January 15: It takes a Village
Who would have thought that my children’s dentist, the 10-year-old fourth grader across the street, and my website designer would all end up working together to create a first class highlight reel sharing the positive life lessons I have learned while on the road?
Although I have been a motorcycle adventurer and inspirational speaker for several years now, I just this fall decided to make “Inspiring Others to Live at Full Throttle” the key focus of my website. Over the last three months I have worked with an eclectic team of people to create a dynamic, fresh, and interactive website including a motorcycle action reel, professional pictures of me speaking, and a highlight reel sharing my positive story in a variety of mediums – audio recordings, photos, and video.
I couldn’t be more pleased with the results and thought it only fair to thank some of the people that went to extraordinary lengths to make it possible.
First and foremost, I would like to thank Jena Starkes of Loquat Creative. Jena is a smart, technically-savvy, funny, and personable woman who has not only been there from the beginning of my foray into the world of websites but has also provided me with invaluable advice about getting published, marketing myself, and communicating with my readers. She stepped in when the video editor that I had hired to create my highlight reel experienced unexpected family problems preventing him from doing the work.
Jena was able to masterfully weave a compelling story from the limited video footage that we had as well as direct me in creating new material we could use including audio recordings of my responses to her prompts, action clips of me on the bike, and footage of me at home and at work.
Jena and I both felt that drone footage would make a strong visual impact, but I had no idea it would end up being my children’s dentist, Dr. Dana Yip, who would be the pilot. After a friend of mine mentioned that Dr. Yip had a drone, I contacted him, and he agreed to meet me in Estacada for a shoot. Dr. Yip enthusiastically and creatively directed filming over a five-hour period in 39-degree weather using his drone, an insta-360 video recorder, and a video stabilizer paired with his iPhone. My favorite part of the day was when he posed on my bike!
When it came time to get some professional pictures and video of me speaking, Denyce Weiler of Something Blue Photography and Jonathan Simons of Southlake Church braved a severe winter storm and a potential electrical outage to capture first-class pictures and footage for me to use. Friends from work and a variety of biking groups came to the church to be the audience and cheer me on.
Several weeks later Jena contacted me in the middle of a snowstorm just two days before my children were to arrive, to request additional video footage of me writing, in the kitchen, working on the bike, and walking in my neighborhood. I wasn’t sure where to turn as the streets were covered with ice and snow, it wasn’t safe for me to ask a friend to travel to me to shoot the footage, and I wanted the work done before my children came home.
In stepped my 10-year-old fourth grade neighbor, Sonia Compaore – a spunky, positive, responsible young lady who has cared for my cat and home during some of my travels. Sonia spent several hours with me carefully and patiently filming me chopping tomatoes in the kitchen, typing on my computer, and walking down the street, learning to switch the iPhone to 4k mode, keep her fingers clear of the camera, and frame the picture from a variety of angles.
What an adventure it has been over the last several months and I am so grateful to all who have made it possible!
