Layla Nielsen
Hello, and welcome to the next episode of Content is Queen. And I have a very special guest, someone who doesn’t look like the industry that she is. So magnificent and fabulous and all that good stuff within. Please meet Tammy Powers, who was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Growing up, her passion was everything gymnastics and following her older brother around while he built streetcars.  Like, girl, I don’t know how you did that with nails and stuff, but at the age of 22, Tammy moved out west and made her way to Los Angeles and made Beverly Hills her home. She has worked within the motorsports industry for the past 23 years, and she’s the connector. 

She makes sure that she finds the best in class female race car drivers and forward thinking brands, so she connects the dots. So I am so happy to dig in and learn about Ms. Powers because we don’t see many women in this sports. How did you I know your brother kind of got you into it, but what was it inside of you that wanted to say, I want to be in motorsports, I want to be in this space because pretty girl like you is not normal? 

Tami Powers
Well, I can tell you that at the age I was following him around while he worked on his streetcar, I was in that awkward age that we all have, that we’re like, with the crooked teeth and the ratty looking. Anyway, I was quite a tomboy. It’s what they used to call it, I don’t know, but I used to follow him around. And what really fascinated me about automobiles at that time was just especially the race cars, was the smell of the rubber, the smell of the oil, the sound of the engine was very fascinating to me. And I remember annoying him to no end, following him around and what are you doing now? What are you doing next? Like you do to your older siblings. And I was very annoying to him. 

But I remember in high school, I signed up for a shop class because I really wanted to learn about the inner workings of the car. And my dad always told me, you got to know how to change your own tire and you got to learn how to change your own oil. You don’t want to have to pun on a guy for that. And God bless my dad, rest his soul, he was right. So I signed up for a shop class in high school. I think it was probably 9th or 10th grade, and I was so excited to go into that class that day and learn about cars. 

And they had a real car in there with a real engine, and a lot of it was just hands on training, and I really wanted to learn all I could so I could be cooler to my brother, too, right? So that was the plan. And I went in there and I opened the door, and there was a room full of 20 boys and a male teacher. And all of a sudden, my hands started sweating. And you know how you get that lump in your throat and you’re like and the energy was not welcoming at all. Everyone looked at me and they’re like, what is she doing in here? And almost like, do you have the wrong room? Are you sure you’re supposed to be in here? 

And that was the most heartbreaking memory of that time of my life, because I was really passionate about something. And then I leaned in, I went in there, and they didn’t accept me. And I remember it’s like, in your head, you’re like, in a split second, should I leave? But you’re stuck there. You’re like a pillar of salt, just stuck there. And I went in and I sat down, and I don’t remember anything anybody said. I don’t remember anything. All I remembered was looking at the clock going, please, God, let the bell ring soon. Like, I have to get out of here. And I never went back. And I told this story a couple of times before interviews, but I never really realized how much impact that had on me throughout the years. 

I had no idea I would end up in motorsports after something like that. So I always tell these young women and men that I mentor, it’s like, you can get your teeth kicked in and laying flat on the ground, looking at your own blood. And I always say, you haven’t been in the fight until you taste your own blood, right? And I tasted my own blood that day, and I had no idea what it meant at the time. But looking back, I understand that was an ember in my belly. Because then once the fear subsides and you start really quantifying what that meant, then the fire in your belly starts, right? And so people say, how do you do this every day? How do you get up and fight this fight every day? 

And push and elevate women for equality in motorsports is because of the fire in my belly. I don’t want anyone else to feel the way I felt that day. And so that looking through all the years and decades of my life in motorsports, I knew, looking back now, I know for sure that was starting something that made me ask myself, after 23 years, what was my purpose in motorsports all these years? 

Layla Nielsen
Right? 

Tami Powers
What? Am I leaving? What is my legacy? And during 2020, when everything shut down, I saw all the problems in the world with women in motorsports, and I said, Well, I need to elevate these young women so they don’t have to. 

Layla Nielsen
Feel like I felt that’s amazing because, honestly, from meeting you has sparked my curiosity in motorsports. Never thought about it. I mean, I’m one of those parents who get really annoyed when the motorcycles are, like, revving down the street. Sorry, that’s me. But then when I started to dig in deeper and look at the industry, you’re right, you barely see women, but now you’re seeing women at every single stage. 

Tami Powers
Every single stage. Engineers, engineers. So if you look at the Indy 500 in 2023, I’m an ahole for not knowing her name off the top of my head. But the engineer for the team that won is a female. And you’re looking at all these different areas in motorsports where women are thriving. It’s not just hospitality and marketing anymore. It’s women changing tires. It’s women working on the cruise, working as an engineer. And we’re seeing so much more. And I think what the industry is also realizing is with that diversity comes growth. The more point of views you have in a room and the more layers you have to the onion in any business is going to thrive. The numbers are showing us that the data does not lie. 

Layla Nielsen
So talk to me about because when I think about motorsports, of course, it’s just very male dominated. Where are some areas that you are most excited about for women? Because, like you said, there’s engineers now. Everything isn’t the fluffy stuff anymore that were known to be within. But what are you excited about? And seeing the industry shifting? And what do you say to girls and women who are encouraged to keep them, encouraged to say this is a viable industry to enter? 

Tami Powers
I think when you look at the economics of it, right, so motorsports is a $6 billion year industry. Well, we know that less than 1% of that goes to female drivers. So we are shifting that. We’re shifting it. And I think when you look at the projections of that and you see there’s really a heavy push right now for women in motorsports as drivers. So I would say if you love carding and you love racing and you’re a driver, it doesn’t matter. The car doesn’t know your gender. The car doesn’t know anything about you but your ability to drive it. And so we know this. Listen, when I started this company, I asked myself the hard questions are women and men equal in a race car? Viable question do I have the upper body strength? 

Do I have the ability to take on negative 5G forces or positive G forces and all these things? Am I physically able to keep up with the men? Absolutely. 

Layla Nielsen
Actually. I love how you frame that because it’s not like other sports, right? So you think about strength and all that kind of stuff. This is a mind game and skill. So that part I got goosebumps. I never thought of it that way. 

Tami Powers
But yes, I like to look at the facts of things and sort of leave my I get very emotional about this and I have to remind myself, tammy, take a step back and let’s look at quantify what’s in front of you that’s factual. And a guy named Dr. David Ferguson at Michigan State University Motorsports Lab has done many published studies on this very subject. So I looked through everything and I thought, give me a reason why they’re not there. That’s in the either mental or physical form. And there aren’t any women actually tested higher. Women can handle more g forces to the body based on their anatomy. Women make great fighter pilots because of that. I mean, that is insane what these women do. 

So I looked at then, you know, some men in Europe have said women don’t have the aptitude to they don’t have the fight and the hunt. And I’m thinking, have you met what women are you talking gosh, who are they talking to? You know, I love about the men in Europe is they say anything in the media there. They don’t have people around them going, don’t say that. You know what they just say have I have like a little log of quotes from different men in motorsports and what they’ve said about female drivers. And I keep it in my notebook and it puts a little gas in that fire I told you about in my belly to keep going. 

So I went through all of this information and I said, I’m trying to find something that is going to persuade me that they’re not equal in a race car and they are equal in a race car. If not, women have more capabilities if they get the same amount of training that the men get. And that’s the only problem women have in motorsports is opportunity. So I created power drive, motorsport futures, the power of brands, the drive of these drivers, these athletes. And motorsport futures is the financial part of it. Because if Janet Guthrie in 1977 1st Woman to qualify for the Indy 500, if she would have had corporate sponsors, she could have kept going. She could have kept going in her career. 

But she wanted every these late night talk shows, she’s trying to get Coca Cola, she’s trying to get all these brands. They just weren’t ready to support a female in motorsports at that time. And they’re still not. It’s better. It’s better. But man, before I leave this earth, I want to see so much more progress. And that’s what I’m working towards. 

Layla Nielsen
So what do you think is the disconnect between brands and female motorsports athletes? Like, what’s the disconnect know? 

Tami Powers
I think it’s one of those things where there’s this subconscious thing going on. And some people and my friends in NASCAR, we’ve had these back room conversations about this kind of stuff. And I appreciate these guys. They’re very honest about what the chatter is about. And I think one of the things that stood out is that these brands don’t want to risk investing in a woman. So the fact that there aren’t many of them in there’s nobody in NASCAR Cup series that’s female right now. There’s no one in the Indy Car series that’s full time right now. There’s one young lady indie Next, which is their minor league series, jamie Chadwick, she’s over there, but they don’t want to risk it. And I’m thinking, listen, we’ve got to equalize it. 

So my goal to build a bridge for more than one, more than two, more than three, once we stabilize that, it’s no longer a risk. It’s investing in the best in class that’s there and not looking at gender, not looking at any of that, and just looking at them because of what they’ve accomplished and what they’re projected to do in their career, just like any other athlete. 

Layla Nielsen
So who do you have your eye on right now? Who you’re just like cheering her on? She’s it. She has it. Who are those one or two or three female athletes that you have your eye on? 

Tami Powers
Oh my God. There’s just such a healthy pool of women right now that are out there. Well, destiny spurlock. I’m watching her like a hawk because she has the fire in her belly. She has and I always call it, she has the juice. You got the juice, she’s got the her everything about her is so amazing and beautiful. Her insides match her outsides, and I’m constantly cheering her on. Another one of my clients actually, Sabra Cook. She is the first and only female in the Porsche Carrera Cup GT three series that races under IMSA. She is the first and only female in that series. So she called me up after her first race, and she made the top ten. 

In her first race, out of 41 drivers, she reached the top ten and she said, oh my God, I’m racing next to guys who raced an Indy car in F one. And I go, and I know you’ve all driver for 22 years. You’ve done this your whole life. You’re supposed to be there. You know what I mean? So I’m really excited for her, and I connected her to a corporate partnership that’s funding and fueling her journey in Porsche career cup series and then building that bridge into the latter at IndyCar. So that’s her goal. And watching her shine has been incredible. And another one I’m really excited about, her name is Ashley Sanford, and she former drag racer, top fuel dragsters, 11,000 in under 5 seconds. She is now driving a monster truck. And the monster jam. She’s killing it. She’s killing it. 

And so I’m watching all these beautiful things happen to amazing, deserving people, and I’m just thrilled. And one of the other ones, who is a dear almost like family, is Antron Brown, and he is a three time Top Fuel World Champion in the NHRA and he owns his own operation now. So he raced for somebody else throughout his whole career. He started in motorcycles and moved into the highest form of drag racing, which is NHRA Top Fuel Dragsters. And for the last couple of years, he’s owned his own team. He has wonderful partnerships on board with him. He’s one of the big drivers for Toyota and watching him succeed has been and knowing him 22 years I’ve known him has been a real joy for me too. 

Layla Nielsen
That’s amazing. So now I’m literally typing down everyone’s name so that I can go check them out and follow them on social media because this sport is so fascinating to me. I did not realize how many layers of the business forget the drivers, right? Not forget them. But when you think about the industry, all you really know from the outside looking in is the cars, you see the patches on the outfits, but you don’t really know what’s going on until you’re really paying attention. So I’m fascinated about how you were connecting brands to your drivers and being that bridge, especially for women, where you were able to encourage, like saying, no, you’re supposed to be there, and I’m going to bring along some corporate sponsors so you can take it to the next level. 

I commend you for doing that because you’re the one that’s going to get all the punches right as you’re having these conversations and they’re going to say, oh, I’m sorry, sweetie, which drives me up a wall. I don’t know how many times I’ve probably heard that, but I know being in a male dominated space, they take you sometimes as a joke because they’re so accustomed to seeing men. So kudos to you for taking on this challenge and I wish you nothing but the best of luck in everything that you do. I want to be invited to the next one of your clients races so I can be firsthand and experience that. Are there any last words of encouragement for young ladies and little girls who are interested in this sport? 

Tami Powers
So I would say, and it’s something that I struggled with, and certainly a lot of the young women I talk to struggle with. We focus on the negative of what we perceive people think of us. Or if you make a mistake, you feel like you’re not supposed to be doing what you’re doing, even though you love it. If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not doing it right. If you don’t fail, you’re not going to win. You’ve got to fail over and over again. And we drill this into these young people’s heads, but it doesn’t really saturate. It feels like it’s not really saturating. And when you can see somebody who makes mistakes, we see all the quotes from the greats, like what Michael Jordan said about missing all these shots. But how does it really sink in. 

It sinks in with people like me that they can relate to on a level that is organic in the sense that I’m just like you. I know how you feel. I know how you feel. And when I say to my daughter, yes, you can go speak up in front of your class and she’s terrified, I’ll a lot of times show her. Get these mentors around you that you can see, feel and touch that aren’t on a TV. Find those people within your communities that can lift you up when you’re on the ground, that you can call, that you can get these mentors from your communities. Because people that I would say surround yourself around people that are doing more than you are and ahead of the game, latch onto them. 

That’s what their job is now, is to bring up the next generation of great people with whatever you’re passionate about. Always when you have a negative thought about yourself come into your head, you change the narrative right now. You don’t wait, you change the narrative in your head right now. You are worthy. You are working hard. You can do whatever you want to do. You can be who you want to be. Don’t listen to all the outside noise. You have to be able to learn how to have the mindset to win. I wake up every day, I make my bed. I don’t care if I am miserable. I’ve been sick all week. I didn’t want to make the bed. And in my head, you know what I say? I’m going to be so organic right now. I’m like, Bitch, make your bed. 

Just make your bed. If that’s all you do today, make the bed. The next thing I do, I go into the mirror and I say, you got this. You got this. Snot running out, your nose, a fever. It doesn’t matter. You got this. And if you do one positive thing for yourself that day, you’ve done one positive thing. And then it just kind of is a domino effect and it works out some way. 

Layla Nielsen
The universe is like, okay, she started off right. I’m going to make sure she goes the extra mile. I get it. 

Tami Powers
Exactly. And that is exactly right. It’s like, what are you telling the universe today about your day? Right? When you get up, mine is bitch, make your bed. And then it just comes from there. It all falls into place. 

Layla Nielsen
Bitch, make your bed. That’s the quote that we’re going to walk away with. Everything else will fall into line. 

Tami Powers
It’s really that simple, right? 

Layla Nielsen
It’s that simple. Listen, Tammy, you are amazing. Thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your wisdom and encouragement for young women who want to get into this sport. I think it is due and I think we have one another. So go out and if you see a woman on the docket, buy the ticket. Do whatever. You can follow them on social media and make sure that they feel the love from our community. Right? 

Tami Powers
Yeah. Because here’s a tidbit I’m going to leave you with in your audience. 85% of female race car drivers followers are men. So can we equalize that, too? 

Layla Nielsen
Okay, that’s a challenge. All right, content is clean. Listeners, stop what you’re doing, find a female motorsports driver and follow them today. We not be outnumbered. We got to be there supporting one another. So let’s get that done today. That is our assignment. Thank you, Tammy. I love this conversation. And that’s all, folks. We’re out.