Meet Anthony Sanchez of The Car Culture in River Oaks District

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony Sanchez.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Anthony. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
All of this started the junior year in summer school in 2014. I found a friend of mine in the same class as me and we discovered we both loved cars. The start of our senior year we started an automotive club. I started to organize field trips to places like Hennessey Performance and Ferrari of Houston. Come 2015, we started going to car shows in our areas like coffee and cars, supercar Saturday, and rice box. I realized I wanted to do something more to be apart of the scene. I wanted to find a way to meet the people who owned these cars and learn from them, that way one day I could do the same.

As April approached, I started to meet more people in the car scene through photography but it was brought to my attention that it was required we do a service project for our club. Some ideas were thrown around and one of them was a car show that would benefit something/someone. I kept the idea in the back of my head until one morning about a week later I got a call right from homeroom. I was about to go into homeroom but one of my club members that he heard on 95.7 of a family that just moved here got robbed. The family had 2 kids that had a disability, but it was Adam that suffered the most. Adam was 10 years old and suffered from spina bifida.

Although he was 10, he looked as if he was about 5 years old. They didn’t have much money. They had bought a 1200 sqft apartment for 6 and had only unloaded their first few bags and when they went back outside, the van was gone. Luckily all of the kids weren’t in the van, but all of Adam’s medical equipment was, including his wheelchair that is specific to him.

As soon I heard about this, I skipped homeroom (got in trouble for it) and called the family. I told them I heard about their story and wanted to meet with them asap. They were delighted I called so fast and we met after school. When I got there, the place was smaller than I pictured but their hearts were huge. They told me the story about everything and I got mad. I was furious that someone would do this. So I got to work. I contacted the event coordinator for Sugar Land town square and asked what would be needed to host a car show in the middle of town square and it pretty much came down to money. I then went back to my school and told them about my idea and the cause. They were super pumped about it and asked if I needed anything. I told them about the money and they immediately shut it down.

To understate it, I told them I didn’t need them and that I was going to do it on my own, without any affiliation with the school. I pulled together the contacts I had made in the car scene to get vendors to help cover the cost of the first show. And after a lot of work, we were good to go. And on May 9th, 2015. I hosted my first car show with my team and it was a huge success. We surpassed the GoFundMe goal by raising a little over $5k, raised $2500 cash, and got the attention of a local Chevy dealer who donated a van to Adam’s family.

Since then, we have changed location’s but our values have never changed. Every car show we have hosted since has benefited some sort of charity or cause. They’re a lot of good people in the car scene who care about the community.

Today, We host our car shows at West Avenue every other month. We grow more and more each time and continue to help people in the community as well. A lot of people told me when I started that I was wasting my time and to focus on college and to get a job around campus, but I have made so many great connections, met a lot of great people doing what I love, and have had a number of great opportunities come my way by working hard and doing what I love.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
For the most part, yes but I have had setbacks. Obviously, in the beginning, we had some pushback from my school and then me trying to figure out how to make the show great without any prior experience of putting on a show. I took bits and pieces that I liked from other car shows in Houston and implemented them into ours and we have used the same formula ever since. We have had a number people endorse us but a couple of the big shows in Houston see me as the outcast or perhaps a threat.

I’m sure they have their reasons but I never let it get in my way. I will admit I am the underdog. I am a kid who wants to jump into an exclusive group of people who don’t necessarily need me nor probably want me. But I have no intention of letting them get in my way and despite their behavior, I keep an open mind of potentially working with them one day.

Another difficulty I ran into was about a year in, I had two key sponsors bail on me, which resulted in me having to pay out of my own pocket for about 4 months. I was really tempted to call it quits or find a location I didn’t like but things eventually bounced back.

The Car Culture – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Well, I think what sets us apart from other car shows is we organize and assign everyone that participates a spot in our show. I make sure my team and I run a tight ship and the results are always great. We also have always had our shows benefit a charity or cause. Also, all of my team are car people of many different demographics. They greet and talk to everyone at the show as if they were their close friend. It’s an awesome environment. Now what I do is I organize and coordinate with all of the car owners to make the show happen. We sometimes have dealers attend the shows as well. I also put together a video after each show that is high quality.

So as far as what I know for, I am known as the guy who runs the car culture shows and an awesome videographer. I have been able to turn it into a business by getting vendors for the show and for the past year it has been working great. I think what I am most proud for in my company is not only am I surrounded by something that I love but the community.

All the people who participate in the car scene are pretty awesome and seeing people come together regardless of pay grade, or race, to enjoy something that we all have in common (cars) and to help a cause or charity is something I am really proud of. We have big plans for 2018 and look forward to expanding The Car Culture.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I feel successful when my clients and guest are happy. We can get pass the elephant in the room and agree that money is great, but it is not the goal nor does it define success. Money is necessary to keep the business running and the lights on, but when a company pays us to represent them at our show, the success and reward comes during and after the show when I get their feedback on what they got out of it and knowing they got something out of it.

I feel success when I see our guest tag us in the Facebook/Instagram/twitter post on how much of a great time they had and how they can’t wait to come back next time and when they meet other car people at our show. And it feels great when we are able to help a cause and make an impact to better our community.

When I got into the car scene, I knew I wanted to do something more with it. I wanted to be more involved and just be around it more. And funny enough, I have had people out of the blue that have attended my show tell me that when they leave our show, they feel the same way. That is something I find to be a success.

Contact Info:

• Address: 2800 Kirby Drive, Houston TX, 77098
• Website: www.thecarculture.org
• Phone: 832-590-9718
• Email: Anthony@thecarculture.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecarculture
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCarCulture14/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCarCulture14
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe4di1D0gej63XWf0j62Z6w

Image Credit:
Travis Robertson, Jackie Vaughn, Alex Brogan

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