47. Aly - Real Housewives of Moto

Originally from Tallahassee, FL, Aly is a content creator and podcast host of the female-centric Real House Wives of Moto, where she provides insider industry news and weekly podcasts focused on race recaps and long form interviews with guests from within the Supercross and motocross industry. 

In today's episode, we dive into Aly's early years growing up only a few houses down to Rick Carmichael during RC's peaks and having no idea, having dreams of becoming a professional rower, earning her degree in photojournalism, her mental health battles, how and why Real Housewives of Moto started, her passion for the sport, and objective and goals with RHWOM. 

Aly is, at times, viewed as a controversial figured within the sport.However, she dives into her process and making sure she has multiple sources that verify her information before sharing. I really hope those that listen are able to learn more about her, her vision, approach, and views. This was truly a wonderful and insightful conversation and Aly is absolutely a rad chick trying to give a voice to the often-times overlooked females of the sport. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

I'm having a hard go with this. This is the fifth attempt at this one, and it might be a world record for me. Uh episode 47. If you're hearing this, then p number five was the winner. Uh 47. Fun fact. In 1999, that was Shea Bentley's number after he signed his contract with Mitch Payton and Bros Surrogate. And then in 2000, went on to win the 125 West Coast Supercross Championship. Uh but you probably don't know that because he was basically not visible to anybody during 1999. Uh after he signed that contract with PC, he in December of 1998, back in the day when there used to be warm-up supercross races and these invitational things like the Paris Invitational and then the Glen Helen Supercross Invitational. Um the Glen Helen warm-up invitational thing in '98. Fresh off signing his PC contract, Shay won the 125 class that day, and then they also used to do the a 125-250 shootout. And Shay was the only one over all the years that they did that race to win both the 125 class and the 125-250 shootout. And beating guys like Jeremy McGrath, Jeff Emick, Damon Huffman, and more. Uh pretty cool. Making Mitch look good, and then uh immediately got hurt and missed all of Supercross. And came back at Glen Helen in '99 for the opener and immediately got hurt. So that was it. So you probably never actually got to see the number 47 on the track unless you're at uh Glenhelen's for that warm-up and then the opening round of Glen Helen for the outdoors. Uh otherwise you'd have no idea that my guy was number 47. Uh, so there's your random fun fact about 47 and the numb that number, and anytime I see it, I just think of my guy, Shay Bentley. So shout out Shay. Uh 47 also is the episode today, obviously, with none other than Allie from Real Housewives of Moto. Um this is a super cool conversation. I know that Allie has made some people within the dirt pike industry upset because she does call out some of the things that she sees and holds uh individuals and situations and such uh holds them accountable. I would say, and I know at times she has been dubbed the TMZ of Moto, which I don't know how she feels about it, but to an extent I am kind of here for it because while I don't really follow any uh Moto content by any means, I worked in the industry for 16 years and I know how it works, and a lot of these kind of um verticals and pillars in the industry of your mainstream media outlets, they have ad dollars and sponsors and whatnot. And whether you want to believe it or not, sometimes they cannot say or do certain things because they gotta keep the money coming in. I have experienced that multiple times firsthand, being told can't say this or can't do that, because we're going to upset this advertiser, and they are paying us money, so therefore we need to pivot. Um and I don't think in general we really get a whole lot of the truths going on from the mainstream media outlets. Uh so it's cool to see somebody like Ali come in, especially as a female, and be doing what she's doing and not just saying shit to say shit. I do believe that she is saying stuff. Uh based on information from actual sources that she has, and doing her best to have multiple sources to back up the information that she's found before she says anything. Uh so that's my take. I think we need that in the sport because you're not really gonna get it from the mainstream folks because they have advertisers and whatnot to keep happy. And I don't always think that they want to tell uh truths or excuse me. Um There's not a lot of real journalism, like true authentic journalism, because everyone's friends with everybody and you don't want to make anyone upset. I understand it. Is what it is. Um, so I guess essentially someone like Allie being independent and doing her own thing without being beholden to advertisers and sponsors allows her that freedom to do what she wants, how she wants, when she wants, with who she wants. Um, and I think that's really cool. Um, yeah, she's I have nothing but wonderful things to say about her. Um I'm super stoked she was down to come on the podcast. Um she's got a rad story, and we get into quite a bit. Um she grew up in Florida, living right down the street from Ricky Carmichael at the peak of RC's career, and really had no idea, which is quite funny, that she is from and was living in Tallahassee during peak RC. Like, I think as she says, like literally like only a few houses down. Yeah, Bubs. Oh boy, we gotta go potty. Pause for the cause. Okay, we're back. Um we've been in the thick of potty training, and it's probably one of the worst experiences of my life, and I have no idea why anyone would do more than one child, because this is just traumatizing. Uh yeah, so 47 Allie, um yeah, living right by RC, having no idea. Um, and so we talk about all that growing up in Tallahassee and what that was like, and um how she ended up getting her degree in photojournalism, which I had no idea about. This whole thing episode was which is how a lot of them are, was just really eye-opening, and I've learned quite a lot, and I'm hoping that those that do listen to this episode are able to learn quite a bit more about Allie and how her brain works and what she's doing and what the intention is, um, and getting a better understanding of her background. And I thought it was really rad that she has her degree in photojournalism and um talking about that journey and what that was like and the whole grind culture and kind of how you grind, but sometimes you end up with less opportunities. We also get into her mental health, um, and being involved in a car accident, and how that triggered some very serious mental health issues and depression, and um how she found dirt bikes and how motocross and supercross basically helped her maintain some level of happiness during one of the more difficult times in her life and not necessarily wanting to exist anymore, and dirt bikes saving her to an extent. Um obviously we get into how she started Real Housewives of Moto and why um brand equity and uh being a female in a male-dominated sport, um, especially on a media side and just what she's trying to do to give voices to women in the sport and the wives. Um, I think it's fucking rad. I think we get into it, maybe. I don't remember, but um I I I do remember pitching a series to a client at the time, like a four-episode, five-episode thing were and this was uh over ten years ago. I th I think it was like right before started uh doing the Spectrum series, maybe. Um right around there, but it was before Spectrum, and I think that is then what like pivoted into the Spectrum thing. But I remember pitching a client, like a five-episode docuseries on the wives of dirt bikes. And where I was at in my career and for how long I'd been in the industry, you start to realize and see how important the wives are to the athlete, and a lot of the times I was having to go through the wives to schedule, coordinate, and do everything with the athlete. And you just start to see like what an important role they play in uh their lives, and like, man, there that needs to be something for them. And I remember pitching that concept and throwing out some names, and it was shot down because apparently it it wasn't going to be of interest to anybody. Um yeah, uh I think it's fucking cool what Allie's doing and giving the females of the sport a voice. I hope that we see more of that. Um I know there's also shout out to Hannah Morris and Monica Ramsey. They have In Her Lane podcasts. Um so those girls and Allie doing what they're doing, I think is really cool, and I legitimately love to see the females having more of a voice in the sport because they are a vital role to the sport um and overlooked, and it's a shame. So uh much love to all of them. Hope everyone enjoys.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

Okay, I think that's everything.

SPEAKER_04 9:33

Um wish lists of guests, if you're still listening out there. Uh Jenny Taft, please, for the love of God, someone I know you know her. Let's come on, let's just make this happen and move on with our lives. Um, Alex McKenna, Tom Delano. Uh Adam Censorello, Justin Brayton, the Williams Trio, CJ Corey, and Justin West Borland, Buddy Nielsen, Molly Carlson, High Diver. As I said last week, I reached out to her agent via email, and in a shocking turn of events, I was ghosted because agents don't really give a shit. Uh Jordan Pundick, Sam Rosenholtz, Max Anstey, Brandon Blaine, Jess Bowen, David Kennedy, Katie Maloney, Adam Willard. Uh yeah, there's more, surely. I'm forgetting I said Max Anstey, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um yeah, Amber Barsha, she's not on the wish list. As I said last week, Amber Barsha is on my regular everyday list. She is aware and is down to do it. It's just about kind of the right time that makes sense for her. I think it will still be a little while, but um we're just manifesting that. Um so yeah, Amber, if you're listening, I'm ready when you are. No rush, but just manifesting. Uh, Nick Romano. Okay, I think that's it there. If you want to support at Kyle Cowling on Venmo, you can support a couple bucks, or in the show notes, support show. Subscribe, become a member for three bucks a month, and you can get early access to each episode five days before it releases to everybody else. If that floats your boat for some reason, you don't have to, just throwing it out there. Um Instagram at underscore the failed experiment. And subscribe on Apple or Spotify, leave a review rate, preferably kind, would be really cool, and tell a friend, because this is DIY sponsorless, just me, myself, and I doing this thing solo. And uh that's it. So this thing is just moving along organically, and yeah, tell your friends if they want to listen to something new. 47 episodes currently available from all kinds of people, so uh okay, that's it. Uh Shirley forgetting shit. Hope everyone enjoys. Thank you, Allie, for coming on. If you haven't already, you can give her a follow, Real Housewives with Moto. She's also got her podcast. I highly recommend listening to her two-part conversation with Nathan Ramsey's wife, Monica Ramsey. That is probably one of the most important conversations within the dirt bike world I have heard in quite some time. Allie did a phenomenal job, and Monica was insane. So um, I yeah, unreal. I uh genuinely recommend listening to that conversation. Two-parter, worth every minute of it. There was a lot of interesting and insightful things there. Much love. And funny enough, when I was working at Trans Remotocross as an associate editor in 2008, uh, when I was finally allowed to do my first ever full feature-length article in the magazine, it was with Nathan Ramsey. Um so that was super cool. Uh be cool maybe to have him on the podcast. Full circle, full circle, almost 20 years later. Uh yeah, I don't know. Monica, if you're listening, or maybe Nathan for some reason. Let's set that up. That would be cool. I don't even know if you remember me doing that, but it was like pretty wild for me as a 21-year-old. And I'm doing a full feature story on Nathan Ramsey, your 99 Supercross champion. Um, yeah. Okay, way too long. Apologies. Let's do it. Episode 47, Ali from Real Housewives of Moto. And uh enjoy. Trying to pawn it off to like anybody else that like just wants to help out. No one wants to do it, and I don't blame him, so I'm like, guess I'm doing it.

SPEAKER_05 13:41

I get that too. Yeah, I like my brothers. He was big into like the skateboarding videography scene for a while, and like he's just so I mean, he's deadly like editing. And so I'm like, can I pay you to do this? And he's like, Ali, I have no idea what you're talking about with dirt bikes, like it's like another language. He's like, I don't want to do that. I'm like, dang it. So I'm the same way. I'm like, I don't want to, I don't want to cut clips and do all that.

SPEAKER_04 14:00

And oh yeah, I hate I I hate it, but I'm like, I think I have a plan for this new batch episodes to like just really simplify it so it's just not like so time consuming. I was like on this whole thought process of like you have to have like your logo and like all this shit. And I'm like, no, fuck it. I'm just gonna do like I'm gonna find like pull photos, videos, whatever they send me, and it's just gonna be that. And I'm gonna put some music under it and it's gonna just be like very simple.

SPEAKER_05 14:31

I love it. I love it. I think about like what like Jason and Gypsy have built, and like it's it's a beast, like it's a behemoth to do all of that work. And I mean, if if it's not your full-time job, like it it's just not doable. And like I'm a parent, you're a parent, like it's just oh my gosh, like just having like a one thought, you know, let alone like enough time to go down a crave rabbit hole. Like, I get that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:54

And that was like the other thing too. Like we've had a lot of personal shit happen over the last few years after like all my film career ended, and it was like doing the podcast. I just didn't have I didn't know how to like balance having a full-time job, having a kid, and like trying to literally survive. And then, like, oh yeah, let's sit down for a few hours and like have a conversation. So I was kind of just put on the back burner and then Nick Avenue was at San Diego Supercross, and he was like, Yeah, there's people asking about your podcast and if you're gonna do it, and because they really enjoyed it. And I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna make time. So here we are. And you're I think you're the seventh or eighth episode in this batch that I'm I'm recording.

SPEAKER_05 15:38

So yeah, I got our girl Haley on deck. I'm so excited to have it. She said she loved it.

SPEAKER_04 15:43

So um, yeah, she was she was awesome. She's like, I was telling my wife after we recorded that. I'm like, to me, she's like the new version of Jenny Taft. Like, she's so damn good. And like if she wanted to, she could go so far in motorsports or I know.

SPEAKER_05 16:00

I feel like we're gonna lose her when like the rest of the like sports industry realizes how good she is. I'm like, damn, no, like I want everything for her, but also like selfishly, I want to keep her.

SPEAKER_04 16:08

Yeah, that's how I felt with Jenny Taft because I was like, man, this she's so good at what she does. And it's like at some point she's gonna someone's gonna find out, and sure enough, they found out. Yeah, she gone.

SPEAKER_05 16:18

No, don't okay. Haley actually sucks, she's actually terrible. Don't watch her stuff, don't take, don't take her from us. But I love Haley, she's she's a gem of a human, and I've met her through through real housewives. We do not know each other like outside of the internet, so it's a cool little thing.

SPEAKER_04 16:36

Yeah, it is, and her and I I don't know that I think we never like actually met in person. I'm sure we've had crossed paths, like maybe in my last year in the sport, but we had never like actually met when I like posted that thing on Instagram about like who should we have? And I tagged her and like Hail Mary. 60 seconds later, she's like, Yes, let's do it.

SPEAKER_05 17:03

We've had I told with her literally the last two Mondays we were gonna record, and like one Monday, like she had something, and then last Monday, like my kids were homesick, and I was just like, Okay, we're gonna get it done. Like, she's so she's so legit and just like kills her craft and like loves the sport and actually rides, and I'm I'm upset with her. So family fan club.

SPEAKER_04 17:22

Yeah, she's a badass. Um you were known to do this. Um nerve-wracking talking about myself and not dirt bikes, but we can go get into dirt bikes. Um so you've listened to these, like you've listened to names in now, right? Okay, so you can know um obviously to start. I always like to start in the beginning and like where you're from. And um, my first assumption was you were uh in California and I was way wrong.

SPEAKER_05 17:54

It's a v it's a common misconception. Um, I think just because I yeah, I am so all over the sport. Um, I've had several people be like, Oh yeah, come out to this event or whatever and I'm like in San Diego. So, but no, I'm in I'm in Dallas. I'm in the North Dallas suburbs. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

Is that where you were from originally?

SPEAKER_05 18:10

No. So I actually grew up, I was born and raised in Tallahassee, um, which is funny because it's now become like the motomecam of Florida. Um and I always say that my my dad knew the Carmincles. My dad was hunting buddies with big Rick Carmichael, not Ricky, big Rick. Um and so I knew about Ricky and I knew about how like famous he was. Um, but I had like no, I had no concept for like the sport or like how big a deal it was. Like Ricky Carmichael like lived, you know, like four houses down from me. Um so yeah, I grew up in Tallahassee, but like with no context for Mono. So I said to put that caveat, people were like, oh Tallahassee, Mono. And I was like, nope, I had none. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:51

What year would have this have been? So I was born in 90. So I was there until 2006. So a good run of Ricky's years. Like he moved into a house um down the street from a that's on like a little lake. And I was a I was a rower in in high school in middle school and high school and college. And his house was on that lake, and it was like, I think there's like an MTV cribs or something. And it has it has his bikes like right inside the front door, like mounted on the wall. And that was the house that was like right down the street from me. And his actually his dock that went out in that pond was like our starting line for rowing for my practice rowing. No way. I had like no concept of how big a deal Ricky was.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Ironic. There were like um any point at that time when you kind of figured out like, oh yeah, he's kind of a big deal.

SPEAKER_05 19:40

Yeah, but my dad went to one of the signings. We were trying to figure out what it was, like a signing, like celebration. I'm trying to think, it must have been Honda. And so I remember that being a big deal and like them constantly talking about Ricky's success. Um, but really, like, you know, I was my brother was in skateboarding. Um, I always loved X games, like I know we'd always follow that. And so like we had like an appreciation, but more like the freestyle side of it. So I'm getting ahead of myself. But when I started dating my now husband, like I knew what motocross was, but I had no concept for like what supercross was. I was like, what is it like the stadium thing? Like, so I had no, I had no context for it. Like when Ricky was right on the street.

SPEAKER_04 20:21

That's so funny.

SPEAKER_05 20:22

Isn't that weird?

SPEAKER_04 20:23

Yeah. So what um sometimes from I guess growing up next to RC and not really realizing what was uh what was life like growing up in uh area of Florida?

SPEAKER_05 20:33

Yeah, it's um it's funny. I go back to Tallahassee now and it's like stepping back in time. Um and it's funny, some of the some of the people that are writing for star, like, you know, weren't born and raised in Telehassity, they've kind of said the same thing, like going to Tallahassee is like going back like 20 years. Um, but I loved it. I mean, it's it's the capital city, and I think it's like a small town. Um, we've got a big college there, Florida State. That's where everybody in my family went. Everybody went to Florida State. They're all seminals, and um, it's very like old school southern conservative, you know, like everybody's aunties and grandmas, like everybody lives there. And um, so I had a really I had a really great childhood. Um, I mean, Tallahassee's it's a good place to raise a family. It's just, you know, like it doesn't feel like it's 2026 anymore. It feels like it's until 1996. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:16

Yeah. It um I never went once Starr bought it. I never went back, I guess, but I've been at Ricky's farm quite a few times over the years before yeah, before Starr took it over. And my memory of Tallahassee is just like, and surely this is wrong, but my memory was like it was just like one main street, and that was it. And then like Ricky's was like off the beaten path in the fucking woods, and that yeah, my like memory of Tallahassee.

SPEAKER_05 21:52

Yeah. I mean, it's not far off. Um, it's funny, over the summer, like when all the Florida State kids like go home, it like changes the whole dynamic of The town, you know. So like when school's back in August, like it just changes the energy. Um, but it's like you know, it's very family friendly and you know, just like slow. Like when we moved to Dallas, um, I was in the middle of high school, and I just remember thinking, like, this is I felt like I was like I'd moved to like New York, like everything was so busy and big and concrete, and you know, there's a trade-off to it. But I really think like, I mean, our whole childhood, like we were outside, you know, and I think that's kind of a millennial thing too. But um, I have nothing but good things to say about growing up in Talasi, even as slow and as you know, quaint as it is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

Um do you think like with Star, like after all these years of what Ricky built and that place becoming pretty iconic and then star taking it over, is like the is the city aware of like what it's become at all? Or are they kind of like aloof?

SPEAKER_05 22:51

I can't imagine that they do. Um, it's so funny to me because like, you know, my my best friend is still in Talhassee and she'll like send me pictures. Actually, one time she was at the park and Christian and Lennon were there and she took pictures. She's like, I think this is one of your riders. Like, this was years ago. I was like, Oh, this is so creepy, but I love it. Um, how big a deal are these people? And so then now it's Hayden, you know, because the deacons are there. And so I get sent pictures of Hayden when he's at church because he goes to church in my old high school, which is just bizarre to me. Um, and so I don't think that the Tallahassee really knew the scale of it until until Hayden signed. And so now I think they get it, and you know, you click on any one of the deacons', you know, social followings and you can see like millions. So I think they understand it now, but I yeah, when when they bought the the goat farm, I was like, oh, this is like a big deal. Like we're moving everybody there. And I was like stalking like the the Leon County, that's where that's the county it's in. Like I would check the appraisal district to see who'd bought houses. And I would I did that like when Kenny was changing teams when he was he was a free agent. I was like looking to see if like Roxanne showed up in Leon and yeah, so it's creepy.

SPEAKER_04 23:58

Um so I know you mentioned you have a brother uh older or younger than you.

SPEAKER_05 24:03

Younger. He's three years younger than me. Yep. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:05

And you say he's he's into skateboarding, yeah?

SPEAKER_05 24:08

Yeah, yeah. He he's always been into skateboarding. Like as long as I can remember, he played every sport under the sun, but skateboarding was really kind of what what the bug that bit him. Um and he's he was great. I mean, he's still a great skater, um, but he really fell in love with like the the cinematography side of it and filming, and um, which is so funny because like my degree is actually in photojournalism and my mom's degree is in photography. So I'm like, oh well, clearly like we're all we're all doing the same thing.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

Yeah, yeah. Um, and is that what he does full-time, like uh film skating?

SPEAKER_05 24:40

Yeah, he so he he's kind of gone a non-traditional path. He's got he's got his own path with um some mental health struggles, which you know, we we're happy to get into my own. I won't dive too deep into his, um, but he's never really gone the traditional path of kind of you know the nine to five. And um, so yeah, now he is is skating and filming and he builds um, he builds like custom tech decks that would he would kill me for not knowing what it's called, but um, he's like a true creative. So he like makes music and he does videography and he makes these little fingerboards and like he's so he's he's happy, he's living his best life. He's a good one.

SPEAKER_04 25:17

That's cool. How um for you in school, how was that for you? Something you enjoyed or not so much?

SPEAKER_05 25:23

Yeah, I mean, high school, like I was I was a I was a good student. I think I feel like I was kind of in that like upper, nerdier group of kids, but like the bottom of the of the smart scale. Like so they were, they were, you know, I have friends that went to MIT and went to Harvard. I was not that. Um, I started rowing uh my freshman year of high school, and that kind of became my like my posse. Um rowing is a much bigger sport in Florida than it is in Texas. Um it's a big it's a big sport in California too. Yep. Um because there's more water. And uh those were those were kind of my people. So I was much like Moto, I mean, almost every weekend in the spring and you know, at least two weekends a month in the fall that I was traveling for rowing. Um and I wanted to row in college. And so school was just kind of like a means to an end. It was a means to an end to get into college. Um, I wasn't quite tall enough. I'm I'm five seven, and so I wasn't tall enough uh to really compete with a lot of girls who were just, you know, six two that were gonna get rowing scholarships. So I knew that I was gonna have to be a decent rower and a decent student to get into a good college. And you know, yeah, that's the path I went.

SPEAKER_04 26:28

How uh like what what attracted you to rowing?

SPEAKER_05 26:32

Yeah, I know it's a good question. Um I went to an event at one of the high schools, and our team, the team that I ended up joining, um, was multi-high school. There was, there's one like kind of legacy high school in Tallahassee called Leon, and it's been there for like 150 years. My grandfather went there, and so they had their own team and they go to nationals and they're huge. And then this other team was starting and it was like multi-high school, and they're like, You're tall, you know, because I've been five's seven since I was like a freshman in high school. And so they're like, You should try this sport. And uh I loved it, I fell in love with it, and then moved to Texas after my sophomore year of high school. And I say that like everything is bigger in Texas, even the people. And so me at five foot seven in Texas, I was no longer tall, I was very much average, um, and just kept rowing through through high school in Texas and into college and just love it. So that was my my first true love of sport was rowing for yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:26

Um, and what what'd your parents do for work?

SPEAKER_05 27:28

Yeah, my dad was in insurance for commercial insurance for 35 years, um, never took another job. So it's so funny to talk to him about like millennial job changes and things like that. And he's just like, I stayed in the same job for 35 years. And I was like, nobody does that anymore, dad. Nope. Um, and my mom, uh, she was a travel agent for a number of years, um, and then stayed home after after having my brother and I, which again is not anything that she can relate to me on working in corporate America. She's like, Yeah, I quit working when you were born, and you know, so very, very different from my life.

SPEAKER_04 28:03

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Um, and what brought you guys to Dallas?

SPEAKER_05 28:09

Yeah, uh, it was um the 2005 hurricane season. Um, Florida just got pelted that year, and I can't even Ivan maybe was one, I can't even remember, but um, my dad being in commercial insurance, they like completely like demolished his sales punt funnel. Um, I was 15, my brother was 12, mom was not working, obviously, so we had to like follow the money. Um, and they were like, We're gonna, we're gonna open a suburb district in Dallas and we're gonna pack you guys up and move there. And so my mom, my mom was born and raised in Tallahassee. She went to Florida State. She was born and raised 52 years in Tallahassee when she moved. So yeah, it was much bigger deal for her, I think, than for me in the middle of high school. I felt like I I was able to kind of hit the ground running with rowing, but yeah, big, big move.

SPEAKER_04 28:54

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I was gonna say that was my next kind of follow-up question. It's like once you guys moved, what that transition was like.

SPEAKER_05 29:01

Yeah, I think I came out the best in it because I had I had rowing. Um and you know, it's it's it was that common, you know, through thread for me. Um, I think it was much harder on the rest of my family, but honestly, I attribute like so much of like just kind of my like natural ease in in weird situations, I guess, in, you know, um, to moving across the country when you're in the middle of high school. I remember like I didn't have my schedule my first day of school for some reason. And so I just like literally had to like walk into what class I knew I was gonna have at some point and ask the teacher, like, when am I in your class? And I didn't know anybody on the rowing team. And I came in. I actually was the fastest when I came in. That was so awkward. Like they had gotten a hold of my times from my old team. And so I'm like, here, I'm coming to join your team. And then they knew exactly what my times were. Like, yeah, that was bizarre, but um, yeah, I think I think having a sport and it being the same sport um really helped me through that transition. But yeah, moving across the country when you're in high school, you can do anything after that.

SPEAKER_04 29:56

Yeah, yeah. What so what's growing? I don't know, like the first thing about it at all. Like, I'm assuming, like, is it a from a point A to point B, or is there like a like a uh oval that you guys are doing in the water? Like I have no clue. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_05 30:10

Yeah, no, no, no, it's fine. It's uh it's a very niche sport. It's funny when I when I tell people like the sports that I've played and the sports that I love, like I played women's lacrosse for like a hot minute until I realized it was super boring. I played competitive paintball and then I played and then I did rowing, and now I love Moto. So I've picked like really niche sports to geek out on, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:27

Um, but it's kind of I explain it, it's like cross country and track where we have two seasons. The fall season is called head race season, and you race like on a river. There's a really big one in Boston, there's a big one in Chattanooga, and you race the clock, and so you go through a shoot like every 30 seconds, they send another boat down. Um, and that's a 5,000 meter course. And then what most people have seen like on the Olympics, that's the spring season and that's called sprint season, and that's seven lanes wide, drop the gate, and everybody goes and it's 2,000 meters.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 30:54

Um, so two very different sports, very much like supercross and motocross. One's much more tighter and technical and fast and anaerobic, and the other one's kind of stretched out longer over a course like that. So lots of parallels.

SPEAKER_04 31:06

Interesting. Um, was there like for you with rowing, was there a goal to like try to make a career out of that?

SPEAKER_05 31:15

I think early on, um, I was delusional enough to think that. Um, yeah, like I said in Florida, like being five's seven, I was, you know, I was tall. Um, my best friend, the one that still lives in Tallahassee, she's just about six, six foot, and I should have been like, you're the one that needs to do this. Um, and so I think when I moved to Texas and saw some taller competition. And then when I went to college and I was rowing in college and I was seeing the girls that that got the money, that you know, Eastern European girls that were six foot three that I would never ever compete against. Um and so that that dream quickly died. I uh I went to to the University of Texas um and was gonna walk onto the rowing team. So, like no money, nothing, even though I'd gotten scholarship offers at other schools, which I'm sure my parents would have preferred. I I take it. Um, and so I trained with their D1 program over the summer. My because I was accepted as a summer freshman. So I started college like two weeks after I turned 18 in June. Oh, wow. Yeah. And uh so that summer I trained with, like I said, those Eastern European recruits. And I just saw I was like, I'm never gonna race. I'm never, I'm never gonna get boated, is the way we say it. I'm never gonna make a boat, so I'm gonna be busting my ass for no reason. Um, yeah, and we had to have a little bit of a come to Jesus and be like, do you want to bust your ass and never race? Which is, you know, the best part of the sport. And uh, I think that's when I was like, okay, like we need to we need to think about other career paths here because this ain't it. And you know, that was okay.

SPEAKER_04 32:38

Yeah. How interesting. It reminds me, like, my wife grew up playing water polo water polo competitively, high school and college. Um, and I didn't know anything about it until I met her. And then um her dad's uh really high up in the water polo world and has gone to the Olympics for the water polo team and is I like writes the rules for professional water polo, like pretty wild. Um so I've gone to some games over the years, and like teams from Croatia in um like just these countries you don't really hear a lot about are like where the best water polo men and women are from. And they were like when they would come over here, we would go to games, and I'm like, these men and women are built completely different from uh California US water polo players. Like it was a trip.

SPEAKER_05 33:32

It's true. Like I always say, like when you go to regatta's, that's what like a crew race is like I mean, especially the men, like the they're huge. I mean, like the the men's Olympic eight at London, I think that was our tallest boat, like their average height, average was six foot seven. Like it's nuts. So yeah, if you're tall, especially if you're a girl, I have friends that you know, like their daughters are like playing high school volleyball right now, and I'm like, okay, hey, listen, like if they're not great at volleyball, like there's a lot of money to be had in women's rowing if you're tall. So I always, you know, and it's a sport that like there's countless Olympians who like found rowing in college and then made an Olympic boat in four years. It's not a sport that like you have to train, you know, from age two to be able to get good at it because it's fairly simple, you know, you pull on an oar. Um, and as long as you can kind of suffer, which there's kind of a joke that like, you know, if you if you're a longtime rower and you stick with it, you're a bit of a masochist. So if you can suffer, it's the sport for you for sure.

SPEAKER_04 34:31

Yeah. Is there like obviously with like dirt bikes? If you have money, you can kind of get a maybe find your way onto a team type thing. Is there money at play in that world too? Or is it really just that simple of like, hey, if you kind of fit this build and you can suffer, like you can you can have at it.

SPEAKER_05 34:54

Yeah. Uh the high school teams are a little bit different from from the college teams. The college teams are really dominated by like the Ivies and the schools that have the money, um just because it's such an old sport. Um, and then the other side of it is that you have to have water and you have to have accessible water. Um, so it's definitely it has it, it's not the cheapest sport to come into. Um, it's huge in Florida because you can row on any, you know, canal. You know, one of our state championships is like in a bypass canal on the side of like an airport, you know. So it's like it is expensive, but also very not glamorous. Yeah, but then and in the college levels, it is it's definitely the Ivies, it's you know, the old schools, you know, you gotta you gotta have the book smart to be able to get to these schools, to be able to row for these schools. Um, but then yeah, I all all the people that go to the Olympics and and that, like they all stick around. Like a lot of the coaches like at the Ivy Leagues, like they're all ex-Olympians. So it's a very uh much like Moto, it's a very small, insulated sport. Um just because it's so niche.

SPEAKER_04 35:49

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05 35:51

Random.

SPEAKER_04 35:52

Um so is anybody else still in Dallas in your family, or did they all go back to Tallahassee? Or yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:00

So my parents um and my brother um were in Dallas. I moved to Austin for college. Um and so I was in Austin for like 12 or 15 years. Um we can we can go there, but um now we're back in Dallas and we live 13 doors down from my parents and my brother. So it's really, it's really fun. Um you know, we've we've had to have some boundary talks, like not just showing up at the house. Yeah, um, but we're the only ones in Texas. Yeah, everybody else is in is in Tallahassee or um central Florida. Um pretty much yeah, the whole the whole family's in Florida except us. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 36:36

Um yes, you you where'd you go to college at in Austin?

SPEAKER_05 36:41

University of Texas.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

Okay. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah, the baby. Um you said photojournalism, right? Yeah, yeah. Um what triggered that for you?

SPEAKER_05 36:51

Um honestly, I think like seeing my mom's prints. Oh gosh, I wish I had them in here. Maybe they're they're somewhere. My mom has these, these black and white prints on cardboard that like I just grew up looking at and like her photo books and stuff like that. And so I'd always I'd always loved photography. It always had like a you know, disposable like Polaroid. My dad used to give me his hand-me-down Polaroids. And so I always had a camera, I always had like a little point and shoot or whatever. And um, when we started looking at colleges through rowing, you know, because I was going through recruitment and figuring out like where do I want to row? Do they have a program that I, you know, want to be a part of? Um, there was a few schools that had photojournalism as a major instead of just like studio photography, because my mom was like, studio photography, like studio art photography, like probably not a career path, but I think I convinced them on the journalism part. So there are very few schools that actually have it as a full-blown major. And I don't even know that UT has kept it. I think it's actually been retired. I don't think you can actually get a photojournalism degree, which breaks my heart. Um, but I used to think that I wanted to do sports photography. I used to, you know, dream about working for ESPN and um going kind of the college football route because I I love college football. It's kind of my first love of sport that I didn't play before before Mort Moto. Um yeah, and it just always um it's just always been something I've loved. I I love the art of storytelling, um, I love people, I love good conversation, and I just think that, you know, photography was a natural byproduct of it. And I was like, all right, cool, let's let's get this degree. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:20

Yeah, that I was I tried to do the same thing because I took photo my junior and senior year of high school, fell in love with it. And I was like, okay, well, I'm probably gonna like if I was to stick with the dirt bike thing, I like could probably go race supercross in a few years, but I'd like be a gate filler, and that didn't sound very interesting to me. So I was like, I'm gonna fuck this. I'm gonna like really chase the photo thing. So I was like, I'm gonna do photojournalism. And I remember going like enrolling in community college, and I had to take all my general eds all over again, and I was already pissed off. I'm like, now I'm paying to take the same shit I took for 12 years or whatever, and I couldn't even get into a photo class.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

And I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_04 39:01

So I went for a semester and a half and then I dropped out, but it was because Dawn, at the time from Trans World Motocross magazine, um, Garth and that whole crew had left to start their own creative agency. So I had been like nagging him for several years, and then it worked out, and I got hired as an associate editor. Um, so I was like, all right, cool, I'm not going to college. So I just dropped out, and that's like what started my whole um journey. But I remember like I want to be a photojournalist, and you're not letting me take the classes I want. I have to take English and math and science all over again. Like, this is fucking not cool.

SPEAKER_05 39:40

Yeah. I remember getting my like first semester like list of required undergrads. And then I, because I'm neurotic, I went and tested out of like all of the math ones. Like I was like, I will pay. You could take like a $50 course, whatever, and you could test out like if you could pass it. And I did that with like everything with math because I was like, I don't want to do this, like I want to do the creative stuff at the same time. I was still rowing. Um, but I was the same way. I was just like, oh my gosh, like I have to I remember taking like some basic level government class and just like hating every bit of it and being like, this is brutal. So I did I tested out a lot of a lot of math classes, thank God. I don't know how because I'm not a math person, but yeah, it worked out.

SPEAKER_04 40:20

Um so what was your like you got your degree in photojournalism? What was the experience like overall like in those classes and getting that earning that degree?

SPEAKER_05 40:30

Yeah. I once I got into my major, I I loved every minute of it. Um, I was blessed to be able to have a dedicated um dark room just for for photojournalism. There was another dark room on campus for um for the studio art, which was much bigger. So there was like 15 people in my major, and we all got to rotate through this dark room. Um, and then we always used to hear about the art studio that was like packed and nobody could ever get in there. So I spent like a good two years of my life in in the dark room, quite literally. Like I feel like it killed my vision and it never came back. Um, but having to develop my own film, shoot in 35 millimeter as the same time I'm doing um assignments in digital, like it just I I don't I don't even know how to explain like shooting in 35 millimeter and digital at the same time, just like they fed off of each other. I think it made me a better photographer both ways. Um, and I love 35 millimeter. I think it's it's it's my original love, but it's so expensive now, you know. It's like I'm looking at like I actually have my my two the first two pictures I ever developed um up on my wall. And they're terrible. I'll never show them to the to the planet, but I love them because they're the very first ones I did. Um and I just it was it was the best. It was creating, it was, it was telling stories, it was um, I just remember like my photo critiques, like I remember one like just sobbing in because I remember some this pretentious dude in my major that was like, I don't get it. I'm like, oh, that just broke my soul, you know. I don't get it that I can just hear it as clear as day in my head, but I lived for that. I lived for like good feedback, you know, constructive feedback.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:04

And um I worked at I worked at a boudoir photography studio. That was my internship. Um and so that was really fun. Uh everything you can think of with women in their underwear. I shot it and edited it and made it look good. And okay. So that was fun. I did um we did a semester of of nudes of in studio and so learning how to shoot fully nude. So got real comfortable with all kinds of people in all levels of dress. And uh yeah, just I I loved everything about being in in my photography major, but yeah, much like you, those those required early classes almost killed me. But we got there. Yeah. Were you like the that stuff? Are you shooting that on 35 or was that digital? Both, both. So every time we were doing in studio it was both. Um wow, yeah. The internship at the the Boudoir photography studio. Um we we gave them the option, like we would charge more, obviously, for 35 millimeter, but both um the gal who owned the studio and I, like, we loved film, so anytime we could like secretly push it, we would. Yeah, we had ulterior motives.

SPEAKER_04 43:12

Yeah, though that's super cool. That like again, same for me in high school, junior and senior year, it was all black and white, uh 35, and I l I loved it. Like it was so cool. And then obviously digital comes, and then now I have a my wife's dad had a Pentex K1000, which was the camera we had in my photo classes in high school. He gave that to me a few years ago, so then I've it probably takes me a year to go through like a single roll of film, but like I still like I have a whole separate Instagram page called The Frame of Mind, and it's all just like black and white 35mm that I've shot. Um I love it. I did and it would just be like random stuff, but then back in September September. There's a mall by our house that had been there since like the 70s and it just shut down. They're demolishing it and like turning it into this like apartment shopping center type thing. And uh so me and a buddy, me and Nathan actually, we went one day after I got off work. He met me over there and just shot 35 mil black and white photos of this essentially abandoned mall that was like getting ready to close and did like a whole little like photo essay on the Instagram account. And I'm like, it was the first like kind of creative thing behind a camera I did since I quit. Yeah. Um and it was really nice, but then I once I finished it all, I was like, this was in September and it's now March. I haven't touched my camera at all.

SPEAKER_05 44:42

I I understand that feeling. I do. Yeah. My thesis, my senior year, my photo thesis. Um, I shot, I think I shot around 35,000 digital files and I had to submit 12. And I just remember like I was dating dating my now husband, and I ended up printing like I probably printed like a hundred and came over one day and they were like laid out all over my apartment, like on the floor, every surface, like hundreds of of photos. And like literally after that, like I don't think I touched my camera for probably a year and a half. Um, my husband was still racing Moto and BMX, and like I would shoot like his races and stuff, but I was so like I was so exhausted by it that I was like, I need to like chill.

SPEAKER_04 45:24

100%. That was like even though this thing was just for fun, it was really nice to just like do something like it didn't matter at all. There was no expectation, there was no nothing. And it was it was nice to know that I was like, even though I hadn't shot still images in since oh my gosh, 2008. And then the last time I shot a film was like 2005. It was nice to know, I was like, okay, still got it. But like I like it's also nice, like I don't have to touch my camera until like something I'm like, oh, I kind of have like the spark to go shoot something. Um and that's you know, I've said it a thousand times in these last batch of episodes, but I haven't touched like a video camera. I mean I sold all my shit in 2020, yeah, all my stuff ended Jan December of 23 or January 24, 23, something like that. And then six months later I sold everything and dang I haven't touched like any type of video camera at all. And still like no interest at all.

SPEAKER_05 46:30

Okay, how's that feel? How's it how's it feel then?

SPEAKER_04 46:32

Liberating. Like I was just sitting in the garage, and my wife was like, keep it, like sit on it for at least six months, and then after six months comes, like see where you're at. If you still feel that way, like sell it. Six months came, I was like, I gotta get rid of it because I don't like looking at it. Like I look at it and it's just all these like really shitty memories, which is really sad because there was a lot of good, but I was just like, I don't looking at this is reminding me of like the last year and a half, two years of my career and just kind of how unhappy I was. I'm like, it's gotta go. So I sold everything.

SPEAKER_05 47:08

Good for you. I I wholeheartedly believe that like objects carry energy, and like at some point, like you just don't need that energy in your house, you know, or your space. So I I'd support that for like good boundaries.

SPEAKER_04 47:21

100%, yeah. So that's yeah, it's been like two over almost two and a half years, and like still good. Yeah, still good, yeah. Good for you. Good for you. Yeah. Um, so once you graduated, what was what was the plan? Like, was it to chase a photojournalism career or was it just to have that degree and then just go do something else?

SPEAKER_05 47:43

Yeah, I graduated in 2012. It was a really weird time um to graduate into like a digital media world because like I remember signing up for Twitter in college, like in a digital advertising class. Like, they're like, there's this new platform called Twitter, you know, and like we just had just had Facebook, and I think like I got an Instagram during college. So like social media was just launching in college. And so digital marketing was this kind of amorphous thing. Um, and I knew like from like my degree in um my minor and minored in graphic design that I was like, I really want to be in a creative industry, but I know that like photography straight up is like not gonna pay the bills. Like I said, there's like 15 people on my major. I think like two people are still doing like photography as like their nine to five, which is they're both incredibly talented. And so that's why they're in their job.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:32

Um, but I think like the the rubber hit the road, that's the expression. And I I realized that like I was gonna have to grind much more um to make ends meet than I think maybe my type A personality was gonna allow for. Um and uh and also I think doing that thesis, like I was I was really burnt out on just the volume of it and also realizing like as a woman, which you know is a lot of my story, like I I wasn't gonna have the same opportunities to shoot what I like to, which you know, like football and basketball at Texas, like it always went to a male photojournalist. Like I never got to shoot sideline. And um, so I think I was just being a little more realistic about like, how am I gonna pay bills? And um, during this time, I'd actually um taken an internship at a church um in Austin. I was attending said church and they had a an internship program. And um, so I'd started working at the church. It was a very small church. They needed a lot of help with communications and stuff like that. But we had like this really, really talented like comms leader, and he was very into graphic design and very into like visuals. And I was like, this is really cool. And like the church sucks at this. Like, this is an interesting route. Um, and so I started looking into um church branding. Um, and there was a company in Dallas that that's all they did is that they worked on churches like inside and outside branding. And so I somehow stumbled into a job with this creative agency that focused on churches and Southwest Airlines. That was their other client.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 50:01

So I think that Southwest was paying the bills. Um, but my first job out of college was at a creative agency that largely just worked with churches. Um that was definitely not in the plan, but I loved it. They did not have project managers, so I'm I'm sure, like, you know, on the agency side of things, like not having a project manager and having like an account manager and a designer talking to a client, like it's it was a disaster. And now having spent my entire career in creative services, like I think back to that and I just like shudder. I'm like, why did we have a designer talking to the client? Why did we have an account manager on here that all they care about is sales? So I kind of like fell into project management accidentally, and that's more or less where I've spent, you know, the last 15 years of my career. Not in photography, in in creative project management. Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 50:52

Yeah, so when um it's funny you bring that up. When I when Garth and that crew, the original Trans World crew left to start their agency, I eventually a handful of years later made my way over there working for them. So it was Garth, Ryan Cooley, and Lewis Rodriguez. They were like the OGs of Trans World. Garth, obviously, on Cooley was a insane photographer in his own right, but he was really on like the back end project management, and then Lewis was this insane uh creative director, graphic designer. So like it was nice to have like Cooley and Lewis, who like they were really savvy with the back end and knew how to like handle clients, and like Garth and I were like the like creatives, if you will. But like sometimes having just creatives in business meetings isn't like not good.

SPEAKER_05 51:48

Not good, not good.

SPEAKER_04 51:49

I'll be the first one to tell you. It's not it's it's not good because especially for me, like when I was doing a lot of Red Bull stuff and go to Red Bull North America and Santa Monica, and it's like just me and then all these like project management type people, and I'm just really concerned about like the visual aspect and like how do we tell the story, and they're like just all this other shit that I'm like I just numbers and ROI and yeah, why like putting a price tag on like what is supposed to be a piece of art is like so weird to me. Like, obviously, like I need to make money and I know what my my I know what I bring to the table and what my value is and what it what my cost is, but like beyond that one, yeah, you're talking about like the ROI and all this stuff. I'm like uh this video, I'm like oh this is so fucking weird. Like not my not my space.

SPEAKER_05 52:40

Yeah, I I completely resonate with that. I remember early on in my career interviewing for like another project management role, and they were like, you know, what's kind of your I don't know, your ideology around project management. And I I was like, I need to come up with a better metaphor, but I always used to think that like creatives were like sheep. And I'm like, this is a bad metaphor because sheep are dumb, and I'm not saying the creatives are dumb, but I would say the client is the wolf, and you have to protect the sheep, you have to be the shepherd that has to protect the sheep so they can do their best work because the client is just breathing down their neck, being like turnaround time, deliverables, cost, ROI, all that shit. So I really, I mean, I love sitting kind of at the intersection. My job's a little bit different now. We can talk about that too. But early on in my career, I loved getting to be the middle point of working with the designers. Um, and then also working with the creatives because a lot of like my early days when I was working in in these branding agencies, like we were working with photographers, we were working with bakers, we were working, we had an underwear model designer. Like we had cool stuff. Um, and getting to be the person in the middle that was like a little bit more, a little bit more analytical than the designers, but also like, like I said, to be able to protect them from the big bad client, the big bad wolf. Um, and I really, it was totally accidental that I fell into this career path. But like I've that's where I've made my, you know, my niche. And I I really love it because I will never be a graphic designer. I will never be a full-time creative. I'm just I don't have the natural talent for it, but I have figured out a way to communicate it because it's almost like we speak a different language on the on the creative side to be able to like I speak that and I can take it and I can communicate it to the account side or to the op side or whatever. And yeah, I love that. I call it being creative by osmosis.

SPEAKER_04 54:20

So yeah, no, a hundred percent. It that is spot on, and it's a great metaphor. The like client is the wolf and the creative is the sheep. That's it's so it is so true. Yeah, creatives aren't necessarily dumb, but like I don't know. Speaking from my own experience, like I really only care about like how what can we do to make this thing look the best it can be, and like like what's the story, and like how do you creatively tell the story and like everything else? I don't like it. But yeah, like the deadlines, the are we over budget and like oh my god, just stop, stop.

SPEAKER_05 54:58

Well, no, I I I personally, I mean, my philosophy is that the creatives should never know that, they should never have to know that. I mean, obviously, if you're in a small enough situation where it's you know a one-man show, but what I do now, um, we call it like process optimization or creative ops or whatever, is I build systems and processes and tools and software to be able to take that paperwork, digital paperwork, off of creatives to make their lives easier, to make designing just designing, or I work a lot with our digital assets management team or our damn team, like how to make the damn team be able to run their processes faster without having to think about all of the other stuff inside a very corporate marketing environment where you're talking about you know, ROI and mass and pipeline and all that bullshit that we don't want to care about. Like, I I want my employees to be able to be their most creative self and not have to think about all the other digital paperwork bullshit.

SPEAKER_04 55:47

So I love that. I I it never happened, but I was getting to a point in my cinematography career where I was really going down like the Hollywood route. Like I wanted to get out of Moto and be like more in the I guess the LA world of like shooting scripted narrative type work. Because I really, really loved that. And I was at a point where I was like, I was looking for cinematography agents because that was a thing. When you get to a certain point, like you can have an agent and they can represent you and they can go find you jobs, and it takes that like I guess like that business side out of it. So, like me as a cinematographer, just show up to the job, and all I'm focused on is the creative and the agent is taking care of everything else. Obviously, they're getting a percentage, but like I was like, I I'm fine with that if it means like I'm being removed from this whole other conversation that I don't need to know about or want to stress from.

SPEAKER_05 56:44

Yeah, absolutely. I I sort of feel like like in the conversations my husband and I have had about real housewives, I'm like, is there a content creator like agent version? Cause I'm like, I feel like I'm kind of getting to that point where like I'm not monetizing real housewives yet. And I'm like, I just want someone else to like do all the bullshit and I just want to sit here and talk about dirt bikes, but strategically.

unknown 57:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:04

So I'm I get that, I feel that. Um, so when you're at this first agency doing church church stuff in Southwest Airlines, whatever so random. So random. Yeah. Obviously, Southwest is paying the bills.

SPEAKER_05 57:18

Yes, yeah. I mean, it was in Dallas, I get it. It was close, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:22

What um what overall, what was that experience like and what were kind of some of your responsibilities?

SPEAKER_05 57:28

Yeah. Um, so like I said, they did not have project managers and they had built like an in-house, I don't even know how to explain it. It's so funny to me now. They had built an internal tool, like someone had built it, like hand-coded it, you know, because we didn't have AI bots to do it. Um, it was like a like a CRM platform and a project management tool. Like they were delivering files through it, but also managing like their sales funnel and stuff. And this is a really small company, I mean like 15 or 20 employees. And so I just remember thinking exactly what I said. I was like, why do we have the designers talking to the clients, which are like pastors, so like who know nothing about design and all of them want a teal cross, you know, and so we just had to like all the things. Yeah. Um, you know, and they don't have a lot of money. So when I fell into this middle role, that I was like, let me, let me package up files, let me have the the the pitch meetings, let me write the creative brief, like let me play that middle position and get the account team out of here because that all they care about is is money. And let the designers like, don't even give them a mic. Like they can come to the, they can come to the Zoom, but they don't get a mic. You don't need to talk to them, you don't need to ask them questions. Um, and really from there, every other job that I took was just kind of walking in um what it looks like to support creatives um in in project management is you know, how how do how do I support a creative to be able to do more creative things? And has been my entire career um as someone who's very analytical um type A. And uh yeah, I I get really excited about like new projects to sink my teeth into. And I I work, you know, with a a really great group of designers now. But like I said, I've I've worked in startups, I've worked in um, I worked at Dell for a number of years. So I worked at like big, big corporations, and I just I I feel really blessed to be able to work with creatives and not have to be the creative energy behind it, but kind of the you know, the cat wrangler.

SPEAKER_04 59:26

Yeah, yeah, for real. Um I I know you mentioned you were in Austin for 12 or 15 years or something like that. Yeah, a long time. I was trying to think. So what throughout that time, what all were you doing?

SPEAKER_05 59:40

Yeah. So I graduated from college in 2012, um, dating my now husband. Um, and oh my gosh, it's just such a blur. At that point, when I came back, I was working um at a small startup, a branding startup. And oh my gosh, I just loved it. It was a husband and wife duo, and she was just like a creative genius. Like she used to work at Sony and um gosh, she was so talented. And her husband did like all the technical stuff and wrote contracts and stuff like that. And we had one other designer, um, and she was incredible too. And so really just got to like cut my teeth um in the small agency setting for a number of years, and I and I loved it. Like I said, I loved being like close to the design work, and you know, she was the the lead designer. She would like hand design typefaces and then like scan them in and like deliver custom typefaces to our clients. And oh my gosh, it was just so cool. So for a number of years, um, I was there, then um took a job at Dell. So I was at Dell for a number of years. I was on their corporate brand team, which was really cool to see to go from you know a company of five people, a startup, to you know, Dell, which is like a hundred thousand employees. I don't even know. There was those, there's like 20,000 of them at my campus.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:52

Um, so that was a pretty, that was a pretty big shift career-wise.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:56

Um, you know, going from a team of two designers to a team of like 50 designers, um, working with like really strict brand guidelines, you know, which I at the branding agency, we were developing said brand guidelines for clients. Um, but really getting to see like, you know, the commercial side of of corporate marketing and and what that looks like and how strict it can be and how you know boxed in you are. And um so I was there for a number of years, um all the while like husband and I are getting well, we got married in 2013. So we were dating and married, and then just like, yeah, both like grinding in the early years of our career. And um, that's when I like fell in love with Moto and when uh we were dating. So my my love of Moto comes into play in Austin. And um, yeah, just kind of those early, like pre-kid years. You know, you look back on it, like you know, now that you're a parent, you're like, what did we do? What did we do all those years? You know, without kids. But we went to a lot of dirt bike races and hung out and you know, figured out our careers.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:57

So that was a lot of it. Um yeah, we we talk about that sometimes. Like, man, before we had a kid, like we thought we were tired. We were just lazy.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:09

Yeah, I'm like, we would sleep in till like 11 on Saturdays and be like, I'm so tired. Like, uh, you did not know what tired was, Allie.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:16

No, no. Um, you kind of answered it just there, but I was gonna, that was one of my next things was kind of how Dirtbikes got introduced to you, but it sounds like it was through your husband.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:26

Yeah, my husband Tim. Get a good we call him Mr. Allie on the podcast, but his name is Tim. Um because we could we try to make make him a mystery, but you know, he makes an appearance every once in a while. Um, so I remember going on a date with him, like early on when we were dating, and we came back to his house. He was living, he was living with his dad and his brother at that point. Um, and his dad and his brother had a race on, had a supercross race on. And this was like 2010, 2011. It was like right in the middle of the Ryan's. I remember there was a lot of Ryan talk. And I don't remember if it if Dungey won or if Villapoto won that night, but I remember, you know, being like, oh, like I said, I didn't know this was a thing inside a stadium. Like, you know, my husband knew that my family knew the Carmichaels and all that, and I had that frame of reference. And, you know, my husband was or my boyfriend then was racing, and so we would go to local races and things like that. But I had no frame of reference for Supercross. And so I just remember that night watching that race, and I feel like I could go back and figure out like what race it was. That would be pretty cool to be like, this is this is the first race I fell in love with. Um, I was just hooked. Like I was like, this is insane. Like this is like what this is not just dirt bike backflips at X games. Like, this is a whole structured series, and you know, I I just fell hard. I I can't explain it. Um, I I know that it's weird. I've I have a lot of girlfriends now that I've met through Real Housewise and Moto, and they're like, wait, you don't race, your kids don't race, like your husband did race. So I think I'm an anomaly in that like I have no like upbringing in the sport, but I fell so hard for it. So it's hard to explain like what it was, but I feel like everybody kind of has that feeling where it's just like there's something magical about dirt bikes. And I think I got that. I got I got bit by that bug. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:02

And from that point on, was it like were you like, all right, I'm watching next Saturday and I'm gonna start like learning who all these guys are and who's who and whatnot?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:11

Yeah, yeah. So I remember like 2011 season, so that must have been 2010, maybe 2011. We went to Dallas, we went to Arlington Supercross. Um, and we've never missed a single year of Arlington since then. So my husband's gone every year since 2009, I've gone every year since 2011. Okay. And it was right around the same time they launched Instagram, like we're gonna date ourselves. And some of the wives were on Instagram. So, like Ellie Reed, Mathil Mooskin, um, Lindsay Dungey. I mean, Lindsay was before she was a dungeon, it was before they were even married. And so I remember like following all of these wives of the writers and like really falling in love with them and like what it took to support these men and doing this crazy sport um and the highs and lows. And my husband had had a few injuries, and I I could relate on that, you know, on those grounds. Like my husband's just doing these dinky little races for free. He is literally paying your bills with this sport that could knock him on his ass at any minute. Um, and I think I just like that, that's what sucked me in was like the women and the families and the stories and just what it takes to do this sport. And then, you know, like kind of making like internet friends with a few of them. Like I remember the first time, like it was Matil Mooskan, like the first like industry person to like message me back or comment me back. It was Matilda's about like a pair of pants she was wearing at a race. I was like, girl, these are so cute. And she messaged me back, she was like, TJ Maxx, and I like freaked out at work. I was like, Matil Moose can message me. People are like, who? I'm like, you don't even know. This is such a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:36

Um, so we'd go to the races every year, and like my husband would have to like hype me up to talk to the wives, you know. Like, I feel like the wives are having their moment finally, as they should, but like, I mean, they wouldn't even come outside. Like the wives would never come out of the rigs, you know, way back when. And so I remember like one time it was Lindsay Dungeon, one time it was Brittany Mill Saps, and I would just like freak out meeting them. I'd be so nervous, but like they were, they were like. My gladiators. Like it was like, okay, yeah, your husband's gonna go race and potentially die, but like I'm here for you.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:06

And uh, it's still that way. I mean, it's that's kind of the genesis of of Real Housewives of Moto was my appreciation for the women of Moto. And uh yeah, so I just kind of went overboard and became obsessed, and it became like my entire personality.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:21

Did you did you ever go to any outdoors too? Like when you were first getting into it?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:26

I went to my very first outdoors last year. Oh sure. So no, isn't that crazy? Oh, wow. I know. So um Freestone was on the circuit when when I first started watching. Um, it was also so they removed Freestone, ironically, the same year that Austin got X games at the F1 track. It was so brutally hot. They had a four-year contract and they they canceled the contract early. They canceled it and they went to Minnesota because all of the athletes complained. Like it was dangerously hot. So we don't we don't have any pro racing outdoors anywhere near us. Our closest race is is Colorado, is Lakewood. Oh, like which is like 12 hours. Okay. So I didn't go to a single outdoor race until Des Nations last year. So now I'm spoiled. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:07

And the first yeah, the first one you go to is Destinations, damn.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:11

Yeah. So only Supercross. That has been my my entire frame of reference for 15 years, is just stadiums. Am I crazy? I know. I mean a whole other sport I don't know about.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:23

Yeah. I mean, I guess it makes sense though, like being in that area, like, yeah, freestone's not a thing anymore. Um I mean, not that you're missing out. That was tough.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:35

Yeah, I've heard like horror stories, like people heat exhaustion, getting in the trash cans with ice in it, and yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:41

I went 2008 when I was because I got hired by Transworld in January of 2008, and that summer I did the whole outdoor circuit except for Red Bud and Millville on a broken ankle. So that's oh my gosh. Yeah. Um to be fair, I kind of volunteered myself to do it. I was like, fuck it, I'm gonna figure this out. Like, I wanna go. Like, I'm not gonna let a me breaking my ankle like stop me from doing this. So like I did all of them but two on a broken ankle. And uh I remember Freestone 08 that year. That was ridiculous. I've still like never experienced anything like that before.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:24

Yeah, it's awful. Like, call me in July and I'll be like, why do I live here? Why do I live in the state? I think it every summer, like it's insane. It's so hot.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:32

Yeah, and I guess growing up out here, like grew up 20 minutes away from Angel Stadium, and then Glen Helen's an hour away.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:40

So it's like iconic.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:42

Yeah, so it's like you go to Supercross in January, and then in May at the time, like in the uh 90s and 2000s, like you go to Glen Helen in May on Mother's Day for the outdoor, and that's just what you did. And then just didn't think anything of it. That's just yeah, you're a fan, that's what you do.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:01

I I it's so funny. The girl that I do the um the pod my podcast with, Katie. I've met her through Moto, and she's born and raised in Southern California, and like she was at the track like at Glen Helen when she was like six weeks old. Like, there's a picture of her like in her dad's helmet, and like she like grew up going to all the California rounds, and she's just as obsessed with like the drama and the wives and all that as I am. So she's perfect for me. But like it's so funny when I hang out with her family because we she went to designations with us, and or I went to donate designations with her family, like they all like go to all the outdoor nationals and like their whole family's into it. Like, my dad the other day, the other day this weekend was like, How did Ryan Dungey do this weekend? And I'm like, Dad, he thinks he thinks he knows, but he doesn't. So, like the idea of having a family like go to outdoor races together is so foreign to me. Like, I told her I was like, This is just like the coolest thing ever that like your family loves this sport, but yeah, it's just not that's not how it is, and at least in the burbs of Dallas, but yeah, yeah, there's not a huge racing scene in North Texas, sadly.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:56

Did um so then wait, that would have been Houston. Never mind. I was gonna say, did you do go to any of the residency rounds in Houston in 2021?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:05

I I feel like we went to one, like I think we went to the Tuesday one. Because wasn't it like a Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday? Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:14

I think it was Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, or Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, something like that.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:18

Yeah, we went to one of them, and I know we did Arlington because that's like when my daughter was like little, little. I had a baby during COVID, which was so fun. Oh yeah, I can't remember. That is such a blur, but I think I think we went to one in Houston, and then I think we went to all three of them in Arlington.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:32

Oh, okay. I was like, Yeah, it was uh I did the whole Houston residency in 2021. That was weird.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:41

Yeah, energy is not my favorite stadium.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:44

I wasn't even allowed in the stadium, never went in the stadium, weren't allowed to because of COVID. But they were still like because I I had done all the COVID rounds in Salt Lake in 2020. And there we were allowed to go into the stadium, but we couldn't film per fields. Yeah. Anyway, second fell to the choke, but rabbit trail. Yeah. Um and then in 2021, it was the same thing, but it was like even more, it felt like it was even more strict because then we weren't allowed to go into the stadium. And I'm like, well, wait a minute, there's fans allowed back, which is great, but I'm still assigned to my one team, which was Red Bull TLD at the time. I could only go there. I can't literally can't leave the truck at all.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:34

You couldn't go in the stadium, like in the stands either. Wasn't allowed to. Oh my gosh. I'm sure Phil actually loved that because it meant that nobody had any extra footage, but we won't go there. I understand it did.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:45

So, but yeah, it was interesting.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:48

It was cool. I'm glad I got to experience it because it was such a unique thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:51

But yeah, those were weird as fans because you could only sit in groups of six, like that was the max you could have, and then you had to have every single seat around your seat couldn't be purchased. So you could have a pot of six, whether it was two, two, and two, or if it was three and three, but then everyone around you you couldn't have anybody near you. And I just remember like, this is the weirdest thing ever. Like, yeah, weird times.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:12

I I remember because it was the same thing in Salt Lake, they would do like your temperature check, and then Houston was the same thing. When you'd walk into the pits, they would zap you with the gun for your temperature. And I remember one of the mornings going and they like zapped me, and the lady was like, uh, you're at you're 86 degrees, and I said, So I'm dead. It was literally like just like word vomit. I said, So I'm dead, and she'll mean I said 86 degrees? Or so professional. I'm like a I'm a dead man, and she was like, Oh, okay, go in. These guns there's a metaphor for the whole sport in there, right there. Literally, yeah. I was like, okay, like she didn't care. The obviously the gun didn't work correctly. No, I'm so glad that's in the past. Um so how how um Violet, you want to say hi?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:09

Violet, hi friend.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:11

Bubba.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:12

She's like, nah.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:14

Do you want to say hi?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:14

She can't be bothered. Hi friend.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:16

Do you want to say hi?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:18

Hello. My daughter is, like, she'll come in, but then like the second you actually like like acknowledge her, she runs off. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:27

Um so how did the real housewives of Moto come to be? Because you're obviously like a fan of the sport for quite a long time before you started doing how did that kind of all start?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:43

Oh, where do we start? Um so I I guess like during during COVID, I've had the domain since 2019. So I've had it for like a hot minute. Yeah. Um, and it's it's always been just kind of like a joke. Like, you know, I've I've I've said it for years. I'm like, if you want to really know what's going on in Supercross, you need to follow the wives. Like early on in the beginning, like the wives would post stuff that like they shouldn't be, like there'd be bikes and frames that shouldn't be at that practice facility and things like that. So I always felt like there was like good drama to be had by following the wives. Um, and then I guess during COVID, I've always I've always been a big fan of Main Event Moto and Daniel Blair. Did not know Daniel, did not know anybody in that camp, but um, they moved from um like they were on Racer X and then they did their own thing, and then they moved behind the paywall on Patreon. And I loved, I love Daniel's content. This is kind of when he was going from Arena Cross to Race Day Live and he was kind of in and out of the booth. And I thought I I still think Daniel's one of the greatest voices in the sport. And so when they went behind the paywall, it was like five bucks a month. I was like, yeah, I like, I like Daniel. I like the type of content he produces. I, you know, his his business partner Joe is the kind of the brains behind all the tech and all the sound and everything like that. I like it's like I really like Joe. And so I was like, okay, I'm gonna buy into this. And they launched um like a Discord. I'd never heard of Discord before. Like my brother was like, Oh yeah, it's this gaming thing. And I was like, okay. Um, and so got really active like in their their Discord channel, and we were joining like their live broadcasts every week. And so like I really made a lot of friends in Moto for the first time ever because it had just been me and my husband and like my husband's like local riding buddies. And there was a few girls um who I'm still really good friends with to this day that were in that original group of Maine Event Moto listeners, moto heads, as we call ourselves. And um, so that's really where I kind of got like my toe in the water on like the industry side. There was a side project that Daniel had kind of gotten looped into um called Moto Bookie, which is now bets on. They have rebranded it, and it was a moto betting app. And um, Chad, the owner, he's still very much involved in it, wanted Daniel to be a part of it. And Joe, um, his producer knew that I, you know, did marketing for you know my nine to five. And so they kind of brought me on as a marketing consultant. And so that was fun. Um, we worked on that and just kind of became friends with Joe and Daniel and some behind-the-scenes stuff. Like I was doing like listener surveys for them for the podcast and just like you know, stuff that I do for my job anyway, that I was just like, maybe you need some listener feedback after you know a year of paying customers on Patreon and things like that. So just you know, like organizational stuff, but um became friends with them. Um, Dan Coleman, who you know, if you've listened to any of their stuff, Toolman Dan, I'm a big big fan of Dan. Um and then over the years, like had just continued to talk about this real housewives idea, met, you know, like I said, some girlfriends in the sport and Katie, my co-host being one of them. And Katie's like, she's such a diehard um in like she knows so much more than I do about the sport because she's she grew up in it. But like she was the one that really like gave me confidence that this has legs because I was like, okay, if we were to do something that's like focused on the women of the sport, like what would you wanna know? And she sent me this Google Doc that was like questions by writer wives of what she wants to know about their life. And it was like, Paige Craig and Maddie McAdoo drama and da-da-da. And like, we don't even have to go there. But I was like, this is what I want to do. Like, I want to talk about the women of the sport and I want to talk about drama and I want to talk about, I want to talk about the racing, I want to talk about fashion, I want to talk about managing kids' schedules and careers. Um, and so for the longest time I was like, we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it. Um, and then three years ago, actually this week, um, on Thursday, I was in a really terrible car accident and uh it put everything on hold. Like I was like, we're gonna do it, I'm gonna launch it. Like, had the, like I said, had the URL reserved and everything and was in a car accident with my kids. So car was totaled, arm was broken in a number of places. Um, and that really put everything on hold with with Moto. Like I like I wasn't really active in the Discord anymore. Um, my mental health just like took a nosedive. Um, it was really bad. So much so I like when my arm was like completely like bound up to my body, I was like, I don't even know how I'm gonna work. So I took a leave of absence from work. Um, ended up going into a outpatient treatment program, which I am a big proponent of. So I spent 14 weeks in an intensive outpatient treatment program for major mental health issues.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:12

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:12

Um, and honestly, like it was during the summer, like really from like May through the summer. Moto was like the only thing that like kept me like happy. Um, not to be dramatic, but it it was like the one thing that I just kept coming back to that I was like, I know I love this. I know I love this sport. I can't explain it, but I would go to treatment in the morning for four hours. I would do some kind of other type of therapy modality. I was doing um all kinds of things. We can go there. Um, and then I would re-watch the races from the weekend. And I just like I would watch the races that weekend. It was outdoors for most of it, and then I'd re-watch them during the week. And it was like between that and following all these women and these families on Instagram that kept me sane, um, in the truest form of it, truly. I mean, like I was, you know, struggling with suicidal ideations at the beginning of that. Like it was it was the darkest of the dark, and Moto was that constant. And coming out of it, um, kind of the end of 2023, I was like, I just don't know that I have the physical capacity to to do my own podcast, you know, to go all in. So really it was another year and a half-ish of storyboarding ideas, you know, random lists full of. I mean, I just have like so many lists in a Google Drive of just ideas that I wanted to do. And so finally last year, um, after Daytona, I think, um, we're coming up on the one year, uh, I was like, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna, I don't have a plan. And I I knew, you know, with my photography background, I was like, this is gonna be sloppy, it's not gonna be pretty, it's not gonna be aesthetic, and that still kills me. Um, but I was like, I know that there's gotta be other female fans out there that are crazy like me, that love this sport and that have, you know, hot takes on you know, Jets eyebrow haircut, you know, like I gotta do it. So yeah, yeah. So we did it. Give me a lot there, sorry. No, no, no, you're good. I'm like, how do you how do you start?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:06

Yeah, um like I came to play. Yeah. How so with uh whatever you're comfortable sharing with the car accident, I first of all, I'm uh assuming kids are okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:25

Kids are okay, kids are good, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:27

Um what uh what happened?

SPEAKER_05 1:20:30

Yeah, um, we were T-boned um just in traffic. Girl came across like three lanes of traffic. I took the brunt of it, so it hit me. Um she ended up being like 37 weeks pregnant. It's the craziest story. Like she looked like she was like wearing pajamas and like a crop top. This girl looked like she was like 15 years old. It was so crazy. Um, I also like in another life, like really want to work in birth. Like that's kind of one of my dreams. Like, I love, I love everything to do with the birth world. And so, like seeing her when I got out of the wreck, and like I made sure my babies were okay. And then going over to her and seeing this big old belly, I was like, You've got to go to the hospital, like is this whole thing. And so, yeah, um, completely totaled my car. Um, my husband was at work, so like he had to come like drive me to the hospital because I was like, because of his moto accidents, he was he was actually life flighted in a helicopter off of a track, and I know how long it took him to pay that off. Yeah. So in my mind, with my arm at like a 90-degree angle, that which it shouldn't be, I was like, I'm not taking an ambulance, come drive me to the hospital.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:28

Um yeah, and so you know, went through all the rigmarole of that and it was broken, yeah, broken in two places and had to do the whole PT thing. Um, but then in that, like I said, when it when I was trying to still work with the cast, like, you know, strapped to my body. Um, I just remember coming home like every night that week, I was having panic attacks. It was it, you know, my mental health was not in a great place before that. We'd we'd gone through a number of things, we'd gone through infertility with both kids. And um, but really the the car accident was like the straw that broke the camel's back, and I just like completely came unglued. Like I was like, I can't function. Um and so yeah, in the middle of all that, in the middle of going to PT, I like we found this program in Dallas, which is incredible. I'm I'm again such a huge proponent of like getting the mental health treatment that you need. Um, and thank God we have decent insurance, we're able to afford it. But um going to go into IOP, like I said, four hours a day, and then going to physical therapy and getting new put cast put on. And um yeah, it was it was not fun for sure. It was it was brutal.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:31

Yeah. What um did you ever have like a diagnosis in terms of like the mental health of like what exactly it was?

SPEAKER_05 1:22:38

Yeah. So I was diagnosed very early on um with obsessive compulsive disorder. Um that's on the fun type A side. Um and generalized anxiety. So I I've always had like a G A D diagnosis.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:50

Um, but you have to go through like a full check-in process in this program that I went to, and it was the first time I was ever diagnosed with like a major depressive disorder, so MDD, um, with the suicidal ideations SI. Uh, that's generally kind of a textbook diagnosis for it. Um, but then after you know, walking through this treatment program and and learning more about like the depressive side of my tendencies and not just the anxiety, not just the like what I thought was just part of me, I was like, oh, this is this is a whole other thing, like the depressive side. So I think a lot of women, especially like, you know, I was diagnosed with ADHD later in life. Um, I think I was able to mask a lot of my mental health issues with, you know, with school or with rowing or with achievements, and then having kids, you know, and not sleeping and all the things that come with that. I think like everything just came on glue and I didn't have my my crutches to rely on. And yeah, the the carcassant was just like we're gonna we're gonna knock you down to like your base level and let you build yourself back up, which is what we did.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:48

Yeah. Fuck, that's wild. Yeah, I have I have a diagnosis of uh the generalized anxiety disorder and then uh social anxiety disorder, like both at like a pretty high level. Yeah, and then some like mild PTSD too. And I think the last episode that I recorded, we were talking about this, and I had I was like, remember when I got that diagnosis. I was like, oh, that actually made me feel better. Like, yeah, okay, there's like something actually real here. It's not like in my own head and me just like being in the dirt bike industry for so long and it being a pretty like it's not everybody, but majority, like this kind of alpha, like I mean, I've literally had conversations with certain people where it's like, oh yeah, I don't get sad. And if I feel like weird, I just look in the mirror and I punch myself in the face and I say, Don't be a bitch. Can you imagine? I know. Like that was actually something someone said to me one time.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:52

It does not, I mean, like it shocks me at the same time, it doesn't shock me at all. Like, and it's it's sad, it's so sad. Um I think the industry is starting to shift a little bit. I do, but I yeah, I've seen it just from being, you know, on the outside and just having like this infinitesimal little window of of looking into the inside from from the Real Housewives platform. And it's just like you gotta take care of your noggin, especially in a sport that like you actually like hurt your physical noggin. Like, we need to talk about mental health more. So I I'm completely an open book when it comes to like my mental health journey. And you know, we we can talk about ketamine. I talk about my ketamine treatment a lot on my pod. And um interesting.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:31

Yeah, we uh okay, actually, yeah, on that because I don't know, I like I'm aware of it. Um I don't know like what its use is and what it's supposed to help with and what those treatments look like.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:44

Yeah, there's it actually started, um it got its FDA clearing for for PTSD. That was the first um diagnosis that ketamine was was cleared for. Um, there's several different I sound like a like a used par commercial. There's several different types of it, but I've you know my type A that researches it. Um I do the nasal ketamine, it's called Spervado. Um, and it basically um it builds back the neuroplasticity of your brain. So when when you struggle with depression and you have those negative ruminating thoughts and um little violet.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:13

She's handing me obsessed with these uh these Joe's crusher pouches things. Obsessed.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:22

We keep all of those little lids and we put them in tissue boxes. My daughter carries those around. Oh don't ask why, but she's obsessed with the lids. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:30

We're we don't have that obsession yet.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:33

She's like, wait, hold on. Yeah, yeah. It's like that crazy lady gave me this idea. Hold on. Then we're gonna talk about ketamine. Yeah, um, it it builds back neuroplasticity, where you know, when you have the grooves in your brain, um, we form channels with our negative thoughts and with depression, and um, it builds back those channels. So it's not a one-stop shop where you know you you take this drug and miraculously you're fine. You have to do other supports for like like being in in therapy and you know, some kind of cognitive behavioral therapy, um overhauling your diet. Like that's been a huge part of my like recovery, it's just been like figuring out my body. Um but it, I honestly like I I I could not say enough good stuff about ketamine. Like after it's probably the fifth or sixth session, um, I I felt a literal weight come off that like I didn't even know was there. Like I knew that I struggled with depression. I knew it's not normal to think about like ways to unalive yourself. I know that's not normal. Um, but when that weight came off, that that initial weight, and like almost like the the fog lifted a little bit, I was like, holy shit, like this is real. Um so I I am a huge believer in in all types of plant medicine, but yeah, uh ketamine for sure is like I it it saved my life for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:48

And is that something like you get approved through like a a psychiatrist or okay?

SPEAKER_05 1:27:56

Yeah, so when I was in treatment, um we changed. Some of my my medications and it just like wasn't hitting, you know. Like I've never had a medication where I like I just felt right. And um, and towards the end of it, um, I've I don't I never struggle with substance abuse. Thank God we have lots of substance abuse issues in my family, um, which I know has a very strong genetic component. So it's just truly been a miracle that I have not struggled with addiction. Um, and the the staff psychiatrist was like, because you don't have any of these issues with addiction in your past, you'd actually be a really good candidate for for ketamine treatment. And I was like, what? Like PCP? You know, because that's what everybody thinks when you hear ketamine. You think PCP here. Now I guess you think Matthew Perry. So people are like, isn't that what killed Matthew Perry?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:35

Yes. He was taking 12,000% more than I take on a normal session. So I decided to throw that one out. I have to tell my mom that one. Yeah. Yeah. Big difference. Yeah. Um, if you've taken, I I think it's four. If you've taken four different SSRIs or SNRIs in your life and you just haven't seen a lot of um positive momentum, then you qualify for it. And so yeah, I um it it's paid through my um insurance. Like I it's like ten dollars a session. Otherwise, it's like five hundred dollars a session. It's very expensive if it's not through insurance.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:07

Um, and there's a different like protocol. Like you start, you go, you go a lot in the beginning, and now I'm kind of on a maintenance dose. It's like once, once every three weeks, once every month.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:16

Um, and yeah, it's it's incredible. Like it's truly the biggest game changer in my life, my mental health.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:23

So when you go to these sessions, is it like is it 10 minutes? Is it an hour? Like how what's the process?

SPEAKER_05 1:29:31

It is two hours long. Um, so it is quite the time commitment. I had also looked into you ever heard of TMS trans transcranial stimulation. It's basically it's um magnetic therapy for depression. And so they like run magnets over, but there's a lot of research around it. But um, that was another option that's every day for like five weeks um for like a 35 minute session. And I was just like, I don't know how anybody who's a parent or has a job does this. So we went with ketamine really because it was the only thing that made sense time-wise, but it's a it's a two-hour session. You have a little spray gun and you spray a sniff on each nostril um once every five minutes for 15 minutes. Um, and now that I've learned the hard way, I learned that I get like motion sickness with it. And so I put on an eye mask um and just kind of zone out for two hours. They come back in and check your blood pressure. Um, I've developed like a playlist that I listen to and meditate to. And um, I mean, it's it's really incredible. Like I said, I've I've never done hard drugs, like I've never done like any type of hallucinogens or anything like that. So like I'd never experienced like what like tripping would feel like.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:35

Um, but I think there's something, there's something really, I don't want to say magical, but like mystical about the brain's power to heal itself with medicine like that that I've experienced. And I just like it, it is incredible. Like I I could talk on hours for things I've experienced on ketamine that is just so cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:53

And once once you finish with the session, are you able like to just get back in the car and drive on your own, or do you have to have someone there?

SPEAKER_05 1:31:01

No. Uh luckily my brother comes and picks me up. So that's that's a good thing of a him uh him living at home. Um, your brain is I I kind of describe it as like your brain is a little like mushy, like it just feels like extra impressionable for like a day. Um, yeah, I you can't drive um and you're just kind of like just extra chill. Um, so I always do them on Friday, Friday afternoons. Um, and then I just like go home and we hang out in the backyard all night and you know, barbecue or whatever, kids ride around.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:28

Um but I I know other people that uh do it intravenously, like they have a shot one that goes like intramuscular, and that's like a whole thing. Like you have to go to like specialized clinics and all that. There's also chewable forms like that you can get over the internet. That just sounds so scary to me. Like I've had I've only had like one or two like not pleasant trips, set in setting. I've learned like don't go into it, cranky. Um and I can't imagine doing that like by myself, like I without like a medical support team there, and you know, so but also I'm a little bit neurotic, so take it with a grain of salt. Yeah. Huh.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:03

That's yeah, interesting. I've never I've never met anyone that's done it. I've like I said, I've I've heard about it and I'm aware of it, but I've never met anyone that is actively doing that.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:13

Yeah. I've talked to a few people in Moto. I won't, I won't uh I won't blow them out. Um active writers um and people who are in their lives who you know have had have had a number of concussions and are worried about like CTE. And I'm not to say that ketamine has a direct um impression on on CTE, but just like what mental health looks like when you're competing in a sport that inherently could kill you and you're at the top echelon of your of your sport. And like you said, we're not huge proponents of talking about mental health in any light, positive or negative. Um, and so there's been a lot of curiosity, like when I've shared about it, and I've been really encouraged by that. Like people being like, you know, other writers who have retired and have had addiction issues, like there's a really strong component for curing addiction. I won't say curing, but aiding and addiction. And yeah, um, yeah, it's been really cool to talk about that. Between that and like postpartum depression, those are two big, big things that are close to my heart.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:09

Yeah, yeah, that we experienced some of that after um my wife gave birth. Um, and then it didn't help that five days after Violet was born, I was on an airplane for four months, and then that whole TLD thing completely got pulled out from underneath me, and we were left with nothing. And it was like newborn, she's going through the postpartum depression whole career, just fucking up in flames, no job, like it's a perfect storm. Oh my gosh, and it's still like two and a half, almost two and a half years later, like there's still like from a financial aspect, we're still I'm not I more we are I I'm still dealing with stuff that like yeah. I've had moments where I'm like, I I don't think I really want to like be a part of this world anymore because I don't know how I'm going to ever get out of this, and it's very frustrating when you know you didn't you had like a nest egg built up, and then you go through that, and then come shit completely out of your control happens, and you're like, Cool. I didn't have health insurance, I didn't have a retirement plan. There was nothing there to like what nest egg I had had is gone, and uh yeah, you're just it's terrifying.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My husband got fired uh from a corporate job a month before I gave birth to our firstborn, and he had a company vehicle. And I learned that he got fired because I like came, I like was watching him through the window and he got dropped off in our driveway and the truck left. And I'm like sitting here like eight months pregnant, and I was like, Did you lose your job? And he's like, Yeah. And I just remember being like, We don't have insurance, we don't have a car. Like, I I know that feeling well, and oh my gosh, yeah, it's brutal.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:09

Yeah, it's yeah, like I said, there's still stuff that like I'm still just from a financial aspect, still dealing with, and like some days are easier than others, and it's like at least I have a what you want the sticker off? Yeah, okay. Sweet little voice. So I some days are easier than others. I've I'm trying to remind myself like at the end of the day, like none of it matters, if that makes sense. Like I have to like sometimes come out of that way where it's like it doesn't matter. Like at some point we'll get out of it. I have a great job, steady pay, and over time, like we'll be in a better spot, and but then that makes me mad because I just think about like not to go down this rabbit hole, but I'm like so the way that things are set up is I feel like to like you're set up for failure no matter what. It's like how am I supposed to like get back on track and do the right thing when I can't afford to do the right thing? Yeah, from the financial aspect, you know. Yeah, I totally, I totally get that. So it's and that's one of the reasons too, when sometimes people are like, Oh, why don't you come like hop on a project? I'm like, fuck no, because that shit is what got me in the position I'm in, and I'm good.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:32

Yeah. I okay, so obviously I love the sport, and it has been almost a year um with Real Housewives. So, like being being a content creator in the sport, I am more confident now than I was a year ago that I will never hang my hat on paying all my bills with Moto. Never. Yeah. Like I would love to, I've got all kinds of ideas for monetizing and and some other ideas for growing Real Housewives, but I cannot imagine the grind, especially as a creative, of paying your bills off of this industry because we're just so, I don't know, antiquated in some ways, um, disorganized in many. I mean, I look at like what what the hell is going on with the AMA right now in this season? And I just like I can't imagine the stress, especially as a parent. Like this will always be a passion project. And if it makes money, great. If it doesn't, the good thing is, much like you in this podcast, is that if I don't, if I don't want to do it, I don't do it, you know, and not being tied to like a production schedule or outside sponsorships, or you know, like I think about the guys that do media day every week and like they're just running to the hotel to get good Wi-Fi to like upload their content so they can be first, but then everybody has the same interview. I'm just like, fuck that. No, I never want to be part of that girl. We've got to watch my violet realm.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:45

You're good. You're she's yeah, we gotta be better on our end, but it's okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:50

Nothing will show you more how bad your mouth is than having kids.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:54

Uh yes, because there's been days where like she's there's like maybe a week ago, she said fuck off in the correct context, and we're like, oh no.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:03

And you're like, don't laugh, but also like, yeah, don't do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:07

Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, no, it's it's uh I'm I guess I was lucky. I kind of I mean, I was at Trans World for quite a bit, or not quite a bit, for about a year, and then went full freelance. Um, but some of the client stuff, you were like on that, like, oh, I gotta be the first one to get to the hotel and get the Wi-Fi so I can be the first one to get this interview up, or be the first one to get photos or video of the the new bike up, but the 20 other people are also about to do the exact same so same thing. So I don't know why this even like what does it matter?

SPEAKER_05 1:38:44

Yeah. I'm curious, like from your perspective, like what do you think of like the the current landscape of like Moto Media? Like, I feel like there are so few people doing unique stuff because there is so much like I have to be first, I have to be the newsbreaker, I have to, I have to upload first. That I feel like we're losing a little bit of creative edge. There are a few, there are a few photographers in particular that like I really love and like some people in the stuff. I'll I'll give him props. Dave Genofi, he is the marketing manager for 100% goggles. Dave, he takes his own photos, like just with his own camera, and they are incredible. Like he made himself uh a yearbook last year, and I'm like, Dave, take my money. I want a copy of it. Yeah, but I'm curious, like from your perspective, like what do you think of Modo Media right now?

SPEAKER_04 1:39:28

Um so I don't the only like Modo Media I even consume is the ACJB podcast. That's that's it, just because I I really respect who those two are as people and what they've accomplished, and I feel like the way they go about that podcast is um they know how to like kind of walk the line of like calling out the writers, but they they do it in a good way. Um I really like their just their their insight on the sport and what they're seeing. I I dig it. So that's really it. Yeah. I don't outside of that, I don't really know what's going on. I th but it's because it's all the same. I I I feel very similarly. No one's and for me, I was always like when I was at Verb or wherever, it was like I was the one doing these like artsy long form story-driven pieces.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:30

Okay, right.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:31

Um and I did it because it's like that's what I enjoy doing, and also like no one else is doing this, and we already know that just example Christian Craig. We already know who he is as a dirt bike rider, but like who is he outside of his motorcycle? And obviously, now we everyone knows, like, between their vlog and whatnot, but when we started working together, like that was always my approach with any athlete, was like we already know what you do on a motorcycle, but like who are you away from the track? So that was always my approach. Um and I don't know like if you had ever seen any stuff I did called Spectrum. It was like a oh yeah, I guess that was really like it's funny to watch it now because it's 10, 11 years old, and I'm like, man, it could be so much better from a visual standpoint, but like that was the goal. I wanted to do that, like in on an even bigger scale, and it just never totally materialized. But I would love to see people doing more stuff like that, and I don't see it at all because it's all Instagram reels and gotta be the first one to pull shit up. And I don't I don't care. I watch the race on Saturday night, and then I go to bed, and then I just go about my business, and I'll listen to the ACJB show, and that's all I consume because none of it n nothing else interests me.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:55

Yeah, I I completely hear you. I I feel like we we had this like beautiful little window, and you're very much a part of it. I mean, like Motospi and all like that that era of of I don't even want to say long form, but longer than what we have now. Yeah. Long form motocontent. I just it's is it is it cost that we aren't doing it now? Is it our goldfish memory? Like we we can't pay attention. Um, I mean, I know like I, you know, because our buddy Nate, I know kind of where the TLD project went and people not wanting to look bad in comparison to other teams, but I'm just like, how do we how do we get back there? Like, how do we not get back there, but elevate in our in our media game, in our storytelling game when the powers that be won't let us?

SPEAKER_04 1:42:43

Somebody, yeah, and I and I think you can do I I would, and I say this like humbly, I would like to think that the spectrum stuff that I did um showed how you could do that without having to be at the races. Um, because I wasn't gonna get access to go to any any races and film that stuff.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:03

Me neither. Me neither.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:05

Your what? Oh, yeah, is there an airplane outside? Yeah, it was a little scary. Oh cute. It's all gone. Sorry. Um but I in my opinion, uh someone just has to like kind of take a chance and like say, fuck it, I'm gonna I'm gonna go be the rogue sheep and go over here and go do this like really unique thing on my own without anybody's help, because I'm I'll tell you right now, Red Bull's not gonna pay for it, Monster's not gonna pay for it, Rockstar, none of these brands are gonna pay for it because my experience with Red Bull was it was we had Motospy, and then when we were doing all the flight plan stuff with Jet and Hunter, I shot I shot a good bit of that and a lot of the editing. Never watched a single episode because I hated it. Hated it, hated it because it was Red Bull's direction was we need to cater to the Jet demographic of the 16-year-olds and have it be like shot on an iPhone and very vloggy in your face, mixed with like cinematic stuff. And I'm at Outdoor Nationals shooting a moto on my iPhone for Red Bull. Meanwhile, when I go back to the pits to try to give my phone the Jet because we have to have a selfie of Jet in between motos saying something, superstar agent Lucas is oh no, mate, not today, mate. And I'm like, and then I'm having to call Red Bull. Hey, Lucas is saying no, and it's like this whole weird thing, and Red Bull's telling us they're spending tens of thousands of dollars going to these summits where they're learning that you know you gotta just do short form action up front, eight seconds, we gotta grab their attention. Like they went, in my opinion. Red Bull used to be like this really unique creative brand that was doing like very high-level creative things, both with motion in terms of filmmaking and also the stills side. To me, now what it has turned into is kind of a joke. Like it's not Red Bull isn't what it used to be, in my uh opinion. It's very much geared towards just feeding the algorithm. I have a friend that was a director at Red Bull in her division. From what I can tell, she's not there anymore. She's gone on, she's like, she's a she's a legit director, sh directing like massive commercials. She's got a represent like agent whole deal. Very stoked for him. I need to get her on the podcast. She called Red Bull Algorithm Chasers. And I'm like, I don't know if sum it up, but you're right, because they were going so far away from storytelling, and I still see it, and I'm just like, they don't it's just clickbait shit. There's no heart, there's no soul. And when I was doing the TLD thing, I thought that that was like, okay, here we go, like we're on to something here. And then when TK told me, he's like, Yeah, we can't release any of this because we look like a bunch of dickheads, and we look like a team that no one would ever want to ride for. And it would be okay if every other team was doing what we were doing, because it would not make us look so bad. But until the other teams are gonna do this, like we can't be the one because we just look terrible.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:32

I hate that so much.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:33

I was just like, how does anything change, or how do you like do anything good if that's the mentality? Like nothing's gonna change at all. Like I like Yeah, you guys had a terrible year. You had a fillin' kid in Caden Braswell who you guys struggled with. Pierce was injured, coming back from injury, Justin, tough year, but like we have all this on video. Let's show it so then you can tell the fans of why you had such a bad year. You can give them a reason because they don't know. They just have it on the outside looking in. But we have it. I have 62 days worth of footage, however many terabytes, just sitting on a hard drive that tells that whole fucking story. And they like didn't there were certain people at TLD that didn't want Caden to even be a part of it. And I'm like, he's the only guy on your team. Yeah, why why? And his story is a really good story, and there is there's drama there, but there's also like potential. And it was like a they were like at one point they're like, he can only have five minutes in the whole show. Like, the fuck? He's the only guy you've had for six rounds, and he's only gonna get five minutes. Um but it was like we have all the stuff that can give you give the fan insight on why you had a bad year, and now you guys are the underdog going in the next year. Everyone's gonna want to cheer for the underdog. And then obviously, like you don't know this is gonna happen, but Pierce wins the last race ever for that team. That was so cool. Last race of the year for the last race for that team, like from a storytelling perspective. Again, you don't know that's gonna happen, but like that would have been the most insane, like just ending to what that whole thing could have been. And yeah, it's never ever happened. They owe me over five thousand dollars for shooting that I'll never see. Like, oh geez, that makes sense. To be clear, this is nothing to do with Troy himself. Troy had no idea about anything. He might still think the documentary's still going on, to be honest, because he's just bringing back he's just so goofy, but like it's nothing to do with Troy. He he had no hand, no say, no nothing in this. It was TK and other people there that I hate that so much.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:52

Yeah, our our buddy Nathan love love that kid. Love him. Good kid. Yeah, he I he told me all this last year, and I was just like, God, what a missed opportunity, like on so many levels. Like, yeah, I I mean, I wrote a I wrote a piece last year that was talking about like why moms need to be marketed to more with Moto. Um, and I pointed to Drive to Survive, and the largest growing demographic in F1 is women aged 25 to 34. And I was like, that was, I mean, I'm 35 now, but I was like, that was me. Like we want to root for someone that we understand, we want to know their story, we want to know what makes them tick, we want to see them struggle. Also, like, can we talk about having Justin Barcelona? Like, Justin Barcel like writes the script himself, like he is like marketing gold. Yeah, and I just think like, I mean, I I've I've got a little bit of excitement with like the grit and grind that um Husky's doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:48

But I agree with you. Like, I think it's gonna take years for the the sport to be like, okay, let's all come to the table and like all put our nasty stuff on the table and like all admit that like We're not perfect, you know? Like I when I went to Dallas, I I well thought it was gonna be a media pass, but it was more like a here, we'll let you come hang out on media day and that's it. Um I and was made very clear that I will never get a press pass, but that's a whole other that's a whole other subject. That was the week that Weimer went on pulp and was talking about Dan Fehey and Kawasaki. And I was specifically told not to talk about any of that. Like I was gonna go to the manager scrum and they were like, don't talk about the cowie stuff. And I was like, if we are censoring ourselves in in a sport about dirt bikes, like what else are we not owning up to? You know, and I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist here, but like when you have guys like Slowe and Cooksy and all of them that are, you know, screaming about things that are wrong, I'm not saying all of those things are true, but there's so many opportunities to grow the sport and I, you know, to use office jargon, like low-hanging fruit. And one of those is storytelling. And I think we're getting a little bit better about that. Like, I I'm not to just be in love with the bars this whole time, but like the piece they did this weekend about on Justin and Amber and the boys. Like, I was like, this is beautiful. Like there are a few producers who get it, but you know, we're living in a time of like AI slop. And like I posted this morning about how like the UFC is like all of their marketing collateral is now like AI slop. And I'm just like, we're craving authenticity, whether you know, visual or storytelling or whatever. Like, there's so much we could be doing with Moto that, like, oh, just like that gets me excited, but also like really bums me out too.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:27

Yeah, yeah. I um um there's two stories specifically that like stand out to me that I've just completely missed opportunities. And also, though in my head, I'm like, I see it in a bigger picture of like this should be like a movie movie, like big screen type thing. But like I am trying to be, I say this as unbiased as I can because obviously I'm close with Paige and Christian, and they've been incredible people to me. You need what? Okay, we'll do bubbles in a little bit. Um but Christian's story to winning his supercross championship, like that's a movie right there. I was trying to do a much smaller scale piece with them when I was at Verb and had this whole like pitch deck put together, and they were gonna sell it to Yamaha, and it was like, Yeah, I think we have something, and then allegedly Yamaha wanted it to be like a docuseries, and I was like, no, this is like a one-off piece, and then I never heard anything again. Um and then Jmart winning Millville.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:34

Incredible.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:35

Like I see I see those two there's I see those two specific storylines as like movies.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:42

And Ken Roxen right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:44

And Ken and Ken Roxen, if he if Kenny wins this title, oh my god. Yeah, and but nothing will happen. They're just these to me missed opportunities of like really high-level stories that can be told in a really high-level, unique way, and no one's no one's doing anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:04

I know.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:05

Nobody nobody wants to be the one that looks bad. I mean, I've I have asked so many women in the industry to come on, and literally, I mean, there's been a few who be like, I'll come on, we gotta schedule it. But they're all like, I don't want to say something that my husband's sponsors or my husband's team will look down upon, you know. Like I've had a number of people that are like, you're just Moto TMZ, which honestly, I that's a compliment to me that I'm Moto TMZ. Um, but I'm like, if someone is giving you a platform to like talk about how badass your husband is and how badass your life is, like, why would you not take it? Like, I think about Ellie and Chad and bringing all three kids to the races and like reshaping what it looks like to race into your 30s. And I mean, I I'm constantly talking about dirt bikes to people, like my friends at work. Like, I'm like, all my girlfriends, I'm like, here, here are the women you need to follow if you want to fall in love with the sport, not even the riders, you know? Um, so I'm I'm hopeful that that will change. I think, I mean, I would I would selfishly love to be a part of it. I've had some interesting conversations where people are like, you know, you are an anomaly and that you're outside of the sport and you can say the things that you say and you can call out some of the things you call out. Um, but I just don't know that like the rest of the traditional side of the sport is gonna get there. You know, like I said, I I it was made abundantly clear that I will never get a press pass. I was told I needed to like tone myself down, which I don't know how that ever works telling a woman to tell tone herself down, but um, you know, I just I I don't know that Moto Media is ready for for Drive to Survive Moto edition because you know, we like controlling the narrative and we like looking good and we like you know thinking that we're better than another team and XYZ. And I just it makes me sad because I think there's a lot of really great stories to be told.

SPEAKER_04 1:54:44

There are, and it's it's yeah, it is a shame. Like I started watching the Drive to Survive stuff when I was doing the TLD project, I'd watch it on all my flights every weekend, and I was like, fuck, this is like pretty gnarly, and like I suspect some of it is maybe a little exaggerated for you know for TV purposes, but it's like okay, they're doing this in F1. This has gotta be one of the highest levels there is of motorsports. So like if they're doing this and it's on Netflix, like we can do this in dirt bikes and it go on YouTube at the very least. Yeah, and yeah, it's just a shame that nobody the whole sport watches it and they love drive to survive. And I feel like a lot of these people are like, we need drive to survive, and then you go to do it, and they're like we need it, but I don't want to be the I don't want to be the one.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:34

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:36

You can do like my even with like the spectrum stuff, it was like I wasn't trying to blow the sport out at all. And it's just like these are real stories of and these athletes and their individual experiences, and it was called Spectrum because the idea was have like a factory rider, a privateer rider, an amateur, someone that's a rookie, and someone that's like on the tail end of their career, whether they be a privateer or a factory guy, and just like having those different points of view of like how they experienced a sport. Um, and some of it really pissed off a lot of people, and like was on a I was blacklisted there for a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:14

Um seems to be a thing we like doing in this sport, which I was like erotic.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:19

Yeah, I was like, okay, I wasn't really going to races anyways, and none of this is shot at races. It's all during the week stuff, and and these these guys are down to do it. I'm not trying to bait anybody, like the conversation is like I've always said like you could listen to the raw interviews of me asking these guys questions. I'm not saying, oh, I need you to tell me why. It's just terrible. It's just a genuine conversation, and like the Sean Collier episode, he talked about essentially child abuse and what he saw and what he experienced. And my question wasn't about child abuse at all. I didn't know it was gonna go that direction. It was he just kind of like it was like a therapy session, it was just kind of like unloading, and you don't really realize what you got until it goes out. And I didn't really know. I was like, oh, this is this is good, and like me being naive, I'm like, oh, this can like help change things and like be for the better, and turned out this just made people mad.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:20

Yeah, sometimes you gotta make people mad to to move the needle. I you know, I pissed off a lot of people when I first started Real Housewives. Like, it's it's the only reason I have the stupid blue check mark on Instagram. Like, this there's another all-female podcast that does not like me, and they said something about my blue check mark or whatever. And I was like, the only reason I bought that stupid blue check mark is I made so many people mad in the beginning days of stuff that I was calling out that I thought was bullshit that I was getting reported and put in Instagram jail like every other day. Okay. So I've I've definitely seen it. I mean, aside from the sexism, I mean that's that's the main thing is they're like, how could a woman possibly have any valid opinion on dirt bikes? But yeah, um it's a good old boy sport. And a couple weeks ago I posted, I said I think that a lot of people um are not qualified for their jobs in Moto, they've just stayed around the longest, and that ruffles the others. And yeah, so you know that's another reason why I'm like I will never I will never hang my hat on paying all my bills with Moto, but I I still do love it, even though I've I've definitely the peak behind the curtain this last year has been interesting.

SPEAKER_04 1:58:23

Are you watching what is that? Oh, um Despicable Me, the minions. Oh, we love minions. Yeah. Okay, go get a snack. Um she'll be three in May.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:40

Oh, fine.

SPEAKER_04 1:58:41

It's wild. It is wild. I've been uh having an unexpectedly difficult time with like the concept of time and watching her grow up. Um some like very unexpected bouts of like intense like sadness and depression. Like didn't I didn't know that that was a thing at all.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:05

Yeah, but I think I have like memory loss like from the early, like early days with postpartum, and I we talk about that with my therapist now. It's a it's definitely a thing. And you're just like, where did it go?

SPEAKER_04 1:59:16

Yeah, it's really been yeah, a lot more difficult than I ever expected. Yeah, wild.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:26

Um parenthood changes you.

SPEAKER_04 1:59:28

Yeah, it does. Yeah. Um so wouldn't you for your your full-time job, what are you are you freelance? Are you like employed by someone?

SPEAKER_05 1:59:39

Or yeah, I uh I work a very corporate, very boring nine to five. Um, I work for uh a large um software company, and my title is technically like a creative ops manager. And so it's basically like I, you know, we're kind of talking about earlier where I develop systems and processes for our creatives to just be more creative and do less like like I like to call it digital paperwork. Um I do work really closely with all of our creatives and project managers and file asset managers and things like that. Um, but it is I I don't view that work as like my passion by any means. Like it is, it's definitely it pays the bills. Um it allowed me to go to IOP, you know, to to go to the treatment program. And um yeah, really um able to have the flexibility to do this. You know, I record on Mondays. Hi, sister. What's up? Hi, dear. She's so sweet. I see you. I see you. Oh my gosh. I'm I'm like tearing up. I miss this age. Oh my gosh. Mine are mine are eight and five, so they're very much out of this phase. But yeah, yeah. Sweet thing. Yeah. So um, yeah, work in a corporate setting. Uh, it's very boring, but I love my job. I love, I love my coworkers. I love having the flexibility to take off a Friday and go to a race, and um, they're fascinated by Real Housewives and Moto, and uh they love the drama side of it. So I'm like, see, there's a way to market the sports, people that don't even care about dirt bikes, they just want to hear about motod drama.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:07

Yeah, no, for sure. What um is there I mean, I know you've kind of touched on it, but is there a goal or objective at all with what you're doing with Real Housewives or just straight passion?

SPEAKER_05 2:01:20

Yeah, I I went into it just wanting more girlfriends to follow the sport with. Um, I'm I'm looking at a a letter that they they named themselves Roomies, they are Real Housewives and Moto homies, Romies. Okay. Coolest thing ever. I think I I'm wearing my sweatshirts. Romy. Nice, nice. Um, I know. Um, she wrote me a letter just about like creating a space for women, and she actually sent me um a set of brock tickle gear because tickle was like one of my early like favorite riders ever. So she sent me full signed brock tickle gear, which was incredible. Um it's my show now. Um, and so that was the original objective, was just like, I'm gonna post my like unhinged commentary about Moto and that I love Moto and that I love the wives and I love the drama, and I, you know, I just want to talk about it from a female perspective. And then it really did turn into a little bit of Moto TMZ because people started to trust me. I I mean, all of these people, I was talking to someone on the Feld side and they were like, like, all the wives follow you. Like, are you friends with all these people? And I'm like, friends? No, but internet, internet friends, yes. And so what's really been cool is just to like treat the sport and the riders with respect and the wives with respect and the information that you get out of that because it's just been incredible. So I'm like, what do I do with this kind of like accidental platform? You know, we're coming in on like 10,000 followers, which is wild to think that 10,000 people care about what I have to say about dirt bikes. Um, but I really I think I want to pivot into um like an event planning community-centric deal. So that's you know, you heard it here first. So um there is uh a very high-end um niche for women's travel to F1 races. And she's so sweet. She's like, I'm we're talking right now. Um, and so I'd really like to do that. I know that obviously like there's a lot more money in F1, but I just think like how fun would it be so cool to like go to Anaheim 1 with like 20 girls? Like, I planned a listener meetup for Maine Event Moto at Anaheim One that had 80 listeners, and that was insane. I'll never do that again. But like, how fun would it be to like go to a race with all your favorite girlfriends and like talk shit about all the things we talk shit about on you know, yeah, off record. And um, but I think just being objective and being on the outside of it and and telling those stories and trying to get more women to fall in love with the sport that I love is really kind of the the whole MO.

SPEAKER_04 2:03:42

Yeah, nice. That's cool. I like you on down. Okay. Um like we're out.

SPEAKER_05 2:03:47

Bye, Violet.

SPEAKER_04 2:03:48

We hate our appearance. Um yeah, being I feel like trying to be as objective as you can be and like the trust amongst, at least on my end, what I experience, like the trust among the writers and the wives, like it goes a long ways for them to realize you're not there to blow them out, or like you're not one of the media guys, just trying to, you know, get the story, yeah. And like not uh caring about anything else outside of that. And I I really one of my goals, I really want to get Amber Barcia on the podcast. I've mentioned that to her in the past, and she's each time she's been like, yeah, and then it just never has worked out. You want Uppy again? But she's fascinating, she's one of my all-time favorites. So interesting to me because I just know her like what little I know about her background outside of dirt bikes is like she's got I think a master's in psychology and criminal justice. Criminology, yeah. Yeah, and I'm just like that. Like, I is just so interesting to me. And I haven't reached out, like we when Justin got hurt at A1. Um, I reached out and we were uh talking, and I was like, hey, anything anything you guys need, let me know. Like I can get stuff from work to get you guys like whatever you need, like just let me know. And so we were talking during that period. Um but I haven't like followed up with her about the podcast stuff in quite a while. But she's one of them where like just doing the Moto Spy stuff, she there was a few things she had asked me, like, hey, can you please not shoot this or that just because of certain sponsor obligations and whatnot? I don't I don't that's fine, I don't care. And she was like thank you so much, because some people, you know, they'll just they don't give that respect. And I'm like, I I'm not tricked here to ruin anybody, you know. Yeah, that goes a long way of like them knowing you're not a fool and that they you're someone that they can trust, and if you you know, you hit them up and you're like, hey, would you be down to do this? You're like, oh yeah, let's go do it because I know you're not a fool.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:02

Yeah. Um, yeah, the lack of professionalism in the sport has shocked me. Like, like I I even it coming out of my mouth, like I'm like, I yeah, yeah, we'll say that.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:17

Amber's one that I mean, like even this weekend, like I posted, I was so encouraged by the way that Ducati was talking about like not rushing Justin back and just doing things differently. And you know, she's like, Thank you for like understanding it, and like, you know, like I how could a how could a fellow mom and wife like not sympathize with what Justin's gone through this year and what they're going through, you know? Like I'm thankful for that that piece that we got on them, them, but I'm like, every every family is doing this, every couple, every, you know, whatever. I'm just like, we have so much brand equity that we could build in by just telling the relationship story, you know, of of all these writers. And I'm just like, yeah, like I'm pretty sure like Chase and his girlfriend broke up while Chase was being neurotic and being chase. Like, why are we not talking about this? You know? But then there is a large swath of the demographic that somehow tends to find me that's like, leave relationships out of dirt bikes. Like, this has nothing to do with racing. And I'm like, but it does, you can't separate it.

SPEAKER_04 2:07:12

It does, it is part of it. I've seen it. I mean, I was in it for 16 years, and I've I've seen it like that stuff affects the results and the motivation, and it it's sad, but I mean that's it's also just part of like human life. Like, yeah, anybody that goes through a breakup, regardless of what you're doing, it's gonna, you know, to some degree affects the things happening around you, your work, all that. Um that Ducati piece was really good. Um the team manager over there, Josh, he was the team manager at Geico, and I worked when I was doing all the Geico stuff in 2020. Josh was a team manager at the time. So I got to work with him quite a bit. One of the best team managers I've ever come across. And like I'm so stoked that he's at Ducati, and it's a lot of the old school Geico crew over there now. And Josh knows what he's doing, and he's the fact that he's not rushing Justin to just hey, come back when it's safe. Like that shows the type of leader he is. And I hope a lot of people that saw that were like, oh yeah, like that's someone that cares about their athlete. It's not about trying to rush him to appease a sponsor. Like the dude probably could have died if it wasn't for that Alpine Star thing.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:29

I think that's what we all thought we witnessed there for a second.

SPEAKER_04 2:08:31

I did, yeah. I only saw the crash one time and I I haven't seen it again, and I don't want to. Um but yeah, I'd rather have Justin around for another three to five years because he took enough time off this year than rush him, and we only get him for another year or two, or something else happens, you know.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:51

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I feel like that's we didn't get a full RV, we didn't get a full dungeon. Like I think that these guys just got so burnt out on so many levels from you know, travel to racing to media stuff, you know. So yeah, I'm I'm totally here for for whatever keeps these guys around longer. And I'm I I think the fatherhood part of it, I talk about it all the time. The like moto in its dad era is my favorite moto yet or moto favorite era yet. Yeah, um, I think that's got something to do with it. I think that's I think that's so cool. And I yeah, I just keep coming back to it. It's like tell those stories, like you know. Like I I remember I posted last year right after uh Austin Faulkner and and Riley Faulkner had their baby, and I was like, where does this baby sleep when you bring them to the races? Like, do you get a separate hotel room? Like, do you wake up and you try to keep Austin sleeping? Like, these are things that like moms and female viewers and parents want to know, you know, like how are you making this work? Um, it just seems like you know, endless content, but you gotta get, yeah, you gotta build the trust, you gotta get them, you know, comfortable, you know. Yeah, yeah. I had sides. I've learned that one the hard way.

SPEAKER_04 2:09:57

Um it was a long time ago. I don't know who it was for. I was doing work for one of the media outlets, I don't remember who it was, but I had pitched an idea of like, hey, let's do like a whole series on the wives. Um, and here's like it's like a five-episode thing, each episode a different wife. And I I was told that it was not interesting and no one would want to watch it.

SPEAKER_05 2:10:18

So I was like, I will pay for that. I will I will personally sponsor that. So I was I was joking. I'm like, if I won the lottery, like I would have a paid chef and I would make the kind of moto content I want to consume.

SPEAKER_04 2:10:29

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:10:30

Like straight up. And I honestly, I think it really would come down to like money and time. Like, I obviously like I can't pay you know people to come on the show, like you know, pulp does, pulp flies everybody in or whatever. Um, but like I've I've told Amber, I'm like, oh my gosh, like if I was in town, you know, in Talhassi, like visiting family, like I would love to just like spend a day with you guys and like show what it looks like to be a normal family that also happens to like ride a dirt scooter for a living, you know? Yeah, yeah. I again, this is the Barcha Appreciation show. Like, I after the Jason Anderson stuff came to light, I just remember telling Amber, I was like, thank you for showing like a healthy marriage and healthy fathership. And, you know, not to shit on Jason, we don't have to go there, but you know, just like you can be normal and healthy and thriving in this sport and not have that weaponized against you. And I think that I think it's changing. I do, excuse me, I do, but it's it's not fast enough for my liking. I'm like, let's go. Like, let's go, let's explode.

SPEAKER_04 2:11:29

Yeah, for sure. Um, yeah, I I want to reach out to Amber again. I want to um like have more females on the show, and like especially like I think the wives is still an interesting thing to me, like we've been talking about. And I'm like, that's been on the back of my mind the last few months of like trying to reach out to more of those. I reached out to Paige and she was like, Yeah, let's do it. And then she's a busy woman. Yes, so like then I never heard anything again, and I'm Like I don't even it's not personal because I she got three kids plus Christian, which is yeah, essentially a fourth kid, as she would always tell me.

SPEAKER_05 2:12:08

So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:12:10

Um yeah, it'd be cool to tell more of those stories because I do think they're they're interesting, and it's like I got I have got a whole novel of questions.

SPEAKER_05 2:12:17

When when and if you get page, we I got I got a bunch perfect that are off off track questions.

SPEAKER_04 2:12:23

I should I'll I'll maybe I'll I'll text her today, I'll follow up because I know she'll be like, oh my god, I'm so sorry. Like it's fine. It's fine.

SPEAKER_05 2:12:30

Uh there's yeah, there's lots of lots of people who are interested in their lives, and honestly, I mean with Hayden and this next generation of people that have grown up on the internet, like they're only I mean I feel like Tomac is the last of a of a breed that can like really get away with like not having a presence online at all.

SPEAKER_01 2:12:47

I know, you know, you know.

SPEAKER_05 2:12:49

I mean he's the he's really the last one. I mean, like Kenny would be the next one, but Kenny, I mean, he's got almost two million followers, and so it's like that next generation, like really is living online. I mean, Jet's girlfriend Dylan, like she's she's got millions of followers, and so those stories are gonna be already out there, it's just gonna take somebody to like consolidate them and tell them. Um because you're not just like you know, if you're dating Hayden Deegan, you're gonna be in the spotlight.

SPEAKER_03 2:13:14

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:16

I posted about it this morning, his ex-girlfriend drama.

SPEAKER_04 2:13:19

Oh boy. Um what um only a couple more things and we'll get it wrapped up. Um I know you you touched on it, but uh being a female, a part of the dirt bike sport um is obviously interesting. How what's overall your experience been like and just kind of your your thoughts on that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:47

Um before Real Housewives Amoto, um it was generally pretty positive. Um, I mean, the guys from Made of Mamoto, like they've always treated me with such respect. I'm I've been on a number of shows with Daniel and like always good camaraderie. And every once in a while I'd like call into pulp or you know, get in the chat there. And it's funny, like the pulp side, like that was where people would be like, oh, this this is a girl, this she doesn't know what she's talking about, whatever. But anytime they would actually like take the time to like interact with me, it's like, okay, she obviously knows her stuff, like she she's neurotic about her stuff. Um, but then when I when I launched Real Housewives, I don't know, it just took a different tone. Um, and like I said, like that's why I bought that silly little check mark. Um, I got blocked by a whiskey throttle and all of them for disagreeing with some a take that they had on media, moto media. And um just didn't didn't think that like a no name, like someone not being in the industry could ruffle so many feathers. Um, but it always was like, you're causing drama, you're stirring things up, like don't talk about relationships, don't da-da-da-da. And I'm like, if these are things that like I'm having hundreds of conversations in my DMs with like my roamy sisters that I've made friends with, I was like, then clearly it's worth talking about because it's interesting, you know? And again, the Jason Anderson thing, people were like, we shouldn't be talking about it. I'm like, if you're a high-level athlete that's arrested in the offseason and then it just happens to like go under the radar for two months, like I think we should be talking about that. Um, but it's been met with a lot of um, I don't want to say criticism. Jen, if I post about Hayden, I've learned my lesson. I don't I don't post about Hayden because the bed bugs come out of nowhere. They are the worst. Are they are they like Swifties? Yeah, no, but like mean and dumb. I have to tell myself, I think that a lot of Hayden's like crazies are like they were Hayden fans, they weren't Moto fans, they've just become Moto fans through Hayden.

SPEAKER_01 2:15:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:39

Um, but yeah, met with a lot of negativity early on. Like, she can't possibly know what she's talking about. You're causing drama, all that. And then I just realized like that's what has made me build these great connections with the women of the sport. And so I'm like, that's my demographic. I don't need to listen to like, you know, the haters who, you know, you can't say anything. You tell you could say Hayden's wearing a blue shirt and he'd be like, no, it's Navy. That's those are his fans, you know, I'm not gonna argue with them. Um and I do think that like women are always gonna have a different perspective on on everything, duh. But sports in particular, and I you're seeing a real surgence of that. I mean, the Olympics had female content creators. Um I'm trying to think of her name. Um, Travis Kelsey, not Travis Kelsey, the other Kelsey's wife. Like, love her.

SPEAKER_04 2:16:23

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:16:25

And I just I just think that like women aren't going anywhere. Like, it sounds stupid to say that. So um, if I can be one of the first people to like pull up a chair to the table for a moto conversation and you know, bring my sisters along, like in her lane, Monica and Hannah. And um, like, why not? Because, you know, like the piece that I wrote, like, we're big financial decision makers, especially millennials, and all the moto moms that are raising their kids in amateur moto, like, you know, they've got some good opinions and you know, they're worth they're worth listening to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:16:54

Yeah. I saw um the Hannah when um oh my god, Ellie Reed was just on. Yeah, yeah, that was a good one. Her her talking about like she would never sacrifice her relationship with her kids for a trophy, and Hannah was like, Yes, say it louder for all the people in the back. I'm like, Yep. I sent it to like Nathan and a few other of my friends, and I'm like, this is a conversation that needs to be had more because no one's really talking about it, and it's very true. Like your relationship with your kid should be come before the dirt bike, or what like who cares at the end of the day? Like, you really want to lose your the relationship with your kid over dirt bikes, especially how many kids now? Like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 2:17:41

And how many times has it happened in the sport? I mean, I know I know currently of one factory team that has a parent clause in their contracts that stipulates by rider, so it's different for each rider, but they have a parent clause that says this is the amount of access we're allowing your parent to have, and this is what they're gonna do, and this is what they're not gonna do. Like, because they've been burned, because there's been over involved parents, which I also understand. I mean, that's a very weird transition when you're the parent of an amateur and you've been there everything, you've been their mechanic, you've taken them into the races, you've double mortgaged the home, you've gotten the motor home, and then they go pro. I mean, that's a very weird transition. But yeah, to your point, to Ellie's point, I would never put that in front of my relationship with my kid. Yeah. I just, whew. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:18:23

No, no. I one of the the coolest clips I think I have when I was doing the flight plan stuff. It was at I don't know if it was 2021 or 2022. It was oh 21 maybe. Because it was at Hangtown, it was the last round, and Jet was like getting ready to clinch the title, and it was in between Motos 1 and Moto Motos Moto 1 and Moto 2. And Dazzy I had Dazzie mic'd up, and I remember, but before Moto 2, Dazzy like looked at me, had the camera on him, and he looks at me and he's like, Well, we're either gonna win it or we won't. It's that simple. It was something like that, and I was like, and I remember everyone at Red Bull too, they were like, Oh my god, that is such a great clip because it like encapsulates his approach to things where it's like it's pretty simple. We either win or we lose, and that that's it. Like and he I wasn't the craziest Lawrence fan, just but I think it had a lot to do with like the Lucas stuff. Um but my like when all that stuff came out and there was like a few people that had asked me, they were like, Oh, do you think like this is true? Like Dazzy's like abusing his kids, and I'm like, no, there's never once in the three years, whatever I was around them, four years, did I ever got an inkling of anything like that. Like Dazzy was very good with Jet and Hunter, still is good with Jet and Hunter, like very even killed, very mellow. Yes, he's involved, but he like have a look at what they've built, you know. And they've done it the right way, I feel like. Um like I didn't, I'm like, no, there's even when cameras are off and no one's looking type thing, and when I've been around in the in the house and whatnot, there's no they're if you didn't know they rode dirt bikes, you wouldn't know. It's just a normal family.

SPEAKER_05 2:20:15

I that I mean, that's my favorite story to follow. You know, I I know there are riders in the sport that are different when the camera's on, and I'm like, those are not the ones I'm interested in because I don't know who you are. I don't know, yeah, I mean, I know who you are on the track, but then you come off and I'm like, I don't, I don't care to follow you. You know, it's the the APs and the Malcolms and the ones that people are like, they're the same on and off the track. Like, yeah, those are the people that are gonna build their own brand equity outside of dirt bikes because they're authentic and people want to follow that. Authenticity is currency, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_04 2:20:46

Yeah, very like that's very true. Um okay, I'm gonna fire off a few things uh that I ask everyone at the end, some of which I'm probably sure you've you're ready for.

SPEAKER_05 2:20:57

Um had to think of a few. Like, don't change them up on me because I think I know one of them.

SPEAKER_04 2:21:02

You need you at least knew one or two of them. Um realist, optimist, or pessimist?

SPEAKER_05 2:21:09

I am a realist and I teeter on pessimism, but I'm definitely not an optimist, and I'm working on that. Okay, but I'm for sure a realist. I'm very much in my head. My therapist likes to say I am a body carrying around a brain, and that I am I'm a realist because I'm constantly in the moment.

SPEAKER_04 2:21:31

Yeah. Okay. Uh guilty pleasure.

SPEAKER_05 2:21:36

Oh, guilty pleasure. I know I was thinking about this one, then that can't be moto related because like I literally will just like go down a rabbit hole of moto content, and I'm so I guess I'll say moto content, which sounds so cheesy, but there's such crap moto content out there right now that like my guilty pleasure is like watching it and being like, somebody's just thinking they're gonna get so rich off this YouTube, and it's terrible. Like, yeah, so I think maybe like the hate, the hate on bad moto content is a guilty pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 2:22:07

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:22:08

Um, but yeah, motocontent bad moto content. Okay, we won't name names.

SPEAKER_04 2:22:13

Um who's uh right now, who's like your favorite writer?

SPEAKER_05 2:22:18

Okay, I'm a Ken Roxan fan through and through. I finally finally got my signed jersey hung up on the wall, otherwise it would be behind me on the floor. Yeah, Courtney uh I came over and saw them at uh Des Nations and Courtney like slid it into my bag. So I saw the jersey and I was like, Oh my gosh, thank you. And then when I got back, I showed my friends and they were like, Allie, it's autographed to you. And I just bawled, like crying on the side of the track at Des Nations. People are like, What's wrong with you?

SPEAKER_04 2:22:42

That's cool. Courtney's so rad. She's she's such a sweetheart.

SPEAKER_05 2:22:45

I I haven't seen her in a while, but uh she's a brilliant business mind. Like cool, yeah. So she's Kenny, Kenny on 450s, um 250s. I'm a Cold Davies fan. So okay, big Cold Davies fan.

SPEAKER_04 2:22:58

Okay, young in. All right. Um, and then if you could have dinner with three people, dead or alive, who would they be?

SPEAKER_05 2:23:06

Um, the first one, my grandfather died right before I was born. Um, and I am the only female cousin, sibling, any I all I have is brothers and cousins. So I would love to meet my grandfather who always wanted a girl and never got it. So I thought that would be really cool. Um Freddie Mercury. I'm a huge Queen fan.

SPEAKER_04 2:23:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:23:29

And I just think Freddie is like a fascinating character study. Like, yeah, just from a creative perspective, um being an expat in a different country, the physical stuff he went through. I mean, all everything. I just think of his his whole life and the way he approached things. Um, and then the last one, it's funny, you said this in one of your episodes, but Walt Disney. I am a Disney adult and I have no shame, but I also think someone that has that kind of okay. She's like, listen to me, Dad. Listen, right now. I think somebody that has that kind of creative vision and also like a commercial brain, too, is fascinating. So I feel like Walt Disney would be such an interesting.

SPEAKER_04 2:24:09

Did you see on Disney Plus the fuck, what is it called? They just released it. It's like a hour-long documentary on the making of Disneyland, but it's all unreleased footage from Walt from like day one of the grand opening building it.

SPEAKER_05 2:24:24

Oh no, I'll have to go back and look because I I like all that content.

SPEAKER_04 2:24:27

Like, give me a look this up right now because it like because that's my wife and I worked at Disneyland. That's how we met. Um, really? Yeah, we were jungle cruise. We were jungle cruises.

SPEAKER_05 2:24:36

Florida raised in Florida. I've never been to Disneyland, I've only been to Disney World. And my family that work in those parks too. So we're big Disney people.

SPEAKER_04 2:24:46

Okay, oh, handcrafted.

SPEAKER_05 2:24:47

Handcrafted, okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:24:49

Plus, I I got it to watch it. It had it's like an hour so long of just unreleased footage that no one's ever seen of like Walt like them building Disneyland, and it is oh man, like the by the end of it, like there were some of it that I was like kind of emotional because I'm like, oh my god, like just from like you were saying, like a creative standpoint, like this was in this dude's mind and the way he had it all mapped out and planned, and like from a logistical standpoint, just like the creative aspect. I'm like, this is nothing's been done like it since.

SPEAKER_05 2:25:24

Yeah, yeah. I I it's funny, like, I was I was listening to whatever episode where you said Disney, um, after we had come back from Disney World in January, and I remember being at Disney World and thinking, like, this is the first generation of second generation taking their kids to Disney World, not land. Um, so like my grandmother took my mom, and then my mom took me with my grandmother. And so now me taking my kids, that's that's now the third generation. And so, in you know, this millennial nostalgic realm that we're in, you know, coming into our buying power, I'm like, millennials understand the power of nostalgia and the power of memory. And it's like, it's like Walt knew that like 40 years ago, you know? And I just think it's I like just going to Disney, um, seeing it through my kids' eyes. Like we we came back and I was like, I need to buy a candle that smells like the water at Pirates of Caribbean because I want those feels.

SPEAKER_01 2:26:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:15

It's coming, it's in the mail. Um, yeah, so it's just the power of nostalgia, and then also someone who understands that from both a creative and a commercial mindset. Like, my I don't have that skill set. So I'm fascinated by Walt Disney.

SPEAKER_04 2:26:28

Yeah, yeah. I highly, highly recommend whenever you have time, watch it. I'm doing it right now. It is it is beautiful. And like, like I said, by the end, I was like, man, this is like I'm like emotional right now. And I don't know why. I mean, I guess it's like that's where I worked, that's where my wife and I met. We have, I mean, we really can't afford them, but we have passes and we take Violet and I'm so jealous. I'm so jealous.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:49

Yeah, so yeah, every time I've gone for Anaheim One and we don't get to go to Disneyland, I'm like, I'm so close.

SPEAKER_04 2:26:55

I literally, it's five minutes down to Tela. It's right there. You're so jealous.

SPEAKER_05 2:27:00

I'm so jealous. One of these times we're gonna come out for dirt bikes and Disney. So I'm like my two favorite things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:27:06

Um, sweet. Is there anything else you want to add on that we didn't touch on?

SPEAKER_05 2:27:12

No, I think just come follow along, Real Housewives, join the join the shit show. Real Housewives of Moto. Yeah, all right. Going for the copyright and all the all the legal things. So yeah. Perfect. Sweet. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, it was fun. Hit stop.