Meet Jack and Megan Gayle | Automotive YouTubers

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jack and Megan Gayle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jack and Megan, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
For us, the work life balance has drastically changed. What started as a casual hobby making car videos for YouTube began to grow, and as opportunities arose that required more thoughtful, quality content, I began editing and running the channel mostly in the late evening hours between 9pm and midnight. With two teenage daughters, a full time job with its own extra curricular requirements, and press vehicles showing up on a weekly bases, eventually Megan was like, “you’ve got to make a choice.” I was burning the candle at both ends. I gave up coaching in the hopes that it would balance the scales a bit more, but ironically, when Megan stared appearing the videos with me last year, so many more doors opened for us that I made the decision last fall to step away from teaching and move into content creation full time.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Megan and I have both been teachers for more than 20 years. I started in ad sales for a newspaper in Atlanta and quickly grew disillusioned with that while Megan went straight into the teaching profession out of college and never looked back. After I joined her in the teaching profession, I started coaching swimming and was fortunate enough to win a number of state championships over the past two decades. But it was when I started teaching the audio/video classes that my future goals really took shape. I had always been interested in the film industry, and suddenly I was given a way to learn the artistic and practical elements of production (while passing them along to students) and put them into practice on YouTube. I became increasingly fascinated with the idea of independent creation — making content and putting it out on a platform. I used YouTube as both a teacher to learn more and more about filmmaking and editing as well as a test bed for my creations. When I noticed that some edits I had been practicing got views, some even going viral in the motorcycle community, I was hooked. I never would have imagined back then that it would lead to working in the auto industry, another dream of mine, and involve Megan who had no natural interest in cars, but now the creative outlet I started pursuing over a decade ago has become a fun family business that Megan and I get to do together.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The best thing about living in Atlanta is the proximity to so many different activities. For someone truly new to the city, we’d definitely have to take them to the aquarium and Coke museum, and it would be fun to show them charming areas to eat and drink such as the Iberian Pig in Decatur. But being in charge of an automotive channel, we’d love to get an amazing car and head north to Helen or Blairsville, enjoying all the scenery and roads north GA has to offer. Road Atlanta and Atlanta Motorsports Park, two amazing racetracks are a short drive away, and of course there’s the Porsche experience down by the airport. I think. a lot of people are shocked by the geographic diversity around Atlanta and how easy it is to be catching a show at the Fox one day and relaxing in a cabin in Blue Ridge the next. North GA is home to some of the best driving roads in the southeast, so just getting from place to place can be an adventure in itself.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Megan deserves the biggest shoutout since I not only kind of roped her into this, but she has also supported this pursuit from the start, even when it first seemed like a pipe dream. The amount of time it takes to write, shoot, and edit weekly videos as a one-man show is pretty crazy, and she always encouraged me to chase that dream even when it suddenly required her participation. I also give a lot of credit to YouTuber Peter McKinnon, someone I started following years ago, who inspired me to pick up a camera and try to make something with it. Watching his tutorials and seeing his meteoric rise on YouTube really fueled me early on.

Instagram: jax1079 (JAX Automotive)

Youtube: JAX Automotive

Other: TikTok: jax1079 (JAX Automotive_

Image Credits
None, just us.