Installer of the Year: Embracing Change

WORDS BY ROSA SOPHIA

For Installer of the Year Tim Baillie, moving forward meant choosing to make major changes. With a renewed sense of freedom and self-confidence in both work and personal life, he hopes to spread a message of health and wellness in the industry.

Tim Baillie was led into the 12-volt industry after growing up around his father, who was a mechanic. “I had my first car when I was 14,” he said. “I wanted to follow [in my dad’s footsteps] and be a mechanic.” Baillie took automotive courses in high school and went into the industry, but was led toward car audio in the early 90s. “There was a car audio school in Orlando called CMA. I think it was only around four or five years—before Mobile Dynamics and Installer Institute. My parents said, ‘If this is something you want to do, we’ll send you to school.’”

In the course of his studies, Baillie learned the fundamentals of sound and electrical. In 1992, he got involved in IASCA, eventually winning over 150 first

place awards, and several eastern and western regional events. “I placed in the top five every year from 1992 to 1999 at the IASCA World Finals, and in 1997 I won an IASCA World Championship in the Expert SC+ Class. I met Mark Fukuda there,” he said, adding, “He was doing things with routers and vinyl then—ten, fifteen years ahead of everyone else. Talking to him [opened up] a whole new world [for me] as far as building cars and getting better at it.”

Having a strong work ethic helped Baillie move forward with his career goals. “My dad, being a mechanic, always taught me if you put in a hard day’s work and take pride in everything you do—if you sweep the floor, make sure you do a damn good job—and if you can work with your hands and you have passion for it, you’ll never have a problem finding a job,” he said. “That always stuck with me.”

F7LTHY Fabrications, where Baillie works as a project manager, specializes in full custom builds. Baillie uses Fusion 360 for design work, and the shop utilizes a 3D printer and CNC router.

Custom Focus

Through strategies he started learning at IASCA, Baillie changed the way he approached projects. “[I changed] my mindset. When I first started, I was just jumping in, wasting a lot of time going back and forth because I wasn’t thinking things through,” he said. “You have to think of the whole project before you start. You have to see the end result and be able to figure out the steps so you’re not going backward.”

From 2005 to 2012, Baillie owned his own company, focusing on hot rods, restoration, interior and electrical systems.

Moving forward in his career meant making changes. After losing over 200 pounds, Baillie said he was able to do things he’d never been able to do before, and it completely changed the way he approached his work.

He also branched out into emergency lighting, which he said saved the business during the recession. “Custom work really excites me,” he added. “Almost every car I have ever owned has been customized in some way, whether it’s audio or performance.”

Baillie is currently a fabricator and project manager at F7LTHY Fabrications, formerly Trick Factory, in Coquitlam, British Columbia. He also oversees the shop’s SEMA builds. “We specialize in full builds. A lot of our builds are in high-priced cars with body kits and audio.” Along with car audio and electrical, Baillie added that he designs builds using Fusion 360, a 3D printer and CNC. “We have [someone doing] paint and body work, fabricators and upholsterers. I do a lot of detail work. Details matter. If you don’t take care of the details, the job is going to look like crap no matter what.”

This year at KnowledgeFest Dallas, Baillie was named Installer of the Year. “None of this could have happened without the support of my wife Sue Baillie, my parents Jim and Nora Baillie, as well as Tim, Rob and the whole F7LTHY Fabrications family. This year is also my thirtieth year in the industry,” he added.

Getting Healthy for a Better Future

Recent changes have greatly impacted Baillie’s career in a positive way. “Two years ago, I weighed 454 pounds.” Deciding to lose the weight, he added, involved a simple choice. “You either do it or you don’t. At that point, [it was a matter of] life or death. That was a pretty big motivating factor for me.” Being overweight all of his adult life, he said, meant that he was very shy and didn’t put himself out there. “Even though it was affecting my job, I didn’t change.”

When he went to a new doctor and had blood tests done, he said, “The doctor told me I was very healthy for a very overweight man. He said I had to do something about it, and he asked if I’d ever considered weight loss surgery. I did some research and got myself into a program. They said they needed me to lose 30 pounds in the next five or six months, so I took that challenge and lost over 76 pounds.”

By the time the surgery was over, Baillie had lost about 230 pounds. “This changed everything for me,” he said. “I used to wiggle my way under dashes years ago, but now I’m right under the dash, climbing into engine compartments, into trunks. I always found a way to do something. I’ve been really lucky, too. At a lot of shops I was always the fabricator, and we would trade off. If I needed something done in a trunk, they would do it and I would do something for them. I worked with a lot of great guys who unfortunately enabled me because they helped me do stuff I should have figured out a way to do myself.”

The weight loss opened new doors for Baillie, who said he’s learning to do a lot of new things he couldn’t do before. “It’s given me a completely new lease on life as far as my job goes, because now I can do anything I put my mind to and I can physically fit wherever I need to fit.” Losing the weight has made him feel differently about himself.

“You gain a lot more confidence in yourself making these kinds of changes,” he said. “I let things go a lot quicker now. I don’t have time for the drama I used to get myself wrapped up in. I have too many good things going on in my life.”

Everyone remembers things they wish they hadn’t said or done, he added, “and I have my share of that kind of baggage I have to live with. But all I can do is move forward.”

Choosing to Take a Chance and Make a Change

Baillie’s journey has made him want to spread the word, especially within the industry, and help others find a path toward better health. “People I’ve never even met message me online. They ask for advice on how to work on their weight or health. That’s one of the coolest things about this whole journey, because I never thought of myself as someone who might inspire others.”

He’s now finding it easier to approach people and talk to them. “I’ve never done that. I always let them come to me,” he added. “[I make an effort now] to put myself out there.” Losing weight and getting healthier helped him pursue Installer of the Year, he said. “It’s something I always wanted. I picked up Installation News back in the early 90s. Half the magazine was a build log [of Mark Fukuda’s]. You had to submit your build log [to be considered]. I thought it was the coolest thing.”

In 2014, Baillie made Top 12. “Then I made the Top 50 in 2015, Top 12 in 2017, Top 50 last year. Every year I push myself to do better work. I’m always thinking in the back of my mind, ‘This is the kind of stuff I can use for my submission,’” he said. “Watching people like Matt Schaeffer, pushing himself to learn how to do video editing and film, how to take better pictures—that was a huge part of the learning curve for me, too. Not being the size I was, [I became] a lot more comfortable in front of the camera.”

Baillie lives by a quote he read about a year ago: “There are choices, chances and change. You have to choose to take a chance to make a change. To make a change, you need to accept in your head that you’re going to do it,” he said. “Your heart can say, ‘I want to lose weight, or do this or that,’ but until your head says, ‘Okay, let’s do it,’ you’re not going to change long-term. Thirty years overweight, I would get up in the morning and say, ‘I wish I was thin,’ and then I would eat a big breakfast. I would watch the Biggest Loser and say, ‘I wish that was me,’ and then I would eat a huge bowl of pasta while watching it.’”

Until his mind was ready, he added, “None of that was ever going to happen. [These factors] come into play with anything in life.”

Prioritizing Health and Wellness in the Industry

Baillie said the industry should be more health-conscious, and this is something he hopes to talk about more in the future at events such as KnowledgeFest. “I want to work on my public speaking abilities this year so I can get up in front of a group of people and talk,” he said. “I would like to talk about health within the industry. I’m glad to see a lot of my friends in the industry are starting to get serious about their health. I went to KnowledgeFest in 2015 and realized I wasn’t the only overweight person there.”

In customer-focused businesses, Baillie said, there’s a tendency to disregard personal health in favor of getting the job done. “I always put the customers first, and I know a lot of friends do the same,” he said, adding that it leads to cutting corners at meal times, such as, “‘I’ve got to get the car done, so I’m going to run to McDonald’s,’ and ‘I’m not going to eat in a regular fashion, so I’m going to freak my body out and have a huge breakfast and then wait until four o’clock and have a huge lunch, then go home at eight or nine at night, have a massive dinner and flop on the couch and watch TV.’ Thirty years of that contributes to putting on a lot of weight.”

Baillie hopes his story will inspire others to find their own path to better health, and he feels shop owners and managers should take note. “It’s important for shops to be aware of this and plan for their staff to have proper lunches at proper times,” he said. “There’s so much going on. People need to slow down, take a breath, take a moment, have lunch, not always feel rushed to get cars out. We need to look after our bodies. That’s a passion for me. I want to put myself out there, learn to speak better and be able to talk about these things.”

In the future, Baillie said he wants to share everything he’s learned in the course of his career. “This industry isn’t growing enough as far as installers and salespeople. Unless we teach people more, and make it exciting for more individuals to come into the industry, I don’t know where we’ll be,” he added.

When it comes to personal change, he said it just involves a decision. “You need to decide what you want more. Are you willing to take on the challenge and make a sacrifice? I don’t think it’s any different than putting a video out for the Top 50. You either do it or you don’t,” he said. “If someone like me can take on the challenge and lose that kind of weight—make those kind of changes, put the effort in— then anybody can.

Next Step: MECP Certification While working toward overcoming personal challenges, Baillie learned techniques through networking and hands-on experimentation. Studying has always been difficult for him. “One of the biggest things I’ve had to overcome is learning [from books]. I’m a hands-on learner. I’m not good at reading something and retaining it.”

For this reason, Baillie said, he’s had difficulty pursuing MECP certification. His goal for the coming year is to study and earn his MECP. “I’m stubborn when it comes to going after something,” he added. The last two years have been full of physical and mental transformations which have changed both his work life and personal life for the better.

“I’ve been pushing myself to learn a lot of new things, and take on new challenges. I want to learn how to retain information and formulas,” he explained. “Then I want to go out there for my MECP.” He compared it to competing for 10 years in IASCA. “I just focused. That was all I did.”