Meet Shanna Johnson | Small Business Owner, Wife, Mother

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shanna Johnson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shanna, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The most important factor behind our success at JEJ Customs is the ability to adapt in this economy that is one of the most volatile I have seen in my career.  Of course, older generations have seen worse, but this is our reality.  When my husband, Jeff, and I sold Carlsbad Village Auto Body, Inc. in 2017, we repurposed our business to focus on the restoration of truly unique, rare, classic cars. It was a passion of his that started as a young child working on projects with his father, Russ Johnson. Jeff picked me up in a 1967 Dodge Coronet he built for our first date!  Every project is a preservation of a slice of our history going all the way back to 1936. During the Pandemic, we saw our clients really diving into their dream car restoration projects and it was fun to work with them on those. It kept our clients busy, happy and with a project on their hands while we sheltered at home. Many told us that this kept their mental health in check and that is one of the most rewarding feelings. Our success has also been to bring happiness to our clients through these unique, challenging and very rewarding projects. At the same time, we have had to diversify our business to extend our customization services into the sporting industry. Adding this new business, JEJ Helmets, has prepared our organization for more security and success in the future. Now we take helmets and customize them for individual athletes and teams alike. A partnership with LIGHT Helmets in Carlsbad has started JEJ Helmets in the Football industry and we are excited to branch off into other sporting segments.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I started out premed at Chico State in 1995 but my wonderful Step Father, Frank Mannix, who is a retired ER Doctor from Tri City Hospital, talked me out of it. HMO’s were just newly coming into the medical world, he knew I wanted to be home with my children one day, and he felt I would do well in business. So I switched my undergraduate studies to Business. I got a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in High Technology Management in 1999 from CSUSM and started my career at Qualcomm, Inc.  It is amazing to see how much CSUSM has grown since my time there. Shortly after working at Qualcomm, a colleague connected me with Doug Winter who gave me my entrepreneurial foundation. Working with Doug in the Software Outsourcing industry were invaluable years when I learned to wear MANY hats and work with teams in China and the Middle East. I went on to get my Master’s Degree in Business Administration in 2004 at USD. I wasn’t sure my focus until I had a Supply Chain Management class with Stephen Starling, Ph.D. That was it! During my MBA, I was recruited by Nokia Mobile Phones and as a Materials Project Manager, managed the sourcing team for some of Nokia’s most successful candy bar and flip phones. I traveled with my Sourcing team all over the world (Finland, China, Taiwan, and Brazil to name a few of the beautiful countries I got to enjoy) gaining global business experience and working with individuals from such vast backgrounds. I pulled out a bag of the phones I brought to market around the world and my kids just stood there in shock. Technology sure changes at lightspeed! But my dad was right, I wanted to be home with the kids so when I was pregnant with Chase, I resigned from Nokia.  Then I had the fortune of being home with him as well as running Sweetfields, Inc. with my Mom, Diane Richards, and John Clemons. Sweetfields produced crystallized flowers from John’s farm in Jamul and went from a concept and a dream to mass production in the specialty food industry. Now I had to learn a new industry! What I want the world to know about me is that everyday I value all I have learned in my career from so many incredible opportunities in our Country and Abroad! In 2009 when we bought the auto body shop, it was time to get acquainted with a new industry. My inlaws were ready to retire in Lake Havasu and Jeff was already running the shop. In 2017, we were faced with a tough decision:  “Grow and expand the collision center” or “sell?” A very hard one but we decided to sell. The mom and pop shops were struggling to compete with the larger collision centers. We repurposed from Carlsbad Village Auto Body to JEJ (“Jeffrey Earl Johnson”) Customs and now we do custom.bad.cool in automotive and sporting industries! The diversity of my career has made me who I am! With Jeff, Chase, and Chandler (the kids work for the family business now too), I love making people feel good about the vintage car they drive or the helmet they wear when they battle on the field!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

That is a tough one! San Diego is one of the best places to live as you can go from the beach to the deserts to the mountains in one week! So here is my itinerary. She arrives and is tired but wants to go on an adventure so we would visit Bump Coffee to give her a bump. Jorden Mayes is running the place and worked with me when I was on the Executive Board for the Encinitas Express Soccer League. I am proud to say Jorden and I worked together and fundraised to provide youth in Encinitas and Surrounding areas the opportunity to play soccer who might not have been able to. It was a position that warms my heart as it is so important to give back to our local communities! Chase and Chandler both played for Express for many years before moving onto Motocross and Lacrosse. Express is a great community based club with excellent coaches that helped make Chase and Chandler who they are today!

Chandler has Lacrosse practice at Canyon Crest with Coast Lacrosse so we go for a walk and watch the scrimmage. Womens lacrosse is super fun to watch! Our climate is the best to get out and walk or hike or just be outside. We make plans to squeeze in a hike at Torrey Pines during the week. She is hungry and Chandler loves sushi so we hit Sushi Lounge in Encinitas. The Interlandi Family that owns Sushi Lounge is wonderful as Chandler went to Ocean Knoll with their kids. We go get settled at our house in Encinitas then she wants to take a dip in the ocean so we go to Moonlight. I still love Moonlight and when my mom and I moved here from Oregon when I was 8, we lived in 4 rentals on 4^th Street so Moonlight was my stomping ground. Moonlight has changed but you can get some delicious Acai at the the snack shop – not as good as the old pizza at the original shop but a lot healthier. 

We go home because, of course, I have to work a bit and my best friend wants a nap before dinner. Where to go for dinner? So many options. We decide to go The Roxy because The Swinging Johnson’s are playing and we love live music and I still love their Falafel Burger. My mom and biological dad, Richard, were hippies and I was raised vegetarian for quite some time. Jeff would grab The Roxy Burger.  He is a meat and potatoes guy!

The next day she wants to experience Motocross so we take Chase out to train with one of his amazing coaches from Sedlak Offroad School – Daniel Sedlak, Edgar Cota, Geran Stapleton or Dylan Gaszak. Check them out if you want to try motocross, enduro, adventure bike training and dirt bike rentals. They even do electric bike tours now too! Chase did a feature with Jenny Milkowski that Daniel Sedlak lined up awhile back at Barona. That was a fun day! We decide to hit our favorite track by Pala Casino called, Fox Raceway. She has never been to a motocross track. It’s a Tuesday which is Pro Day so you will see many of the best out there and Chase working hard to chase them down. Now Chase wants sushi so we go to another one of our favorites – Blue Fin in Encinitas next to Stage Door where Chandler danced from the time she was 2. Sakura Bana was my favorite growing up with my mom but now it is City Tacos – We love their tacos and their churros are delicious! We will also grab some Mexican food from our El Nopalito family to grill at home or sneak over to Tony’s Jacal for the best margaritas in town. The Garcia family is known for their chips and salsa but grill up some of their pollo asada or snatch some Chicharron and limes for a truly delectable treat.

I might reach out to my friend Sara Perry – she and AJ have a podcast called “All in San Diego” with AJ and Sara to get some ideas of new things to try. Chandler goes to school with Sara’s daughter. You can live somewhere and get stuck doing all the same things and going to the same places. So they can help get ideas of where to go.

We fill the rest of the week with a nice mix of work, outdoor activities, and more good food as well as visiting with lots of our wonderful friends that live here. Too many to mention! I graduated 1995 from San Dieguito High School (SDHS) which is now SDA. It’s crazy to think Chase will graduate from On Track 2025 – 30 years later. A lot of my friends still live here that I met when I moved here from Oregon and landed at this sweet little elementary school called Pacific View! Wow – to sit and eat lunch overlooking the ocean. It was paradise!  Jeff grew up in Vista / Bonsall so we has a huge group of friends here too.

We would go snowboarding – Chandler loves to Snowboard – but it’s not the season. So we will save the mountains for another time. We would sneak in a Pickle Ball game or two at Bobby Riggs. I grew up playing tennis and love Pickle Ball now too.  My dad is still in shock the tennis courts are gone.  Chase will take her on many cruises down the Coast in his Toyota Tacoma we bought from our friends at Toyota of Escondido.  They are a big motocross family as well!  The motocross is

She is craving Italian and we visit our friends at Jay’s Gourmet in downtown Carlsbad where Jeff and his sister, Candice, worked for many years.  We are still close with the Jay’s family. I will have the Seafood Caesar and Jeff would have the Chicken Sorrentino. We run over to LIGHT Helmets to see the final assembly of some of the helmets we painted last week for some high school and college football teams. LIGHT helmets are “engineered with state-of-the-art materials and advanced technology transitioned from the battlefield, military aviation, and auto racing industry, the new light LS2 allows athletes to play safer, faster, and lighter.” (www.lighthelmets.com)

Some other places we grab during the week:

Thai Pan – best Thai food and you can do your Amazon returns next door at Kohls
Gelato 101 – best Gelato and Chase loves their BOBA
Alices – try their lasagna
Gordy’s – delicious coffee and sausage rolls
Best Pizza – try their medical marinara, their pizza is delicious and so are their wings naked
The Besta Wan Pizza House – we have hosted many of our special events in the back room (ask for Megan!)
Sambazon – Acai bowls for days
Cicciotti’s – Beautiful views
Surf Brothers – Chase is a regular
Seaside Market – Have to grab some stuff to throw on the grill

A lot of these places are family ran and we hold a special place in our hearts for family owned and operated businesses! If we didn’t mention you, there are too many good places.

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?

I want to dedicate my shoutout to my late Mother, Diane Richards, as well as ALL the strong women in my family! My mom raised me as a single mother and struggled her whole life from dyslexia as a young child to the tragedy of losing my father when pregnant with me to bipolar disease. She was married, pregnant and widowed in 2 weeks at the age of 19 in Eugene, Oregon. Unfortunately we lost her to suicide in September of 2019 – A day that forever changed me and who I am. What my mother gave me was unconditional love and she would move mountains for me. Having that love was the foundation I needed to be successful! I miss her every day and as we sit in National Suicide Prevention Month, I just ask that we all check in on a loved one today after reading this that you are concerned about. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, take action! NAMI.org has the tools if you or someone you know needs help. When my mom (Nana to my children) passed we named the Andy Irons Foundation for people to support to help fund programs for young people struggling with addiction, mental illness, and learning disabilities.

Who else?

There are too many people to name but I want to focus on my immediate family here at home. They are the ones that inspire me, motivate me, and challenge me every day. Starting with my husband, Jeff Johnson (we married September 17, 2005) and just celebrated 17 years on the 17th. Jeff always supports me from when I was traveling the world bringing Nokia cell phones to market to acquiring the family auto body shop in 2009 to where we are at now running JEJ Customs. Family businesses are tough on any marriage but together we can do anything! He is the creative one running the operations and I have the business mind so our strengths are extremely synergistic.

We have a 16 year old son, Chase Johnson, that we couldn’t be more proud of. He is a smart, driven, very handsome, and extra responsible young man racing Amateur Motocross (Instagram @mr._.chase212), getting straight A’s, on the honor roll at (www.ontrackschool.com) and making good decisions. He inspires me for his grit and determination on and off the MX track! I never thought I would be a Moto Mom but during the Pandemic when the world was shut down, Fox Raceway was not and Jeff took Chase for a ride day… the rest is history! Chase raced his first race at Glen Helen on the Pro track on his Kawasaki KX100 and took home 3rd place thanks to his awesome coaching crew at Sedlak Offroad School. 

Our beautiful daughter, Chandler Johnson, came into this world the year we bought Carlsbad Village Auto Body from Jeff’s parents, Ruth and Russ. She is a beautiful force that inspires me to be a strong woman every day! Chandler has this ability to set a goal and do whatever it takes to achieve that. She just started middle school, came home with an A on her first math test, plays club lacrosse for Coast, and will drag me to the tennis court after a long day of work. I am always grateful once I get out there for the exercise and our time together.  It usually means we will run into Sushi Lounge after for a Chandler Roll.

Website: www.jejcustoms.com

Instagram: jejcustoms

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanna-johnson-0163062

Facebook: JEJ Customs, Inc.

Other: A lot of our business is word-of-mouth!

Image Credits
Robert Marcos Photography Creative Photography Inc. Buffett Photography 23 Media