Once I meet any individual new, the subject of labor inevitably comes up. For 4 years, I’ve struggled to respond to the straightforward query, “What do you do?”— my fact is each advanced and surreal, and a few days, I will be able to rarely consider it myself.
I’m a motorbike influencer. I’m additionally a author, public speaker, neighborhood builder and the Government Director of All Our bodies on Motorcycles. But when I’m actually fair about it, maximum of my source of revenue comes from influencer-type paintings. This implies leveraging my on-line presence and private emblem to advertise merchandise, products and services or reports. It’s a hustle and in reality a large number of paintings, however it may also be profitable. Closing 12 months, I earned greater than I did in my company profession in sustainable logistics.
How I turned into an Influencer
Once I were given into biking in 2014, social media was once well-established, and I had just about a decade of enjoy in documenting my lifestyles on-line and including content material about my new biking obsession to my fledgling Instagram following made sense. I additionally wrote about my rides on my private weblog, sharing itineraries, equipment lists and shuttle inspiration. I might file the demanding situations I encountered as a plus-size bicycle owner, in particular with discovering clothes that have compatibility and was once appropriate for the adventures I used to be occurring.
My love of biking temporarily became an all-encompassing way of life. I commuted to and from paintings by way of motorcycle, I penned articles for the Seattle Biking Weblog, offered a bikepacking journey at an area motorcycle storytelling evening, turned into a typical at the native Thursday evening social experience, and grew increasingly more lively in safer-streets advocacy paintings. I documented all of this on my social media, rising a following of fellow motorcycle nerds and lovers and, as unusual because it sounds, I began to make a reputation for myself.
During my biking adventure, together with my social media presence, I’ve continually been unapologetic about my frame length. I reside in a bigger frame and self-describe as a fats girl. I’ve additionally continually been adamant that I don’t experience my motorcycle to shed extra pounds. This perspective resonated with a big target audience – one who’s been underserved by way of and unrepresented within the motorcycle business for a very long time.
In 2020, Shimano made a movie about me and my buddy, Kailey Kornhauser and the paintings we have been beginning to do round length inclusion in biking. The documentary, All Our bodies on Motorcycles, adopted us on a 60-mile bikepacking shuttle thru Oregon and dove immediately into the realities of being a fats athlete. The movie was once met with large acclaim, incomes honours at more than one movie fairs, together with Filmed by way of Motorcycle and a Vimeo Personnel Select Award.
After this movie was once launched, my lifestyles modified in more than one techniques. I had received the ear of the motorcycle business and located myself in conversations with world manufacturers, discussing the significance of length inclusion. Those conversations led to private sponsorships from manufacturers like Cannondale, Shimano and Shredly, who stay my sponsors as of late.
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With those sponsorships, I will be able to technically name myself a qualified bicycle owner—and on occasion, I do. However I am not paid to face on podiums (let’s be fair: except they’re paying for closing position, I wouldn’t have a shot). As a substitute, my price lies within the communities I construct and domesticate, like The Wheels of Welcome program I created for Unbound Gravel, The Rad and Large Sugar Gravel.
I have labored exhausting to construct partnerships that receive advantages each my target audience and the manufacturers I collaborate with. For me, selling a product or emblem isn’t with reference to a paycheck—it’s about authenticity. If I don’t in reality revel in the usage of one thing or it doesn’t align with my values, I received’t endorse it. I’ve grew to become down a lot of gives—together with some baffling ones from manufacturers that don’t even make my length. Transparency is similarly non-negotiable: I’m meticulous about disclosing paid content material, obviously labelling it so my target audience continually is aware of the place I stand.
The main points of each and every sponsorship range from emblem to emblem however my source of revenue in large part is composed of:
Representing manufacturers as an envoy and athlete by way of the usage of and dressed in their merchandise in all of my motorcycle occasions and receiving a quarterly paycheck for that workCreating explicit social media content material, like reels and tales, to in particular advertise a product for a emblem, paid by way of the piece of contentParticipating in activations, like motorcycle rides or panels at motorcycle occasions the place fanatics get to engage immediately with meProduct collaborations, such because the Marley Pill assortment with Shredly, the place I earn a proportion of salesAffiliate advertising and marketing: I earn a small fee from manufacturers on every occasion certainly one of my fans makes a purchase order the usage of a cut price code or hyperlink I’ve supplied them.
Whilst my on-line presence continues to develop, with greater than 41,300 fans on the time of writing this newsletter, I’ll admit that I’m spending much less time on-line at the present time. Whilst I revel in documenting my rides, sharing recommendation and fostering a neighborhood on-line, content material advent and social media can once in a while really feel like a grind. Between coping with unfavorable feedback and interpreting the always-changing set of rules, content material advent is unquestionably now not for the faint of middle.
The actual praise of my paintings
Fortuitously, my source of revenue isn’t solely tied to content material advent. In truth, I spend maximum of my time operating at the non-profit that was once created after the movie’s good fortune. Formally included as a non-profit in 2023, All Our bodies on Motorcycles is operating against a extra size-inclusive biking global thru advocacy, training and neighborhood. We lately have 14 chapters national and a gravel staff. We not too long ago have been awarded a grant that can permit me to be paid a wage for the primary time in 3 years, assuaging a large number of monetary tension.
The truth of being an influencer in 2025 is that you just’re continually hustling, searching for the following alternative to generate profits. In my global, that implies I additionally co-host a podcast, write for this newsletter, give keynote talks and create social media content material for manufacturers.
As I take into accounts my long term objectives, I’m now not concerned with conventional influencer metrics like follower rely or collection of likes. As a substitute, I glance to the wider image: rising the All Our bodies on Motorcycles motion, growing extra inclusive biking areas and increasing my partnerships to additional accessibility in biking.
