Meet Gabriel Campolla

We were lucky to catch up with Gabriel Campolla recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Gabriel, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

My purpose can be traced all the way back to early childhood. Though I didn’t realize it until my late 20’s, my purpose had been developing since at least kindergarten.
Growing up, I was not a normal kid – I usually preferred to be alone, because I found joy and inspiration in unusual places. I was fascinated with architecture and engineering – especially the finer details about how things work or why things are built a certain way. Naturally that led to an interest in regulations and safety requirements. See – told you; weird kid. Anyway, I think it goes without saying that these things were not very relatable to many other children. So, explaining my interest only bored my classmates and frustrated me. I’d usually rather just do my own thing instead.
As I grew, so did my interests. I took more of a liking to engineering… industrial engineering. That’s the variety that is responsible for automotive and product design. Though I didn’t know that’s what it’s called at the time, that’s what I would spend most of my time diving into. I wanted to be a car designer so very badly. I would draw cars for the fun of it; every single day. Real cars, cars of my own design, you name it! I would put together mock brochures with colors options, trim options, wheel options, etc. It was such a blast. Keep in mind, this was while I was in middle school.
Moving into high school, my excitement grew exponentially. My school offered architecture classes AND engineering classes. I took both of them all four years. My passion for design grew through other classes as well. Give me any project assignment, and it was always the most creative, most thoughtful, and usually the teacher’s favorite. (Ok, that last one might be a stretch). But, I never failed to deliver a quality piece and so became my reputation.
My childhood and adolescence were made of dreams. I have a very loving family who cares deeply for me. I had plenty of friends and still do. But one sharp bend in the road of life really shook things up. Half way through my senior year, I lost my mom to cancer. It was relatively sudden: she went to urgent care feeling under the weather on Thanksgiving 2011 and was no longer with us by New Years Eve that same year. Six weeks… through two major holidays… one week after my birthday… oh – and final exam season. That winter season was not one I’d soon forget.
I recovered quickly; I really didn’t have a choice. I’m 18 and have a mortgage, utilities, cell phone bills… all that adult stuff. Luckily I was mature beyond my years and I handled it like a champ. However, all that hustle and bustle caught up with me. In the Summer of 2022, I was really losing steam. I had spent the past decade on what feels like a hamster wheel; I’ve spent a lot of energy, but I haven’t gotten anywhere – at least by my standards. Sure, I have a great career in real estate, but that was not exactly fueling my flame. I wanted more. Then it hit me, and it hit hard. A question seemingly fell from the sky: where was that weird little Gabriel that designed things and put products together? I still had a passion for cars, but I hadn’t explored design theory about them nor had I pursued anything engineering or architectural. Though, I do remember an old argument I had with myself about real estate – that includes architecture, right?
I looked back through my memory scrapbook in my head and photos in my phone. I didn’t do anything related to architecture, engineering, or design since my mom received her wings 11 years prior. Those dreams about becoming a car designer – gone. My plans for going to school to become an industrial engineer must’ve been left behind in my old life. But why…?
It took a lot of connecting the dots to figure it out, and in the meantime my brain was also at work to revive that inner child and start that curiosity up again. Let’s admit: as a kid, those interests are kinda strange, but as an adult, they’re super cool! And I wanted that for myself again.
As they say: ask and you shall receive. I was on the hunt for something that could fuel that fire to build and design, but what could it be? Also bear in mind, I now have real money and real resources. This doesn’t have to remain a fictional being like my ventures as a kid did. As I mentioned, I never really lost the passion for cars and I was blessed to have my childhood dream car early on in life. I look after that thing better than most people look after their kids. I always hand wash it; I use only the finest detailing products on it; it stays in the garage; it’s borderline embarrassing. Anyway, in using one of those “finest detailing products,” I suddenly found it. I thought to myself: “I can make this… and I can do it better.” Holy cow, I asked for a little fuel for my fire and I got a whole explosion! Ideas were raining down upon me. Resources were readily available, and in no-time Teyko was born and the first products were being delivered. I had done it! I created a company, designed and produced the products, and now I’m holding it in my hand. I can’t tell you the sense of love, pride, and accomplishment that went into that. I had a chemist professionally produce the liquid and I got to do all the fun “designy” stuff. My weird interest for safety regulations made reading through the US Consumer Product Safety Administration a breeze (and quite fun, but I don’t openly admit that part). Oh, it was such a blast to design the bottles and ensure all the regulatory aspects were present. And the website – that was a whole other joy in itself. I do have a team that I give generous credit to that handles some of the logistics like the liquid, the product photography, etc. But, everything about Teyko came from my little noggin. And then…
Crickets. My family wasn’t particularly thrilled or impressed that I pulled this together. They don’t ask about it. It feels like they refuse to understand it (they are absolutely not car people – so I give them a little grace on that). But to them, it’s not like I did anything special. I might as well have gone to the store, bought a similar product, and signed the back of it with my name and bowtie and called it a party. Sure, I now have friends and colleagues that take every moment they can to remind me how special what I’m doing is. But, this silence from my family flashed me back all they way through kindergarten and answered my lingering question about where the old little Gabriel went at the and of 2011.
I want to preface this with the insistence that I was indeed well loved. However, my family, teachers, and peers didn’t show much support for what I wanted to do. And encouragement? Is that a new word? I’ve found that in all the commotion of 2011/2012, with losing mom, absorbing her whole life, graduating high school, working my little behind off, and entering adulthood, my old self just got left behind. Nobody noticed (including me) because it was always up to me to imagine, learn, explore, encourage, and discover for myself. I was so focused those really big changes that I lost sight of that. As time passed, I found myself farther and farther away from it. This perspective from 2023 really showed me that nobody was there. We’d have career days at school and teachers would ask the class what they wanted to be. We always had the usual “cop,” “firefighter,” “doctor.” Then there was me: “car designer.” I was sort-of glossed over. The teacher or presenter would just greet me with a fake smile and move on to the next kid hoping for a more normal answer. Nobody even wanted to explore this with me let alone help me with guidance on how to get there. I don’t intend to sound like a victim, but back in those days, YouTube wasn’t around. Google wasn’t as abundant in information as it is now. Encyclopedias didn’t really have much information specifically about industrial engineering. Information just wasn’t readily available like it is today, certainly not for such a niche topic. So I needed any help from adults as I could get. But, nobody was willing.
Today, I am still working on keeping the spirit of that curious little boy that I used to be alive and I prioritize it. Teyko is growing and bringing new challenges to overcome. When Teyko launched and I had this realization in early 2023, Teyko’s mission went from making cool car products to inspiring Americas youth, through cool cars. As soon as I had that flashback, my mission instantly became to help, guide, and encourage the youth of America. I want to give everything I needed to any kid that wants it. How many bright stars are out there just waiting for someone to believe in them? Millions! And I’m here to get them to their goals by giving them any resources I can so that we can all enjoy a better world tomorrow.
Teyko fulfilled me in ways I didn’t even think possible and it’s my duty to pour into the next generation.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My brand is Teyko Automotive Lifestyle LLC or “Teyko” for short. As the name suggests, we are all about the car enthusiast lifestyle. Currently, our focus is on detailing products. That’s Teyko’s origin and it begins with a humble spray wax.
Most of our industry is moving toward new technologies like “graphene” and “ceramic” infusions in their chemicals. I’ve used them, but I’m not impressed. I prefer carnauba wax – it’s a natural substance from the forests of Brazil and it’s been used in the automotive (and various) industries for nearly a century. It’s good stuff and it works. The “problem” is that it doesn’t last as long as some folks would like. That’s the appeal with “ceramic” coatings – they’re intended to last longer. However, in my research, ceramic and graphene haven’t been widely used for any longer than a decade. It’s also my perception that these new-fangled chemicals in our industry have adverse affects over the long-term. I’m not a chemist, and I don’t have any factual information about that, but I do know that I, and many many others, prefer carnauba. So that what I decided to start with.
The people who buy products like ours are the types that really enjoy maintaining their beloved vehicles. They could just take it to the car wash, but they don’t. Instead they spend much more time, effort, and money to do it themselves. This is why everything about Teyko is geared toward the enjoyment and the usability of it. Our customers find a lot of little details about the designs of the products and you better believe they were intentional. Even our website is designed for optimal enjoyment. Sure, we could get more business by adding pop-ups with coupons in exchange for email, or the “did you forget” upsell stuff – but we don’t. And we won’t: I will not allow it. I want my customers to feel refreshed and enjoy using anything with Teyko’s name on it. Even our company pens are ultra-specific. Our customers just love our attention to detail (pun intended!)
Looking forward, we are excited to have many new products in development. We have a slew of additional detailing chemicals as our first is only for the exterior. We have an amazingly effective glass solution; interior detailer; tire gel; and power soap. We also offer a handful of other lifestyle products (including those magical pens) and we aim to grow that to clothing and other automotive/motorcycle related accessories as the brand grows. I also have strong philanthropic desires that drive purpose through me and all of my teammates.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The three keys, in my opinion are:

-Start with your Why: Why do you want to do what you are thinking about. Don’t think too hard, this is a “from the heart” answer. For me, Teyko’s “Why” was to make better detailing products than what was available. However, it soon turned to a much, much deeper and more meaningful “Why” of being able to be an example for and collect the resources to guide and encourage the youth of my community. Albuquerque is a small town with a culture of little hope. I want to show my community that something great can come from one of us.

-Skills: Building Teyko was easy for me. I had all the skills I needed except for being the professional chemist, legal counsel, and product modeler/photographer. I did everything from brand design, product design, logistics, all of it. Utilize your skills! If you’re reading this, you have a much more in-depth toolbox of skills than you realize. I saved so much time and money just because I would figure out whatever I needed to figure out.

-Encouragement: You’re going to get knocked down. Time and time again. Find family members, friends, support groups, whatever you need to help you keep a level head. Call me if you need to! I’ll help you through it! Getting that encouragement and that reminder that you are on track is so, so crucial.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

The most influential book in my library is “Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting” by Lynn Grabhorn. This stopped me in my tracks and made me realize I had lost that curious, capable little boy that I once was. This was the book that inspired me to look for what would become Teyko and have the courage to pursue it. It is also a yearly read – every year I find new ways to be inspired by it.

Here are some of my notes:

Page 128 – When you get ideas during a high-vibe moment and ideas arise, embrace them with a “Can-do” attitude instead of a “Yeah-but” attitude. A notable mention on this page is that “Instructional books always accompany inspiration.”

Page 139 – Passion is the fuel. Contentment is swell, but passion is what makes it happen.
* Passion comes from the excitement of having things in the making.
* Contentment comes from appreciating something already achieved.

Page 165 – “…if we’re bothered by something, whether our being bothered by it is justified or not, we’re attracting negatively.” If you’re experiencing bothersome input – get that emotion in-and-out. Release that pressure. Have the moment (no more than 10 seconds) and move on. From there, feel appreciation for the way things “used to” or “should” be.

The $100 trick – P153. Get a $100 bill and carry it around with you and take note of all the things you want (actually want – feeeeeel how good it would be to buy it). After about the thousandth item, you’ve emotionally spent $100,000.00. This will alter your perception of money from a lack state to a prosperous state.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.teamteyko.com
• Instagram: teamteyko
• Facebook: teamteyko
• Youtube: teamteyko
• Other: www.teamteyko.com/imagine includes our philanthropical visions (not accessible from the main website)