at a jet ski race and the event announcer never turned up. So, Dave picked up the microphone and started making fun of his friends out on the track.

Steve Van Doren from Vans walked up and asked him how long he'd been announcing and he looked at his watch and said ‘about fifteen minutes.’ And that’s how it all started.

Phil Ranta is the COO at cloud based global-scale Social & Commerce platform Wormhole Labs.

Phil is a pioneer of the digital media revolution, working as a pre-YouTube professional web video producer in 2005, video content app creator before the smartphone revolution in 2007, an early exec in the MCN (Multi-Channel Network) boom with two successful exits, and as the Head of Creators at Mobcrush, a technology and entertainment company at the epicenter of mobile gaming, live streaming and the creator-driven media revolution.

Previously, Phil was the Head of Gaming Creators at Facebook and the COO of Studio71, one of the world's largest MCNs, growing the network from 1 billion to over 8 billion monthly views in 3 years with over 1,000 creators.

Before Studio71, Phil joined Fullscreen as the Head of Channel Partnerships as the 9th employee, completing his tenure as the VP of Networks. He grew the network to the largest MCN in the world (on comScore) in less than 1 year. He was the recipient of Fullscreen's first "Founders Award" for his role in building the industry-leading company. As the 9th employee, he's also our 9th guest on the podcast.

Christina McKay is a high quality vehicle wrap designer and runs Curvaceous Wraps.

Clients include Curtis Jackson (50 Cent), Battle Approved, WrapSesh, plus many more,

Jerett Brooks is the reigning Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series (LOORRS) Pro 2 Truck Champion. 

Backing that up, this past weekend he swept Rounds 1 & 2 with two wins and two Optima Batteries Fastest Lap Awards!

Jerett has been racing since he was a kid and even raced Mod Karts!

Simon Harris is predominantly known as the founder of the record label Music of Life and producer of most of its catalog of songs. He is a DJ, producer, remixer, founder of the EDM label WorkRoom, and the creator of the Billboard No.1 hit "Bass (How Low Can You Go?")

This episode takes you on an interesting journey through the British rap scene back in the late 80s to how music is presented today.

Johnny Greaves is a professional American short-course off-road race truck driver from Abrams, Wisconsin. He has competed in numerous major off-road series, including SCORE International, Short-course Off-road Drivers Association (SODA), Championship Off-Road Racing (CORR), World Series of Off-Road Racing (WSORR), TORC Series (TORC), Lucas MidWest Series, and this year COR (Championship Off-Road).

Greaves began racing in motocross at age 12. He switched to racing four wheel vehicles at age 23 and has never looked back. He has won multiple off-road Championships., too many to mention. This dude is certainly Battle Approved!

Cris Reed and The Level Up Experience is dedicated to sharing stories in the eSports, gaming and content creation spaces; ranging from startups, pro players, orgs, content creators, educators, and investors.

He is also an advisor for Gamerjibe. Gamerjibe is transforming how businesses and creators connect through immersive online events like conferences, concerts, meet-and-greets, and persistent virtual real estate.

David M. Ross was the founder of Music Row Magazine and covered Nashville's music industry for over 3 decades.

Elle Shelley knows innovation. Over the last decade, she has designed and launched products, services, environments, and digital experiences for organizations seeking new ways to provide value to their customers. She is known for her ability to cheerfully create a vision of the future and then plan strategies to get there, executing on all aspects of design and development, from conception through production to delivery.

Greg Cozzo works Brand Activation and Promotions at Lucas Oil and MAV-TV. He's also the guy with the Big Red Cowboy Hat.