Growing up, Brian Moak looked forward to days off school, but not for the same reasons as his peers. While many students took the opportunity to sleep in or visit friends, Moak was eager to spend the day at his family’s business, then called Duxler Complete Auto Care.

Now, Moak owns the business. As a gay business owner in a field dominated by straight men, Moak said he has found greater success in his professional and personal lives by blending the two. 

“When I was young, my ego drove a lot of my choices and my actions,” Moak said. “I was a gay man in an industry where that was not very common, so I wanted to prove that I knew what I was doing.”

After graduating college, Moak joined the business in an entry-level sales department position. Despite being “young, graduated and a little arrogant,” he said he eventually turned to mentors in the company for guidance and inspiration. 

At 27 years old, Moak decided to buy the company, 13 years earlier than he originally planned. After a few years, he rebranded the company to HEART Certified Auto Care. 

While he had come out as gay during his junior year of college, Moak said being a business owner brought new challenges to his identity. 

“It wasn’t hard to be out with my employees,” Moak said. “But I would say it was a challenge to be out with other business owners, to be out in a chamber of commerce environment, to be out in a networking group, to be out with customers.”

After having his first son, however, Moak decided to embrace his personal identity more publicly in his professional life. 

“I felt that… if I wanted them to be proud of who we were, I needed to be also,” Moak said. “And I never really looked back.”

Since then, Moak noted improvements in both his business and social relationships, attributing the connections he has made to “being honest, transparent and vulnerable.” 

When designing the company’s operating systems, Moak said he sought out leaders who were “ready to grow.” 

“We learned together, and we developed awesome systems,” Moak said. “We created phenomenal operating solutions, we developed teams and the company started thriving.” 

Moak described his employee-centered business model as “trickle-up economics,” stressing that each employee knows their role in and benefits from the company’s plan of action.

Vice President Danny Rosenbloom, who began in the company sweeping floors at 16, credits the company’s success to Moak’s investment in employees. 

“He helped coach everyone to where they wanted to get to,” Rosenbloom said. “And it obviously really worked well with me… He kind of lit the flame and added the gas on it.”

Attributing his own success to the guidance of mentors in his life, Moak now works as both a consultant and a volunteer advisor to other business owners. 

Betsy Epton said she and her husband, owners of The Fresh Plan, a healthy meal plan company, meet with Moak weekly to problem-solve and strategize.

“The way he thinks about things, his energy and his positive way to look at every angle of the business, it just changed the game for us,” Epton said. “We’ve made some changes that have re-energized our business.”

HEART Certified Auto Care has also seen tremendous growth in recent years, Moak said. 

Through a focus on connecting with and empowering employees, the business averages 10-12% growth each year, he said.

“I feel like right now I’m living the life that I thought I was going to have to give up when I came out of the closet,” Moak said. “And so I am wildly grateful and wildly appreciative. Every day, I feel like I’m living in a dream.”

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