My name is Mark Probst and I am the owner of Probst Auto Body in Dieterich, IL and Co-owner of Estimating Professionals.
After graduating from Teutopolis High School in 1994, I enrolled in the Auto Body program at Olney Central College. With that experience, I began working at Effingham Truck Sales and worked in their body shop for 9 years.
In 2003, I decided to follow the American Dream and go to work for myself at the age of 26. What started as a 1-man operation has now grown to 8 employees.
I have been fortunate enough to train with some of the best professionals in the industry and align myself with some really talented individuals. One of those is Tim Paap, owner of Paap Auto Body. Tim and myself have recently partnered to create Estimating Professionals, which is a training and consulting company for other body shops.
My wife Christina and I currently live in Teutopolis IL with our 3 children, Devon, Danielle and Madison. Some of my favorite hobbies include drag racing and volleyball. However, a few years back I decided to get in better shape and I put on a pair of running shoes and switched my racing to 5K’s, half marathons and even a full marathon. That lead to me to another sport called triathlons where you swim, bike and run. Like running, I started with short distance events and eventually started signing up for longer triathlons.
I started asking myself if I could complete the ultimate triathlon known as the “Ironman?” The “Ironman” event consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run for a total of 140.6 miles. This question kept bothering me, that is until 2018, when I finally signed up and completed the Ironman Louisville. I jumped in the Ohio River that morning to start the event, 13 hours and 26 minutes later I crossed the finish line and heard the magic words I’ve been waiting for “Mark Probst You Are an Ironman.”
Of course, one has to relax and that is where our family camping trips come in. This is where I get to spend quality time with my family and let life slow down.
My goal is to continue develop myself and my team and those I’m fortunate enough to come in contact with. Whether that’s fixing cars faster, provide better service, showing more compassion, doing more for the community or helping others, the list goes on and on. What I don’t want is to sit back and get comfortable.
I’ll end with one of my favorite quotes “No One Ever Won Anything by Sitting on the Sidelines!”