Ep. 99 w Arleigh Greenwald Transcript

[00:00:00] Arleigh: Whoa. This is like a TV show (audio from opening video)
A set time blocked out in your schedule to see friends commit to your bike, commit to your physical and mental health and ride we're back here's to the weekly group ride and finding your people on the bike.

[00:00:45] John: Hi, everyone. Welcome to the active towns podcast conversations about creating a culture of activity. My name is John Simmerman. I'm the founder of the active towns initiative, and I'm honored to serve as your host each week on this podcast journey. Thank you so much for tuning in. It's always wonderful to have you along for the ride.

Today is Friday, November 5th, 2021. And this is episode number 99 and I'm super excited and honored to finally. Arleigh Greenwald, aka Bike Shop Girl on the pod. We've been talking about this for awhile, but she's been a bit busy over the past year or so with a move across the country. I know. Awesome new job with turned bicycles, raising a family all well, continuing to create a ton of high quality content of her own.
All of which we'll talk about in some detail in just a moment, but before we roll into all of that, please allow me a brief moment to say that this episode is once again being brought to you by the generous contributions of our donors, sponsors and monthly patrons on our Patreon page. Thank you so much, folks.

I seriously couldn't do this without your support to make a donation, just head over to my website at activetowns.org and navigate to the donation page. And please note any amount helps a great deal. It's also worth mentioning that there are a few other ways that you can help support my efforts. The first, if you're listening to this episode is to simply subscribe to the audio podcast on your preferred platform.
The second is to subscribe to the active town's YouTube channel. Just be sure to click on the bell next to the subscribe button so that you'll get an alert when I post a new video. And finally, please help me to spread the word about the act of towns initiative and my content by sharing it with anyone who you think might benefit from it.

Thank you all so much for tuning in and for whatever support you're able to provide. As I strive to grow this movement, to create a culture of activity for all ages and abilities. Okay, let's get rolling with my conversation with the Bike Shop Girl, Arleigh Greenwald.

Well, Hey, this is John with the Active Towns Initiative and I am so delighted to have a good friend online here with me. Joining me on the active towns podcast. Arleigh Greenwald. Welcome.

[00:03:00] Arleigh: Oh, I'm so excited to finally be here. I think three years ago, you walked into my bike shop and were like, we should record a podcast sometime.

And you've been a huge part of all the changes that I've had in my life. And so I'm glad I feel like I'm finally settled enough to have this conversation with you.

[00:03:21] John: Yeah, I totally remember that day. And if I also remember that day, it was way before I even dreamt of doing my own podcast. Because I was at the time traveling all over the country, all over the world filming and doing video work and trying to basically put stuff in the can for a future documentary that, is really unknown.

What the status on that is whether I can get back to traveling and get back to that life. But in the end, The pandemic project that came up was me doing a podcast and it's been a hoot.

[00:03:55] Arleigh: And they're so fun to watch. I, if for some reason you found this because you're a follower of mine, I will also, personally put my favorite episodes, on my website because you've done such a great job of like hitting a great spectrum of people and conversations.

And I realized that's just, you, you're plugged into so many different aspects of active transportation and biking and tourism and things.

[00:04:22] John: Yeah. Well, thank you. Well, it's a, it's basically a, mutual adoration fast here. That's for darn sure. But let's, do this. Let's take a pause for a moment and figure out, who are Lee is and who bike shop girl is.

So why don't you walk us through. That, that story real quickly, because I think as we talk throughout the episode today in different aspects of it, I do it. It's just a thumbnail sketch of who you are and, and where you are and how you got there.

[00:04:53] Arleigh: Yeah. I'll hit inflection points. So I started Bike Shop Girl, 11, 12 years ago when I worked in a bike shop, I was managing a couple of stores and I was the token woman, you know, and I was the token woman on all of Charlotte, North Carolina, where I.

Well known because I was a female in bike shops and raced and was pretty active in advocacy. And whenever women in the area had questions, they would seek me out. And I realized at that time I was a blogger. I was running a website called commute by bike on the side. And I just started answering the questions that women would ask me in the store or locally online.

So I started Bike Shop Girl, because I just felt like there wasn't a safe place for women if they didn't have another woman when they walked into a bike shop to ask those questions too. So it was everything from , don't wear underwear under your cycling shorts to showing people how I commuted by bike because I didn't own a car.

And that kind of just spun, and it was fun for me because my background is marketing and advertising. So I was able to build a brand as a side hustle and then. Actually, you got me a job in an advertising agency. And that took me a little, I would say I spent a few years going between ad agencies and brand side.
And then we moved to Colorado in 2013, started having kids fell in love with cargo biking because cargo bikes allowed me to still be a cyclist, but bring my kids along. Cause I hate driving and. Two or three years after having kids and falling in love with cargo bikes, realizing that there really wasn't anywhere to send folks locally.

And I really wanted a family bike shop where I could send my female friends, but also just felt different than any bike shop. I had been a part of where the focus was more on the story and experience of where your bikes take you and less about the tech and the tool of a bike and the Watts and the performance.
And most cargo bike owners. They don't care what weight their bike is. They care about how many kids it can hold, you know, the stopping power of the brakes, how easy it is to shift, and if they're going to be safe and enjoy the ride. And so I opened up cargo bike shop and really was loving it. And that's when I saw John last, COVID happened and realized that we have all of the kids in the family in Colorado and all of our families on the east coast. So ultimately closed down the shop to move back to the east coast. So I live in Durham, North Carolina now. And in that process of closing down, I was able to set my friend up to take over the lease and the space.

And he picked up and opened his own cargo bike shop in the same space. So it felt good that I was passing that along. And I reached out to some of my favorite friends within my favorite bike brand, which is Tern and was offered a job that was about a year ago at this point. And I've just really enjoyed the process of taking what I did every day in a bike shop and applying that to a bike brand, to dealers across north America and globally, and giving resources to dealers and consumers that are.

I wished I had when I managed a bike shop or owned a bike shop. And when I owned or was trying to purchase a cargo bike, what questions I had. So now I feel like I need to like lay down on a couch to talk through this, but now most of my work is focused on turn bicycles and then bike shop girls really evolved back into just me and not a bike shop, not truly a brand, a faceless brand.

It's really just me now. And moving into this idea of, active living and being a well-rounded person, but focusing on health and wellness, but much like active towns focusing on how do I get people out of cars, but maybe it's not just a bike, and trying to fit that. This whole idea of like storytelling and solving problems that people don't realize that they have, you know, if it's sitting in the commuting line for pickup and drop off, I just did a video of, I biked to my local trail head where I was running and some people were like, oh, I could totally do that.

And so trying to open up my lens, if you're a photographer, opening up my lens a little bit more to capture more people outside of just folks Googling for cargo bike and e-bike tech and getting them aware of what is out there and opportunities that e-bikes and cargo bikes and bikes for transportation could offer them.

[00:10:03] John: Yeah. That is such good stuff.

[00:10:06] Arleigh: It's a lot, right? You and I text a lot and it's an interesting. Macro view

[00:10:13] John: , you covered a lot of ground there, and I'm glad you did because we'll go back and look a little bit more deeply at a couple of different aspects of what you brought up whenever we do just like a, an overview like that, we kind of skip over some of the detail.

And so I'm going to fill in just a little bit of detail on one aspect of your story there. And that was the bike shop. The bike shop was not just a cargo bike shop. I mean, this was really an amazing activity asset for an entire community. And, I think part of the tagline of the name of the bike shop was Family Cyclery or something along those lines.

So it was very much a place. It was a solutions place. It wasn't just a place to like hock stuff, you know, sell bikes and cool bikes, which is, there's nothing wrong with that. But you were all about. Empowerment and solutions and helping people get the right tool for their situation. Talk a little bit about that, cause that's a little bit, of who you are and your brand.

[00:11:20] Arleigh: Yeah. I think it's one of the reasons I love Tern is because I didn't have to change my personal mission, which is just to get more people on bikes. And I think too often we get stuck in this idea that it has to be the way that we do it. Where if you're an everyday cyclist and you don't own a car, everybody that does it differently.

And I think that just comes from a sense of like empathy, but also just being a lifelong cyclist and really focusing on the end user experience. So my background in marketing is user experience design and asking a lot of questions and creating solutions. And to me, the bike shop was just that, by pulling in all of my passions of marketing, content creation and community advocacy and creating a community that I wanted my kids to grow up.

And that was different than anything available in the United States, especially in Colorado. And so asking a lot of questions, a good salesperson should just be, it's like your first date. That's how anytime I've trained sales staff. They should be talking the most and you should just be asking questions and figuring out why somebody came in or where they were in their process and helping them solve their problems by asking them the question.

So they're leading themselves into whatever their result is going to be, but also in marketing and content creation, dripping different ideas, right? Where these are the ways that you could use your bike. You know, It doesn't mean it's the right solution for you now, but maybe you'll share it with your friend because it's the right solution for them.

Or when you go to Costco the next time, you're really excited to try to do it by bike because it looked like fun or it looked like a challenge. And so I think that is one place bike industry marketing has really. Dropped the ball, which is, we're not selling a story. We're always trying to sell like the destination that's epic or the journey that's epic instead of really taking a step back and looking at, automotive marketing, which is like, when you're looking at automotive marketing and for a minivan, they're showing you somebody with their hands full with groceries and you wave your foot under it.

And the minivan tailgate opens or why the sliding doors are cool because you're not hitting the doors, uh, next to you. And, and I think we need to be more solutions based of how to get people, to ride their bike more often. Right. And, overcome those barriers by asking people a lot of questions to figure out what those barriers are.

[00:14:13] John: And it brings up something that we talked about before we hit the record button, which is a little bit of your. Personal journey that that has been happening. And you alluded to it a little bit in your intro. there's been a bit of an evolution of, kind of the mindset and, and that makes sense. I mean, a lot of things have changed.

I mean, you're much more focused on, raising the family and many other things are happening, but your old tagline was Bike More Worry Less. And now it's, Move For Tomorrow. Talk a little bit about that evolution.

[00:14:46] Arleigh: Yeah. One of the things I realized probably in the last three to four months, it definitely, it was like this interesting, self brand.

I don't want to say like it crumbled around me, but I went from owning a bike shop that was 100% me to working for a bike brand and putting a lot of content and energy out. That is really what the hat of a bike brand. I would say 70% of what I was doing for Bike Shop Girl is now done for Tern, you know, helping customers, making content.

Then there's this 30%. That's just me, right? Like it's sharing photos, my new cats, you know, or, or helping, my neighbors, figure out how to get around Durham, where I live now. And there's also the mom piece of me, which is really focused on climate change and being as sustainable as possible, but making it relatable.

And so I'm hoping that I can take what worked at the bike shop. And what's worked as a bike marketer for a while, which is those things I just listed, which was like addressing barriers, making it relatable telling stories, but also to rebelling along these examples to be. Sustainable to focus on health and wellness.
And to get more people aware that biking is an option, but not leading all the time. That biking is the most important thing in my life. And depending on the audience, depending on maybe the video I'm creating, maybe I do talk about Bike More worry Less, or, you know, if you visit Bike Shop Girl, you can see that the tagline, which was the tag, like my mission for the bike shop, which was Empowering Daily Life by Bike.
I think that is a 1% niche right now. And me as a person, I want to move that needle to that Move For Tomorrow, which is my health and wellness, which is sustainability and a lot of those things. So like, you know, Empowering Daily Life by Bike is like removing those barriers that I did at the bike.

The idea of Move For Tomorrow is just my personal mantra so that I get up and do that run that I didn't really want to do because it's going to make me healthier and happier and more patient with my family or better for my, work meeting that I have in the middle of the night. And I think the bike world right now, we don't have enough of those champions that are higher up in the macro sense.

Phil cookie, eating Phil, he's been doing a lot of e-bike, awareness, , so pro cyclist, he's known for handing out cookies on the top of pro cycling hill climbs. He's been riding at you e-bike, and he's been promoting the heck out of it and it's wonderful, and so what I want to see is just more.

Awareness around this space. That like e-bikes, aren't cheating. They're just car replacements. And how can we as influencers as much as I hate that word, talk about it a little bit more in a, well-rounded way. You know that it's, it's not, I love the war against cars, right. But you're going to listen to that because you are an advocate.

And what I want to do is brainwash people further up the funnel. So they find War On Cars and think it's hilarious, you know, versus I think right now there's a lot of us versus them. My hope is with COVID and the pandemic really hitting, cycling hard,, where everyone fell in love with their bike, again, that we can keep those people rolling.

And I think to do that, it can't always be spandex. It can't always be epic adventures. It needs to be focusing on that idea of, you're moving because whatever drove you to that point, maybe it was for your health. Maybe it was for time with your family. Maybe it was, you wanted to lose weight.

Maybe it was just, you needed to get out of the house cause you work from home, whatever it might be focusing on those points a little bit more and less, the Strava segments or, the bike advocacy. That's just so extreme I am very fortunate. So my going back to the bike shop. My ultimate goal was to get my wife biking, to work more often.

[00:19:26] John: Right.

[00:19:26] Arleigh: And I had like three or four people in my life that I was like, if I can build a bike shop and my target personas for these people, I'm going to be successful. And so my wife is still my target persona. Thankfully I work with work literally. She's like over there, every day, so I can bounce ideas off of her, but she's an athlete.

She is a mom though, with a crazy schedule. So how can I get her to think about being more sustainable, getting on our bike more often, you know, not driving to the gym in her electric car, all of those things. because it's more than just the pollution, right? It's like traffic, it's her own mental health, her own physical health.

But sometimes you can't lead with those points, you know this, right? Like when we're talking about bike lanes, we can't talk about bicycle safety. We need to talk about what it does to the economic benefits of it, or the safety of other people on that street. If you lead with bikes, everyone's going to turn their mind off to you and stop listening,

[00:20:33] John: Right. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, what I love about this experience that, that you have. so publicly gone through with us is that you, you've kind of shared, your journey as you went and that's not for everybody. You, not, not everybody is willing to do that. but the fact that you had been out there, you know, in the public eye, as long as you had, you know, from the time of , starting out doing a lot of blogging and then, becoming a, like you said, getting into the advertising world and really understanding things at that level, which is important to understand.

And then, being that public persona of being a neighborhood bike shop owner and being that resource for so many people, and really empowering, especially parents, many parents, the ability to be able to do their daily needs, with the kids, with the. Who knew, you know, absolutely amazing.

But the, the fact that you kind of shared, opened up and shared, with us, all those of us who follow you, it's been wonderful because we can kind of see that transformation and you get to that last post that you had there, and you really just kind of laid it out and said, you know, Hey, this is, this is the journey I've been on.

This is where I'm at. And I look back and, like you said, we've had many texts and many phone calls back and forth over the years. And, I'm just kinda, I'm looking down at my notes here and I've got, okay. So we've got the persona who is Bike Shop Girl, Arleigh Greenwald as well.

Then we've got spouse and we've got parents. Then we've got Tern now. And, the thing that pops up into my mind. Especially when I look at, that persona of a content creator, we're talking Twitter, we're talking Instagram, we're talking Facebook, we're talking YouTube. Am I forgetting any?

Oh yeah, the website life balance, you know, it's really hard to keep all those things in the air. And so more power to you for identifying that, take a deep breath. Maybe even go for a run. And I know you're not really a runner. yeah, you're you're and we can talk a little bit about why you would even try to, but.
what's been so great about this experience is to see, your journey and the fact that you're, just kind of putting it out there and being super, super humble about it too. and saying, you know, Hey, I'm figuring this out as, as I go along and especially on Twitter, you do this all the time.

You send out questions to everybody, probably since we're we're we're, we're trying to figure out your, the names of your cats right now.

[00:23:31] Arleigh: I think one there's the power of community. Right. And it was a really interesting thing. And I think you were probably one of the people I leaned on a lot last July, where it was like, I think I'm closing my bike shop here in my options.

And I had this amazing offer from Tern. But if it was any other brand and I, I say this and I really mean it. If it was any other brand, I probably wouldn't have taken that position. And I say that because I didn't have to change who I am. And even to the point now, like I make videos sometimes when I should be working because personal videos, because my personal brand gives validation to Tern right.

You know, like, and continuing to be that person online or replying to emails of people that found my email address and are asking for bike suggestions. every few videos that I make are about bikes that Tern makes. Yeah. And now one was like, you know, I'm getting a lot of the same questions, and I'm always telling them what I do versus what others do.

And so. For me, it's this balancing act of I have to be myself, but in making content for Tern, you know, so if you go to Tern's YouTube channel, like I'm now like the face of Tern. but I, I can't lose myself in that. And I can't, turn off my personal life or personal channels, I should say, because if anything, it brings validation to the Tern brand, but it also allows me to try things out, right?

Like, you'll know that I'm working on content for Tern because three or four videos will come out from Bike Shop Girl, because I'm trying to dial in lighting or a new microphone or a new storyline. And I can do that without judgment on my own channels and push it out. You know, like I was trying to figure out how this backdrop color looked and.

I'm now shooting in my garage, which is really echoey. So it was like trying to dial in all of that, but it's much easier to do it on my own platform and get feedback, then put it out on a global brand and, so it's fun to have my own like sandbox of testing and it only helps the brand. And what's really nice is a appreciate and value that, anything that I post, I still push through our team to make sure I didn't say or do anything I shouldn't.

Right. But, you know, it's very rare that they have any harsh feedback. It might be like you misspelled this or you installed the accessory wrong, you know, but I think making sure I don't lose my voice in all, this is so important because, To your point, like I'm a mom that lives this life and you connect to that a lot more than you connect just to a bird or a brand.

And I love Tern and I, I think we have some of the best customer service in the industry, but we're still a bike brand. And so we're working on, probably by the time this publishes, I'm starting, I'm using air quotes. If you can see me, I'm starting to travel to do more profiles of our shops and riders, because to me, this is a really important point, which is who are the people that ride our bikes and how do they use them in their daily life?

And it's okay if they don't use them to replace a car. I think that's something going back to that idea of meeting people where they are. You know, I have some really dear friends. they were our first Tern profile on YouTube and she bought a set of Vectrons. My last bikes I sold from the bike shop and she retired and they're going to be using these folding electric bikes around their town to hopefully replace car trips, but also bike tour and just get out and enjoy life.

And I think that's so important for. All of us that are bike advocates to remember that the tourism and adventure side of biking really grab people and pull them in. You know, when they are a tourist in a new place, they're more willing to try new things. You know, if it's a bike trip or if it's an e-bike or whatever, you know, my dad tried an e-bike in California a couple years ago.

There's no way I would have ever gotten him on e-bike, but it was what the winery or the vineyard had. And so he tried and he was like, this is so cool, you know, but I would have been like, Hey dad, you try this. You would have been offended,

[00:28:20] John: But that's a good, that's such a good point. Cause if we're on vacation, if we're traveling, you just naturally have a little bit more openness to try new things.

And that's honestly, that's one of the great things about traveling is, is you can sort of wipe your brain clean of some of its biases and be able to say, oh yeah, A little bit of a sense of adventure here. I'll try that. E-bike and then suddenly, oh, this is a kick in the pants. I really like this, you know, or just being able to, have that, approach of, you know, I'm traveling and, oh, what was so great was that we were able to walk and bike everywhere.

We didn't have to drive everywhere and then suddenly, it's that making that connection back home. I want to press play on this just a little bit, so we can get a sense as to what we're doing as, okay. So as we do this, I'll even turn the audio down and you can just kind of walk us through, give us a little play by play of not only what you're doing, but, but the intent behind why you produce this type of video.

[00:29:22] Arleigh: Yeah. So the Tern GSD is a two kid cargo bike. And I say two kids, we make a couple different cargo bikes, and I. Receive so many questions of like this versus that we make so many accessories. And so I'm just showing people like, this is the bike that's in my garage for my family to use all the time and how I use it.

And these are by far, my most successful videos are showing people my favorite accessories and how I use them.

[00:29:56] John: Right. Yeah. Is that fascinating? I guess it makes sense though.

[00:30:03] Arleigh: Yeah. I mean, reviews and keywords of that sort, but also. The reason I want to travel more and show other people is because if you look like me or you have a life like me, I'm going to trust your review a lot more than, you know, like, oh, you've never had kids.

I don't, you have no idea what it's like to get two kids on a bike right out the door or in, or in a car, honestly, it's harder to get them in the car than on the bike. And you don't believe that until you hear it from another parent.

[00:30:39] John: Right. Exactly. So the next video I want to queue up here is going to be of, of your videos.
That is talking about what you were alluding to it earlier in a couple of different ways, but one of it is like really helping encourage lifestyle, behavior change and things of that nature. And so what's what this is, is the bike to run and being able to replacing, some of those everyday short car trips.

And I think this is fun because as we mentioned earlier, you're not really a runner, so I'll press play on the video and you can give us a little bit more, uh, uh, but give us a little background on, , on what's going on here and why you're becoming a runner.

[00:31:27] Arleigh: I moved to Durham this summer, and I've been doing bike rides around Durham and documenting those. But the goal of this was to help people think of a destination , and this is going to be an ongoing series, which is like bike to ice cream, bike, to coffee, whatever.

I live about two and a half miles from my favorite off-road running trail and I always drive it. And I was like, you know what? One day I looked at the map and I was like, it's safe to bike there. It's mostly through my neighborhood. And then a gravel road. I feel fine. And my goal of this was just to show people especially with the e-bike, but with any bike two and a half miles is a great warmup for run.

If you have a good place to lock up, you know, so I did, I did drive it the first time. And then, the ultimate goal of this was just to show folks like I'm wearing what I would wear running. I stored my helmet, I locked up the bike, did my run, and then I cooled off of the way home. And it was such an easy thing that you and I probably take for granted.

Right. But I've had several people reach out like, oh, I'm totally doing this. Or I did it or whatever, but really why wouldn't you want this life instead of sitting behind a windshield. And I think to me, especially now that I live in Durham, which is not nearly as bike friendly as Denver, where I could have, you know, I was car-free.

We had one car as a family here. We have two cars cause I have to drive to get my kids from school, but trying to replace those other trips when I can. You know, what was it? Cliff bar that had the three mile challenge or two miles or less challenge. And so what trips can I show folks is easy to do by bike?
It doesn't have to be stressful because the whole bike to work or bike to drop off your kids. It's like the highest barrier possible, like showing up to your work with all your stuff, not sweaty. That's like the last thing you should try doing.

[00:33:35] John: Right. Yeah. Cause that's just like you, like I said, it's like a high bar.
Let's turn the audio on just a little bit and get it.

[00:33:46] Arleigh: This actually was a good part. You may be asking what's up with this running thing and good timing, quality that I have for running. It's exactly what I want you to think about when it comes to car trip replacement. And that is the feeling.

Wonder and adventure as adults, we stop exploring. We put our GPS on, get to where we're going fastest way possible. We no longer explore around us. We get our exercise in, we grind it out. You get home, we turn on the TV and we no longer adventure. And that to me is running. Right. I suck at running, but it's something new.

It's something for me to learn and explore new places like this beautiful trail, right by my house. And yes, I suck at it, but it's okay. It's about the journey and not about the actual destination as cliche as that sounds. How can you enjoy everyday life errands and requirements in life? By bike or by foot or anything that doesn't include punching in your GPS, getting behind a windshield and cutting off the world around you,

[00:35:12] John: Hear, hear

[00:35:16] Arleigh: Um, Running has been, not humbling, but I think as adults, we stop trying things that suck. Right. You know, and I think, when I moved to Durham this year, I reached back out to my cycling coach and I hadn't worked with him in a couple, three years, four years since we had our second kid and I wanted to have goals like I needed during this transition to have something to really reach for that wasn't work or kid related.

And so I started outlining like cycle cross races and things like that. And you know, at some point in my life, I was really. Decent at bike racing, but that was before kids. That's when I had like 20 hours a week to train. And I started going after these goals of cyclocross racing and like starting to train.

And I realized like I wasn't excited. Cause I knew I would never meet the place I was before. And you might tell yourself like, that's okay, but it wasn't motivating enough goal. Right. Even if it was just, you know, I'm training for a 200 mile gravel race, like I knew that I could do it. And so for running, I don't know if I can complete the things I've signed myself up for.

And so I have to show up every single day for my workouts and trust my coach to get me there. And I think once I achieve some of those goals, I'll get there. But I know that if you told me next spring, I need to do a 200 mile gravel race. I know probably training two to three times a week. I would be.

Right. You know, like I'm just going to suffer through it. It'll be fine. Just cause I've been a cyclist my whole life and I've done epic things. I used to raise 24 hour solo mountain bike rides. Right. That's insanity, but doing a half marathon or a 10 mile trail run, I don't know if I can complete it.

And that's really exciting for me. Cause it feels like I actually have to put in the work and as adults it's, there's not many things that you sign up for that you're not sure that you're going to be able to complete.

[00:37:25] John: Yeah. You know, Ryan van, Duzer another content creator. He does a lot of adventure stuff.

And one of his sub themes is just that, is that, what do we do to challenge ourselves, get ourselves out of that comfort zone. and some of the lessons that we can learn when we push ourselves and we have that unknown of, I don't know that I can accomplish this. I think it's important.

[00:37:49] Arleigh: Yeah. And it's fun to, to draw those parallels to people starting biking.
Right? Like one of the biggest questions I receive is what happens if I get a flat with my kids? I'm like, what happens if you get out of flat with your kids in your car, would you pull over and change it? And most people say, no, you know, some people say yes, but most people say no, especially if they have their kids.
And I tell people okay, do the same thing as you would with your car, call AAA, lock it up, call a spouse, whatever. And the second they realize that their failure isn't as terrible as maybe they were imagining. Right. Like my failure of my run will be like, I walk like, and that's the end of the day.

Like I'll still hit the time cut off and it will be fine. Right. But making those barriers and going back to that, like sales technique of what are people worried about. Why can you assure them or provide experiences? You know, maybe their first experience riding with their kids, actually, always their first experience riding with their kids should be at your store in a good set up, environment where you've helped them.

You've coached them, they've tested it in the bike. Don't let them go home. And that be the first time they're riding with their kids. But thinking through those barriers, right? What happens if my bike falls over your bike, shouldn't fall over. Let's make sure you're confident and can ride your bike well enough before you put your kids in, well, how do I get my kids in the bike?

All right. Well, let's walk through that. , what happens if I get a flat is the biggest one, for sure. How do I get around my city? You know, all of these things that are. Really fear inducing for folks because they're not you and me. They're not active cyclists that have been doing this for so long that figuring out heat maps on ride with GPS or Google maps, isn't a big deal.

It's just how we do it. You know, we need to share that knowledge in a very approachable way. And I think that's, to me where my work with Bike Shop Girl or my work with Tern, , to show dealers and our consumers, that biking doesn't have to be scary. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money.

You know, you can get a basic bike helmet and a lock and be rolling very easily. And I one of the reason. I love the community of like Twitter specifically, because it's more of a conversation it's getting that feedback, you know? And it's something, I don't know if you've experienced this as a creator. I am always so surprised how few women watch videos.

And it's something that I'm like really 2022. That is my thing, you know, like right now we're launching a lot of videos on social for Tern, with captions to see if, you know, in shorter segments. So like under three minutes, like taking our longer videos, trimming it down, adding captions and seeing if that changes the demographic.

But when I post questions on Twitter, like, Hey, you know, this is something that I asked probably every 90 days. Like where do you consume your content? What's your age? Sex. And do you have kids and women in general, don't watch videos, at least not in the bike world that follow me. And even my, like you, you would think like Bike Shop Girl.

My Facebook audience is 70% women. My YouTube audience is like 12% women. And so it's one reason that I've started to go back to writing and photos. One it's easier, right? Like if you need me to crank out 8,000 words, I could do that six times in the time that it takes us to produce some of our videos.
Right. And so one thing that I'm working on and something I did at the bike shop, because I didn't have a ton of time, I would produce an article, put it out there with photos and get feedback, get comments, see how well it was received and then make the video version. Right. And, and that way you can get, you can weed out, like, oh, I forgot this.

Oh, I should've said it differently, but for SEO reasons, it's going to be much more, it, it hits all audiences. If they really want to read it, they will, if not, they can scan it. But there's so many people that like, I'm a video. I love filmmaking. Right. And, and like, from the documentary standpoint, like that's the direction I would love my career.

But if it's not where the audience that I want to help is, which is primarily women in the bike industry. that's something that I have to keep in mind.

[00:42:51] John: Yeah. Speaking of which let's, let's pull up another one of your videos that you did do, because I have a feeling that this is, something that you're alluding to, or talking about here, because this is about a Thankful For The Group Ride.

And so we'll, we'll pull this one up and this one's short, so we'll just let it play. And I'll, I'll turn the audio up on this one.

[00:43:15] Arleigh: Whoa. This is like a TV show
A set time locked out in your schedule to see friends commit to your bike, commit to your physical and mental health and ride.

As my friend, Peter wants said, there is a lost art to the group ride, and then you walk into the place.
Finding the right speed, the right skill. And most importantly, the right personalities. Sometimes you ride fast.

Sometimes there are flats. Sometimes you just need to talk and pedal it out.
We're back... here's to the weekly group ride and finding your people on the bike.

[00:44:14] John: How cool is that what it, what has been the response so far to that video? I think it's going to have a long life to it. It's just short. It's less than two minutes. It gets to the point you don't outwardly come out and say, Hey, this is for women, but you know it, to me, it's clear as a filmmaker, it's clear that that's in part who you're talking about.

But not necessarily. I mean, it, it cuts across all genders and it's just, it's about getting people more comfortable out there riding.

[00:44:51] Arleigh: Yeah. As you talk, I'm like opening my YouTube studio. It's interesting. Like if I make something that's, within my niche, like cargo and e-bikes, it gets a lot of views pretty quickly, a lot of use for a small creator.

Right. And then what's great for me. And I am always looking to make evergreen content. Like I've really rarely make something for the moment, you know, like Mac book, air first impressions or something. Um, you know, so like just kind of looking at my stats, it's not a super popular video. Right. But this is something that I, my ride partner's, Casey and I talked to her about it a lot because there are videos that I've done that have so few views compared to others because they haven't been picked up for like various search terms.

But that video changed somebody's life. And once you get that hit, like that type of impact, where, for example, I've been doing these rides around Durham or that biking to run, those are the ones that have the lowest view count comments are good engagements, really good, but it's that video that somebody will email me and say, I started biking to run three times a week and it's changed my life.
Or, my friend that I talked about retiring, you know, she moved, I assume, you know, Beth, Beth Nobles.

[00:46:24] John: Yeah. I kind of knew that that's who you were talking about.

[00:46:28] Arleigh: So Beth Nobel's one of my all time favorite people. She moved from Texas to Denver, Colorado to be the Executive Director of my favorite bike path in the area, Sand Creek, Greenway if you follow me.

You've seen my love affair of that bike path. And she previewed a really. Okay video that I did many years ago of that bike path when she was in Texas. And she still to this day talks about being able to see the bike path from Texas and how it, and made her interested and those inflection moments like you, like the Group Ride Video.

I don't think it's going to go viral, but that's not my job. That's not my role. That's I don't want to be an influencer. That's going viral. I want to be somebody that like you trust. And when I'm putting something out, like if you watch it and it means something to you, you reach out to me, you know?
And, and I think those types of videos and, and I'm kind of going back, cause there's been several of them, Carrying Camera Gear by Bike, again, like not a crazy amount of views right now it's sitting at like 2000, but I've had several people reach out and say like, That that made it so that I'm biking to more of my photography portrait sessions.

[00:47:46] John: Right.

[00:47:47] Arleigh: And it's like, how many car trips is that? That's amazing, and as a creator, that's what you need and not the views. And you mentioned something earlier, which is I've kind of brought people along, whether you like it or not. And I think one that, that gains people's trust, right?
Like, you know, that I'm me and the other thing, and I'm interested to hear your take as a creator. It's something that I also want to lean into a little bit harder because I want others to make okay. Content to influence their small social bubble. Right? Like how can you get more people to post their bike to school or bike, to run, or, you know, GSD set up.

They have, and it will probably influence a small circle around them and make them aware of that type of thing. And so that's something that I'm really thinking about it for 2022, again, going a little bit more macro. So health, fitness, sustainability for Bike Shop Girl, but also leaning into, super basic camera gear.
Right? Like you can do everything you need with a GoPro. Right, right. And, um, making that obtainable so that people are inspired to just as we've done with bikes, like hop on to go for a run, like take an Instagram video and share with your family that the reasons you like to ride. Ryan actually posted, and I almost said I'll put a link in the show notes.

Um, yeah, he he's been promoting this campaign out of Boulder. I forget exactly what it is, but it's just, just drive safely around people, you know? And I think the more human we can make cyclist and runners and just people active the better, it doesn't have to be the Lycra clad group that took up the whole country road.

Right. Here in North Carolina, actually a lot of NASCAR drivers lend their faces to cycling cause they all bike and it's like, yeah, you might be biking by Jimmy Johnson or some really professional NASCAR driver. Right. And that's hitting a different demographic. And I think the more we can share on our personal channels about the reasons we bike, , some of my favorite ones are.

Specifically kids that struggle in school and they start biking and are walking to school and, and how that impacts them. Right. And the families sharing those stories within their circles and influencing, even if it's just those little drips, those drips add up, if you continue to do it. Yeah.

[00:50:32] John: Let's pull up a recent to Twitter post that you had here. You tweeted out and , this is another one of those, uh, uh, superstars there in the Denver area. I also follow her as well, but this is, you know, Amy is one of those individuals in the community that is just out there as a concerned parent.
Trying to make their community a little bit safer. and you're, you're taking this opportunity to amplify what she's doing and how she's, trying to partner with the city and county of Denver make our streets just a little bit safer. because let's face it, I mean, as content creators and, as folks that are trying to curate additional content and, and amplify it and get it out there, we're, we're not necessarily the ones that are rolling up our sleeves and getting the work done, nor necessarily are we the ones all the time that is just steadfastly working to bring the community along.

Talk a little bit about that, because. You can only do so much. We talked about earlier about life balance. so where do you see your role when it comes to, being the Amy's of the world and, and, and, you know, getting really involved from an advocacy perspective, or do you really see, you know, your niche is, is trying to amplify what they're doing and hopefully inspire other people to do that.
[00:52:02] Arleigh: Good timing. I moved to Durham this summer and just trying to get an idea of the local and state advocacy. I knew the state advocacy just because I had lived in Charlotte eight years ago and know the bigger players, but I didn't know the politics. I didn't know the local scene. And when I was in Denver, I did sit on the board for some time for Bike Denver.

And I've realized specifically when I was owning the shop. Cause I only had so much time. I I love hosting events and being a community organizer, but that doesn't mean that I should be, you know, so it's one of those questions that, really hits home because it's something that I'm trying to figure out as i land and Durham, which is maybe I'm just creating better content for them to share, you know, or maybe it's, doing these bike around Durham videos that they can share and show to.

Legislation or the city and not being the person at the table. And that's been really interesting because I've always been the person at the table where, you know, I was on a board or I was the loud person that showed up to city meetings, whatnot. And now I'm realizing that what I do that other people maybe can't to the same degree is to give them the tools to tell the story better.
I think of in Denver there was a bike lane we were fighting for. And there was always this disconnect in my head where it was like, and I think you and I had talked about it when you visited, which was. We were shouting that cyclists need to be safe, but we were never showing what that meant.

We never were showing what it did for the stores that were right next to it. And so my take on it was like, let me go out and video it so you can see the, like either this or that. And so people can see what visiting their local ice cream or coffee shop could feel like if there weren't cars going 50 miles per hour in front of it, or sitting in a car sitting in the parking.

And so realizing that I can be an advocate and really help, but not be the person instigating or maybe I am the instigator, but then I hand it over. Uh, you know, and I think your documentary work, it's a great example, which is we only have so much time and it's something that I. think about a lot at Tern, because I, I have a lot of hats where I sit on marketing.

So I run north American marketing and PR. I sit on our global product team and I create a lot of content for the brand. So I have these like three hats and then, helping dealers and in sales and things like that. But I'm now realizing almost a year in it's like, okay, well, what do I do that no one else on the team can do.
And. Where can I focus that energy more and more, and that's, you know, again, that content creation, and then just being a voice in the industry, so a lot of my advocacy time is spent on People For Bikes or national and international efforts. You know, I sit on the subcommittee for People, For Bikes, sustainability and for our DEI.

So that's a lot of time and I'm fortunate. That's part of my job, but a lot of advocates it's their nights and their weekends where they're at local events or community meetings or being that, voice, that loud voice at community events. And for me, it's like, how can I create those tools? So when they go to those events, they can show.

The story better if it's a photo of it's a video. And so you really hit that nail where that's to me, showing them how they can also create that. And, and Denver is a great example where like, I, I did not do this on my own, right. But there was a group of probably 15 of us across the city that we were working on different projects.

I was opening a bike shop. There was, the Denver Bicycle Lobby, which is the grassroots instigator, urban folks. They're really fun to follow. And they're kind of the ying to the yang of the local state advocacy group, which has to be very professional, very upfront, but bringing together a group of people allow them to feel comfortable to share their voice.

And so, again, it's, it's dripping that along, which is like, one of my friends, Alan now rides around with a GoPro on the front of his, his Tern GSD and shares that content all the time. And so it's like capturing that story of Alan of Hey, this is how he does it. Just so you tactically know it's not hard and this is the outcome, right?

Like he can show off before and after he can, easily document when that car is cutting them off continuously in the same place every morning. And he's getting changed happening because he'll post it on Twitter and it will get a lot of implement amplification. So to your question, yes. I think other than internationally or nationally, like my best place is behind a camera.

[00:57:38] John: Right. Yup. Yup. So to close this out, is there anything that we haven't yet talked about, that you want to make sure to leave the audience with?

[00:57:49] Arleigh: Go vote,

[00:57:51] John: Go vote. I already know one thing that we didn't talk about you're gonna laugh that we didn't talk about it.

[00:57:57] Arleigh: Uh, what is it?

[00:57:59] John: The podcast.

[00:58:01] Arleigh: Oh yeah. I think it's, it's hibernating until the construction and right. Yeah. I'm actually, I would love to hear, because, so I've had a podcast Bike Here for a few years and where I I don't want to say I struggle, but to me, it's do I stay niche in this idea of Empowering Daily Life by Bike with interviews and stories, or

I do think that podcasting has changed because of the pandemic. I listened to three you're one of them. And if they're mostly videos and, you know, just cause I now want to see people because I'm not seeing people. And so that was one of the reasons. And then I currently live in a construction zone.

[00:58:51] John: Right.

[00:58:51] Arleigh: Literally. yeah. So I would love to hear from your audience, going back to that advocacy point, I feel like if I took a step up and it wasn't just bike nerdism or do we need still bike nerdism right? Like, is there no one else talking about city biking in that sense?

So we should have interviews with international folks that are riding their bike every day and how they came to it, or like news for the e-bike legislation that's happening in the U S or, you know, should we go macro so that we have interviews that you could send to your aunt that should be riding or focusing on fitness or whatever.

So I would love to hear what, what outcome and I would love your opinion, John, whatever else.

[00:59:37] John: I, I don't know that I have ready answer for what's the magical mix. I will say this though, that it's been really neat to see. You mentioned this because of the pandemic, there have been a lot of new contents that has emerged and including the Active Towns podcasts, this will be episode number 99.
and so just to think that in two years time, we produced, you know, a hundred episodes, I'm doubling down on trying to get video content out as well, but that's not reliable because not every guest that I bring on has, you know, strong internet has the cameras set up. And, and so, you know, I won't just put out.
A static page and put it on YouTube and call that a video podcast. So I think it should have something special, something that's engaging visually and interesting so that people will watch it. And it is interesting to see how different people are consuming different content. And I think it is different audiences.
some people just, they couldn't stand to be seated and watching a video. the only time that they really consume their podcast episodes is audible audibly and probably on a walk, hopefully, you know, if I had my preference and it used to be your commute. Yeah, yeah.

[01:01:01] Arleigh: My podcast consumption like is probably 5% of what it used to be.

I would love to hear, you know, because I think As a content creator, you really have to think about who's your target audience, because it's really easy to be pulled along different directions. Because something did well or something's hot, right? Like the last summer it was a clubhouse and, Twitter had their voice thing, you know, but I didn't want to just sit around and talk like that just didn't sound fun to me.
And so I tested it out a few times and I was like, this isn't for me, but who are you trying to maybe not influence, but be a part of their life and where are they? Right. And, and that's what you have to accept as a creator. It doesn't mean it's what you prefer, but, you know, unless you're trying to be like a YouTube star and then you're going to create whatever you need to create to be a YouTube star To me, I create, because I want people to Bike More Worry Less my tagline, but also just to have healthier lives and hopefully change how they look at the life that they're living and I'm kind of channel agnostic.

[01:02:24] John: Right, right. Yeah. But you did ask before we hit the record button about, the possibility of live broadcasts and, and that would be an interesting thing to hear too, both for my audience and for your audience.

If, if that's something that would resonate with people, because you had talked about it a little bit with Twitter, about what you like about Twitter. And that is that it's like a conversation. And so, you know, that adds another dimension of, maybe we could have actually broadcast this out as a live podcast episode and cause this platform we're using eCamm.

We could have had comments streaming down at the bottom and we could have been like saying, such and such, you know, oh, Hey look, Beth tuned in. She just heard that we talked about her and you know? And so it takes, it adds another dimension, to be completely honest for you and for my audience, I've been a little afraid of going live, you know?

[01:03:17] Arleigh: Yeah. And it's the dimension worth the effort. Right. And, and, and the thing that I have found with any, unless you go viral, like any channel or a new dimension, so let's say video, right? Like you have to commit to it for so long before knowing if it's working or not. You know? And I think One of my favorite.

I followed him for years before I got into running, Ginger Runner. He does like a live video every single week, roughly the same time, but he's been doing it for years. So people know to tune in as part of their life, if they're running, you know, and they like the story, but it takes a long time for people to be willing to change their schedule, to show up for what you're talking about.

[01:04:08] John: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, to be continued, we'll find out if, either one of us, decide to pull the trigger on a live podcast, broadcast and interview, and we'll, we'll see where that goes. And so stay tuned, audience, stay tuned. Any final, any final thoughts?
[01:04:31] Arleigh: It's wonderful to see where you're taking this podcast and this platform, , John, I don't know.

I think Active Towns has always been behind a lot of the wonderful creation and content that you've created for brands or people for bikes or whatever. So I think it's great that folks are realizing who you are and your knowledge base from that.

[01:04:52] John: Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. And yeah, it's, I, one of the things that we talked about a little bit, when you were wondering about what that next step was going to be for you as a content creator, whether that was your name or, or continuing Bike Shop Girl, and, and that, by the way, folks is, you know, part of the conversation of that last blog post that you did put out there.

You know, I've struggled with that as well. Cause I've always kind of been anonymous behind the Active Towns, moniker, but at the same time, I am Active Towns and Active Towns is me. So it's just me. So, yeah, I appreciate you saying that. And, it's been a hoot. It's been a lot of fun to get out there and not only produce content, but also engage with amazing people, from around the world, yourself included.

[01:05:42] Arleigh: Oh, thank you. And to your point about the naming, I feel like if you're in mission for creating is captured by the name Active Towns, it tells people what you're doing. Versus, a lot of the folks that rebranded in the last two, three years from whatever they were to their name are content creators first and mission second, or no mission.
Like they're just freelancers. You know, their brand is them creating content for other people without like a lens of biking, active living.

[01:06:20] John: Yeah. Good point. Yeah. No, absolutely good point. Well, Arleigh, thank you so very much for joining me on the Active Towns Podcast.

[01:06:34] Arleigh: Yeah.

[01:06:34] John: Thank you all so much for tuning in to episode number 99 of the active towns podcast. I really hope you enjoy this chat with Arleigh and do hope you will follow her amazing and engaging work out on her channels to learn more, be sure to check out the links in the show notes and more importantly. On the landing page for this episode at activetowns.org.
Well, that's all for this week's episode, but before I let you go, please help me to grow the culture of activity movement by making a donation, spreading the word and subscribing thank you also very much for your support and for tuning in.

Until next time, which by the way will be our 100th episode and we'll feature Clarence Eckerson with Street Films.

This is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness. Cheers.