Episode 81: Motorcycles Change Lives (Part 2) - Kiki Azim and Kirsten Midura

SUMMARY:
The conversation revolves around the Peace Love Moto Podcast and the personal stories of the hosts, Ron, Karen, Kirsten Midura, and Kiki. Ron discusses the podcast's growing audience of 1,200 monthly downloads, focusing on mindfulness and self-help within motorcycling. Kirsten shares her background in international development and her work with Engines for Change, emphasizing the altruistic nature of the motorcycling community. Kiki, who founded Rebels with a Cause, talks about her efforts to support communities in Pakistan, including providing wheelchairs and educational opportunities for girls. The discussion highlights the importance of community, gratitude, and the impact of motorcycling in fostering connections and positive change. The conversation revolves around the Peace Love Moto Podcast and the efforts of Kiki and Kirsten Midura to support under-resourced communities through their nonprofit, Engines for Change. Kiki discusses the impact of donations on providing wheelchairs, books, and solar panels, emphasizing the role of individual contributions and corporate sponsorships. Kirsten highlights the importance of community involvement, including a men's mental health program and a community motorcycle program in Pakistan and Guatemala. They also discuss the potential for corporate donation matches and the need for volunteers and bike suppliers. Ron shares a personal story about the joy of giving, inspiring others to contribute meaningfully.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:
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R
Ron Francis
ron

1. Peace Love Moto Podcast

Keywords
motorcycle accident, podcast traction, mindfulness riding, police officer story, motorcycle community, altruism, chronic illness, community development, motorcycle tour, fiscal sponsorship, women's empowerment, environmental sustainability, community support, fundraising challenges, personal impact, wheelchairs distributed, tax exemption, solar panels, community support, literacy rate, job opportunities, corporate sponsorship, mental health program, community organizer, motorcycle donations, volunteer teaching, donation matches, capacity building, peace love moto, joy trips.
1
Speaker 1
0:00
So I want to say that I didn't mean to start that yet. But again, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll actually post when we actually get serious about talking and stuff. So,
2
Speaker 2
0:12
I mean, you know, nuggets happen all the time, honey. That's right.
0:17
So Kirsten, can you hear us? I
0:24
This is. There she is. I want
0:26
to see her real face. I haven't seen her since.
Kirsten Midura
0:34
Hi,
0:37
there she is. Hi, how's it going? Doing?
0:43
Drinking coffee all day.
Kirsten Midura
0:45
I need more of that. Honestly,
1
Speaker 1
0:50
if it's okay, I want to introduce you to my wife. Yes, I would love that. My best friend for the last 40 years, Karen, oh, she's also my co chair, co leader for the distinguished gentleman's right that we have in Fort Collins. So she does a lot of the, a lot of the logistics and things associated with that. And she also, She's the manager of a little, a little store up in the mountains called the Colorado cherry company. We're in Colorado, by the way, and so she supplies all the pies and stuff. So this is my wife, Karen.
1:27
Nice to meet you guys. I've heard a lot about you. I
1:30
know I was like, it's basically,
1:42
we're so happy to be here.
1
Speaker 1
1:43
So this is, this is also protection for me, because I'm talking on video with two women, two beautiful my wife should know what this is really about, where our clothes are staying on.
Kirsten Midura
1:55
We're all best friends now. So this is great. I'm good with that.
2:00
So she's which is wonderful,
Kirsten Midura
2:03
great. Thank you for all the work that you do
3
Speaker 3
2:04
too. Yeah, yeah, good to meet you guys. Yeah, we
1
Speaker 1
2:08
DGR, so we'll, we dress a lot generally, and have both have vest and ties on.
Kirsten Midura
2:13
It's, yes, I love that so much.
2:15
Dream Team.
4
Speaker 4
2:18
Okay, y'all have fun. Well, too lovely to meet you, Karen, yeah,
1
Speaker 1
2:22
I've got go fast. So another
2:26
one I got from five. Oh,
Kirsten Midura
2:28
yeah, yeah.
1
Speaker 1
2:32
Well, hey, yeah, I want to talk about what you want to talk about. But if I could give you a little
2:40
so, two hours ago, just
1
Speaker 1
2:44
I got a call from someone. I've been getting emails from all over the world. It's just been wonderful. I mean, the podcast is kind of volume wise, I don't know it's, it's roughly about 1200 downloads a month, something like that. So kind of gaining traction. I guess that's great. But it seems like I'm just it's just a niche audience, and it's like those folks that are interested in the mindfulness part of motorcycling, the self help and other things. So anyway, just briefly, there was a guy that had emailed me, and he let me know that he was in a motorcycle accident and lost his sight, and just an avid motorcyclist, but back in 2013 he he had this tragic accident stuff, but he's he just would like to share a story about, even though his happiness of and his release of his freedom of going to ride that bike disappeared, he still has the memories and still has the friends and still, You know, has hope for the future, just like this
1
Speaker 1
3:52
will be number seven, this will be 80, I think number 80. Wow. And he's listening to all of them. And so the same kind of, same kind of deal. There was a, I got an email from a gentleman in Italy, and he just wrote this really long note. And it was he was talking about, he mentioned several times the the podcast is more meaningful than you know, he said, kind of repeating them. So I said, let's, let's talk. I'd love to meet you. So we got on Zoom together, as it turns out. So he was actually British, and he was a police officer, but he and his wife separated, and then his then girl, new girlfriend, she moved to Italy, so he moved there too and became a police officer there, um, but he talked about, still, it was, it was his motorcycle that allows him to get out, kind of reset stuff, you know, with the with the tremendous loss that he still felt from the separation. But it was his bike where he could, he could get out,
1
Speaker 1
4:55
mentioned also in in that conversation, I think he was just alluding to suicide thoughts? And he said, No, I think I'm going to do other things. I've been listening to the podcast, and it's meaningful. And he said, keep doing it. I will, you know? So what target audience is one or 1000 or 10,000 or whatever? But if it's one, it's fine. You know,
2
Speaker 2
5:15
that's the way I do it. That's like, even if you judge one person, inspire one person, change the route of one person that's winning, baby. Well,
1
Speaker 1
5:25
that's why I wanted to talk with you guys, because I know you have the same heart, and it's, I could go all day, and we're not even, I'm not even, you know, go put this on the podcast. But I'm so attracted to people like you, because number one, you get it. I mean, even if you didn't do anything else, you ride motorcycles. So boom, we got watch.
5:43
We do. I put up with
1
Speaker 1
5:45
the weather, traffic, wind, everything, the joy, everything. But the other piece that's that really number one, the heart to know it's a hurting world, and there's a lot of hurting people out there and hurting cultures and hurting planet. And number two, like Kirsten and I talked about, you're doing something about it. You're stepping out and doing something about which is brave and it's, it's scary and it's expensive, and it breaks your heart and breaks your back sometimes, but you do it anyway. And that's, that's what I want to talk about,
Kirsten Midura
6:21
that well, two things, two things before we dig into it. One is, I'm going to need to run and grab my computer charger really quickly, because it really two, I have this note taker that I can take down, but it also might be helpful to have the transcript after if you want to, like, pull things for whatever.
1
Speaker 1
6:37
Yes, I haven't been able to do that before, great.
Kirsten Midura
6:41
Okay, so I'll leave it up and I'm gonna grab my charger and you guys keep talking. I'll be right back. Okay, sure. I'm
1
Speaker 1
6:46
gonna make sure. Yeah, okay, so I Oh, actually, I haven't hit the record button yet. So we're all, we're all still good. Anyway, yeah,
6:56
Kiki, you
7:02
work for bike shed, or work with bike shutter. I work
2
Speaker 2
7:04
for bike shed, with bike shed, I've I started there in 2015 when they opened in England. I just moved down eight, and it was the first place I went just to have a coffee to, like, fight the jet lag. I just got off the plane and oh, it was, it was incredible. It was incredible because I met my who would become my best friend, yeah, Kaylee, who later you'll find out, like her nickname was little rebel. And that's how full circle rebels, with the cause, was created.
7:37
Oh, okay,
2
Speaker 2
7:39
yeah. We lost her in 2020 so, you know, I'm just I don't take death as death. It's not the end. I think that's why, no matter what happens in life, like you were talking about that, that writer who lost his eyesight, it's not the death of his eyesight. It's not the death of his, his his, his community, his the things he even I even death isn't the death of anything like, I think so too. Yeah, yeah. And, and, I think you have to be someone of faith to believe that. I don't know, like a lot of people don't get it when I'm like, they're like, How are you so happy? How are you like, not like, wanting to kill yourself all the time because of, you know, the health issues I go through, and I'm always in treatment and always and, you know, being poked and prodded and all the things, and I can't walk, and I'm in a wheelchair, even when I travel, But I don't care, because guess what, what's their excuse? What's what? There's no excuse. Yeah, my boy lost his eyesight. What? What's his excuse? There isn't he go and be like, Well, I'm blind now. Bye, everybody. No, right, right?
8:53
You said, give me goosebumps.
8:54
He has the memories. Yeah. So
1
Speaker 1
8:57
he's a, he's a veteran. He was in, was it the Air Force? Think it was, yeah,
9:02
Air Force.
1
Speaker 1
9:10
Air Force. So when he had the injury, he had the capability, the opportunity to go on disability and stop working and just coast along the rest of the life. He worked with the Veterans Administration to find him another job that he could still do without, without full sight. He's got partial sight, I believe. But without his full site, he just kept on going for another 20 years. I think he just retired. So where does he live? He is in Virginia,
Kirsten Midura
9:39
okay, yeah, there are a few organizations around the country that work with veterans, like specifically with motorcycles and veterans, so it might be worth connecting with some of them, if he's interested. Sure.
9:55
Well, what
1
Speaker 1
9:57
I have done in the past, it seems to work pretty well, is I'll go through our interview, we'll talk and everything, and then I'll go back and see I even have my record button here.
1
Speaker 1
10:19
It's like when I was talking, when I was talking, when I was having the initial conversation with Brady McClain from go fast. We just talking from the very beginning and just kind of, you know, in generalities, then we're starting to go deep. And thought, oh shit, recording, yeah, so I hit the record button. But what I what I was going to do, and what I've done in the past, if you're okay with it, is that I'll do, like a formal after we talk, I'll do a formal introduction type of thing of who you are and what you do and all that stuff and what we're going to talk about, and then jump into the recording and then do a conclusion type of thing. Perfect. I want, my motivation is to promote what you'd like, to promote what you're working on. You know, I've got a few little friend notes, but rebels for change engines, I mean, rebels for the cause, uh, engines for change. Any where you want to go, that's where I'd like to go. So great, yeah,
2
Speaker 2
11:09
rebels are the cause. Engines for change. Rebels for change
11:13
engines for a cause. Oh,
11:22
oh, there we go. Okay,
11:25
I should have worn a rebels t shirt, but anyway,
1
Speaker 1
11:28
I'm a 16 year old grandfather who's drank a lot of coffee, so just keeping the Yeah, simple as possible.
Kirsten Midura
11:36
Love it. Well, hit record, let's do it all
1
Speaker 1
11:39
right, let's get going. Okay, I see record on this computer. Oh, it says it's recording now. Okay, so hopefully it is recording.
Kirsten Midura
11:54
Don't see it? You see a red dot anywhere. Oh, yeah, there we go.
1
Speaker 1
11:58
Yeah. Okay, yeah. Well, on the Peace Love moto podcast, it's just a pleasure to meet people that I'd like to hang around with, not only go for a motorcycle ride, but have a coffee with and have a long conversation, because we already have so much in common. I would like to introduce to everyone today, Kiki and Kirsten, two people that I so my station, and it's one of the earlier podcast numbers. I don't have the number in front of me, but it was a wonderful conversation. And we went deep into that conversation about the joy of motorcycling, the needs in the world, and best yet, what can we do? What can we do for solutions? And she introduced me to Kiki, who is on with us today too. I've learned about you from afar as well. You're also the same thing that just a wonderful heart. Just have such a heart for others, and also happen to love motorcycles. So welcome to you both. I'm so glad to be with you today. Thank
2
Speaker 2
12:58
you, Ron. It's so wonderful to see your sweet, beaming face. Today,
1
Speaker 1
13:03
we are on video together, and before we started recording, I introduced you both to my wife, who's my partner in crime. For the last 40 years or so we're here, but so glad you got to meet Karen, but well, let's just start. I know that you both have your own stories, but you blended together as well. And Kirsten, we kind of talked about how you began in an urban podcast. And I want to circle back to that too. But Kiki, one of the things that I asked Kirsten was, what is it your family background, or what? What has driven you to do what you do today, not only motorcycle riding, you know, I'm interested in that history too, but to have the heart for what you what you do, and then I want to go into what what you actually do. Well,
2
Speaker 2
13:46
I grew up in Pakistan. I was born and raised there. So, you know, I mean, life is definitely not handed to you on a silver platter. There you are, unfortunately or fortunately. You witness a lot of poverty, a lot of illness. I myself was very sick all the time. And you know, I mean my mother and parents, as far as background is concerned, always told me, you will forever be unhappy if you compare yourself with those who have more. Always compare yourself to those who have less, because it is just blessings on
14:22
blessings that we have.
2
Speaker 2
14:25
Gratitude aspect in in life in general, is what gets you through, and that's, I think, the one thing that I practice the most is gratitude. And that's why I'm always so happy, because we have so much endless blessings to count and to be, you know, so, so happy about, and you're like, What are you complaining about, really? So you know. And also another thing, like, if you go somewhere, leave it better than you find it. So as a kid, I was already in advertised, advert commercials and things like PSAs for the environment and stuff, just to you know, clean up Pakistan. Clean up your surroundings. Start small. Help those around you first start with that small circle, right? Yeah, everyone thinks so big. Then you get nothing done, baby. So she's like, start with the people who are closest to you, right? Yeah, work your way up, and we forget that every day of our freaking lives. So, yeah, I always, you know, felt for those who had less. I was always, my heart still hurts when I see any I live on skid row, so I, I mean, on the cusp of it, I'm in a building, and they're on the other side of it. So it's, it's, it's, it's very much there. It's, you see it every day, full frontal, and it never stops. And you're like, Okay, how can I be part of the solution and not part of the problem? That's it. You wake up, right? Kirsten, and you're like, how can I make this better and not be part of what's making it shitty?
1
Speaker 1
16:13
Yeah, yeah. And just like Kirsten, directly or and indirectly, you involve motorcycles
16:24
into this thing too.
1
Speaker 1
16:30
Whole motorcycling thing start for you, for
2
Speaker 2
16:33
me, yeah, oh, it's this. It's a really tragic story.
16:38
I see, oh, I don't know where you're gonna go there, okay,
16:40
oh yeah, it's tragic. Oh god, we're getting
Kirsten Midura
16:43
deep early. Yeah, wow. Well,
16:49
completed boxes.
2
Speaker 2
16:53
No, I I love it because, again, I saw it as a blessing. I was unfortunately in in a collision, where, which took the life of a motorcyclist many years ago in a in a tunnel in Italy and and that was the first time I was like, What the This guy just left us, and why was he Writing? Why do people ride? I'd always be like, ride motorcycles. It's so dangerous. It's so messed up, like you could die so easily. And there you have it. You know? I was like, Oh God, he just gone. And I'm like, there must be something. I gotta dig deeper. Oh, right. And then I wanted to have homage to him and and so I was like, Okay, before I'm 30, I'm going to get my driving license or my I didn't drive either. I still don't drive. I Just ride.
Kirsten Midura
17:53
Yeah, driving is overrated, especially in LA I
2
Speaker 2
17:56
don't want to ever be in a garbage they're like, I will teach you. And I was like, please don't teach me how to
18:02
drive. Don't teach me how to die or drive. But yeah,
2
Speaker 2
18:07
I promised that, you know, before my 30th birthday, I would learn to ride and get my license, and for his spirit to continue riding with me. So out of something like, super tragic, like I said, I used it to you can turn it in a way where you're like, Okay, this can be turned into positivity. And that's literally
18:27
what got me.
18:32
Like, damn, this is fun.
1
Speaker 1
18:35
Oh, yeah. But in this, isn't it interesting? It's some people don't get it at all. Take, take one ride. Oh, don't want that, you know, either get it or you don't, right?
Kirsten Midura
18:45
Yeah, it's definitely not for everyone. But I do think that there's an element of fear in terms of, like, a lack of support and a lack of capability, you know, sort of imposter syndrome for a lot of people that I meet, especially newer writers, you know, maybe they'll take the class, and then there won't be any support system for them getting out of the class, so they stop writing, or they take the the initial course, and they feel like it goes too fast. I have a very good friend in New York who took, like, one day of one of the classes she did, she accidentally wheelied And then landed the wheelie and was totally fine. And the instructors were like, that was awesome. Like, yeah. And she's like, No, if I'm doing that, like, one not for me. And she just got scared off of it, and then we kind of taught her how to ride a few years later, like, you know, do some of the initial stuff, and she did just fine, but she still just has that, like, I don't add, like, I'm not gonna go there. This feels too dangerous, like, even at the start, type of thing. So it's not for
1
Speaker 1
19:53
going down that path. Kirsten, you mentioned New York, and when you and I first talked, I mentioned that I had stalked you on YouTube, kind of because I found your video based on my interest in the distinguished gentleman's right? And your video called the search, which I've watched it multiple times. I think it's wonderful. So well done. Would you mind with sharing with the audience if they haven't listened to the previous interview, kind of where that story comes from, and then your connection into motorcycling also,
Kirsten Midura
20:29
sure, yeah, I'll give you the high level version, because, as you mentioned, it is detailed in the search, which is a story like DGR writer video done by cam Elkins. And there are also some articles online, if you look on the engines for change website, like my origin stories on there as well. But basically for me, I started writing when I was living in Nicaragua, doing some community development work there. My background is in international development and Renewable Energy and Sustainability and Environment. So I was living in Nicaragua, rolling out a grant doing like solar panels on people's homes and things of that nature. And anytime I traveled anywhere that was outside of a job site, like by myself, I needed to get around, and the only ways to do it really were either renting a scooter or a dirt bike. There's not really public transportation. Renting a car is insane. You know, the busses trial like, go so infrequently, it's and are kind of dangerous, but, you know, I made it work, but I didn't know how to ride a dirt bike, so I'd rent a scooter, and I'd be going off on these crazy dirt trails on this little, like 50 cc scooter. The business being on there, I was like, This is so impractical, if I'm going to stay and keep doing this type of work, I need to learn how to ride. And then once I started riding and kind of connected the dots, I was like, wow, everywhere in the world, except for the US, motorcycles are just a way of life. It's how people get around. It's the most affordable form of transportation that's really, you know, able to get you to different places. It's more capable than a bicycle. It's less expensive than a truck, you know, it can fit in some countries your entire family, you know, depending on your do it so, so it's really just a real world solution for so many issues around the world. And when I got to New York, I started getting very involved in the New York motorcycling scene, doing events, running my own events, things of that nature. And I just saw how altruistic the motorcycle community is and how much they really want to give back and have a reason to ride. And so, you know, coming from a background in community development and nonprofit work, I was like, well, guess this is the niche that I'm going to film now. So engines for change, cleanup, because, you know, with my environmental background, that seemed like the easiest lift at the start. And then when the pandemic hit, we started mobilizing motorcyclists around New York City to deliver services like face masks, face shields, hand sanitizer, things like that, to frontline workers, because there was no distribution system happening in New York City. And then that led to us getting involved in other community events and rolling out nationwide, you know, food drives and voter awareness campaigns and things of that nature just evolved from there. So this year really has been kind of a big focus on rolling out the internet. International component of it, of that, and Kiki has been running rebels with a cause for the last few years now. I'll let her talk a little bit more about that. But part of why I set this up was to be able to support people within the community who are doing these really cool projects. And, you know, using this tool
23:41
good but
Kirsten Midura
23:46
through the process of setting up their own nonprofit and doing all the paperwork, and, you know, all of that type of thing, or like, the grant, you know, and since that's what I have a background in, I'm like, well, fiscal sponsorship is something that we can offer to community members who just want to do the impact work, and don't want to do all that paperwork and whatnot. So that's that is one of the services that we provide to the motorcycling community, is fiscal sponsorship for programs like Kiki's. And I'll let her talk about what she's doing, but it's one of my favorite things that engines for change has ever done, is collaborated with rebels at the cause. So, so
1
Speaker 1
24:18
cool. And I want to go into details on both of the or the, the multiple things that you guys are involved with. But how did you meet?
5
Speaker 5
24:29
No idea. Maybe the one show. I think it was the one show was, it was when Shelly
2
Speaker 2
24:34
was here. I mean, I saw you because we have so many mutual friends. That's another thing.
5
Speaker 5
24:38
Yes, we met through Shelly. Shelly, all
24:41
these people, the best human,
Kirsten Midura
24:53
especially when you start working in it, like you just meet all these industry people who like, maybe work in it or like industry adjacent. But once you find the people who are, like, out there just doing the work and, like, rolling up their sleeves, you're like, Oh, they're my people. We're going to work together. That's going to happen. So, yeah, so you know, connections and events, and the one motorcycle show here in Portland is, like, a great, you know, hotbed of industry folks. So really good to meet people here. But yeah,
2
Speaker 2
25:24
it's almost, it's almost, it's international, like you meet everybody. It is my favorite show, so it's partially my favorite because I met Kirsten over the years. So yeah, but yeah, that's, I think, yeah, that's where we officially met. But we had been gravitating, gravitating? Is
Kirsten Midura
25:43
that a word? Yeah? Like, we're in the same circle.
25:48
Yeah, it was meant to be
2
Speaker 2
25:55
show and then do motor two shows later, she's like, I'm coming on here Pakistan. Oh, well, listen, the sponsor and, and was saving up to be able to come and help on this trip and, and that was just this year. Is 2024 and I started in 21 so
1
Speaker 1
26:16
about that? About the the rebels with a cause in and what it does. What do you want to what does it do today? What's the opportunity? And because I very much believe, and we talked a little bit about this before we started recording, I believe so many the people that listen to this podcast are pretty much on the same mindset of, yeah, we love to ride motorcycles, but there's more to it than that, you know. Okay, I want to preach for a second. So peace the peace love moto. Peace is about peace of mind. We're all seeking that. Everybody's seeking that, whether you're at a motorcycle or not, it for people who don't find it, it's killing them, and they're killing themselves or whatever. Okay,
1
Speaker 1
27:00
things are happening to families because mom and dad don't have peace of mind, you know, whatever, so they're seeking that. So peace is what part of the part of the podcast about, the other part of the podcast is love, love for yourself, which is related to the peace thing, but love for other people, whether it's random acts of kindness or something that is very well, very thoroughly thought out, and it's a big deal like you guys do. That's what this whole podcast is about. And the the motorcycling thing just happens to be a thread. It could be sailing for tennis for that man, that's
Kirsten Midura
27:32
funny. I both sail and play tennis. So we can do that. We can talk about that. You just check all the boxes I do. It's my James Bond skill set. You know,
6
Speaker 6
27:43
he's not lying. You can laugh, Ron, she ain't lying. Got a few of them. Well,
1
Speaker 1
27:48
I went off on a tangent there, but, but tell me more about Okay, your connection through the rebels with a cause. Well,
2
Speaker 2
27:55
rebels started a couple of years ago. I had, I wanted to do something to give back to my community, but motorcycle community, and also give back to my community in Pakistan, because that's where I was born and raised and and like I said, it wasn't easy growing up there, and that's what formed my passion for is the word altruist. Yeah, altruism, yeah, work. And just to always, yeah, kill people with kindness, honey. That's it, you know, like, do good. Like, just, just watch wake up. You know, don't choose violence, like some of these little shits. But like,
Kirsten Midura
28:38
for all the listeners out there, Kiki's holding up a kitten, which is, of course, of course that yeah,
1
Speaker 1
28:43
which makes perfect sense for someone like her to adopt rescue kittens. So
2
Speaker 2
28:50
she fosters them. They're part of my healing protocol. But yeah, I started rebels because I wanted to I was getting sicker and sicker. For those who don't know, I have been battling chronic Lyme disease and autoimmune illness for many, many decades. I was able to handle the fibromyalgia for a good 1112, years, I was writing and doing all the things all the time, even I didn't let any of the symptoms, you know, make life unbearable for myself. I was just like, uh, I got this. I'm going to be fine. Everything's going to be all right. There's people who have it worse. There you go, you know. So what was I? What were we talking about?
Kirsten Midura
29:35
We're talking about, talking about giving back to Pakistan,
2
Speaker 2
29:39
yeah. So I was just getting sicker and sicker, and I'm like, Damn I am. I kept on saying, oh, once I'm better, I'm going to do this. Once I'm I can write again, because I can't write anymore for the past few years, for now, again, changing the way I speak about it. This is temporary.
Kirsten Midura
30:00
This is good. This
2
Speaker 2
30:01
is not forever. This doesn't mean it's the end all. Just like you were talking about a previous person on your on your podcast, who lost his his site, and it wasn't the end all for motorcycling, for him, it wasn't the end of his, you know, participation in the community. So, yeah, I was just like, Okay, I ain't getting better, so I'm just going to do it. That's all we have. Is right here right now. That's another thing. People are like, you know, thinking like, way in the future. We're still stuck in the freaking past, and I'm just like, I got today. No, what am I going to do with today? Forget five years from now. Forget five months from now. What am I doing right here right now? And what difference can I make right here right now? So I was like, Okay, I'm not getting better that. I'm just going to do it and so and it just takes one person, that one person who then becomes two, 711, 30,
31:04
so,
2
Speaker 2
31:09
yeah, I started rebels with the cause in 2021 with the help of my friend, Lana kila, she started women's moto exhibit, one of the first ones who was shooting women in motorcycling many, many years ago. She empowered our community big time and and so, yeah, she pushed me because, of course, I wasn't going to do this on my own because,
31:32
because I
31:34
but yeah, we also sometimes
2
Speaker 2
31:39
I just procrastinate so hard. And I'm just like, why would I do that? Like, I can't do this alone.
1
Speaker 1
31:45
I mean, it's a huge risk for you, financially, time wise, health wise, everything, and you do it anyway.
2
Speaker 2
31:53
Everyone was like, Are you crazy? How do you single handedly do this when you have you know you're in an IV clinic, seven, eight hours a week, appointments every day. You clearly work. You can barely, actually, you don't even socialize. What are you doing? This is going to kill you. And I was like, it's going to kill me good, because it just like, again, it's going to kill me with kindness. It's going to it's going to, I say this after every tour, I say soul, soul rich body broke, and I mean broken, but also broke like I am out. I have nothing left in my energy bank account, in my physical bank account. It is broke as hell, but my soul is basking in all the riches we go, did you hear it right? When you see the difference you make, you're like, I can't give up. I can't stop now. Uh oh, right, Kirsten, you just can't you're just like, Uh oh, I started this thing now I want to share it, and I want more people on it, and I want to raise plans for it. And I want the kids to, like, know that they don't have to get married at the age of nine or 11 or, you know, 14. I sit there with the girls every year, and just at the schools that we help, and I'm like, you know, you don't need a man. You can provide for your family all by yourself. So it really is about just empowering the children, empowering the kids, the communities, the women over there in Pakistan, they're the ones who need it the most, and also a lot of the the disabled communities. So I mean, I've
33:39
seen one of your videos, and there's a man with no legs.
2
Speaker 2
33:45
Uh, yeah, he he was so stoked. You know, the first thing he said to me when he got that wheelchair, he's like, yeah, now I can start dating. Oh, my God,
Kirsten Midura
34:02
but that's such an important point on so many levels, right? Is that, like you, we this, I think motorcycle is the perfect analogy for this, right? People look at these things and they make all these assumptions about what that thing is meant for. What is a motorcycle meant for? Well, it's meant for a weekend hobby, and it's meant to, you know, whatever go out, it's meant to be loud and show off. And then you see how people are actually using them. You see places around the world where they're used for women's empowerment. There's a group in Kenya that there's a STEM school, like a like science technology, technology, engineering math School, where it's specifically for women. And then if they can pass the like National Testing level, then they can get these scholarships to go to college, which then makes them employable, which means that they can not marry at the age of nine, and can provide for their families. But in order for the girls to even go to the school, they need to walk sometimes two hours every morning, because school starts at 7am so they have to leave their houses at 5am to get there, right? So there's this group called moto girls in Kenya that uses their women who ride them and they go pick up the students, and they transport them to the school in Kenya so that they can get an education, so that they can pass the national test, so that they can get a scholarship, so they can go to college and become employable, and a motorcycle makes that happen. And it's like and it's the same thing with like, tampons, right? Or feminine products around so many places around the world, girls don't go to school when they're on their period because they don't have feminine hygiene products. They don't have access to running water, so you're constantly just a mess. So people just stay at home, which means that these girls aren't getting an education and aren't progressing in society, aren't making income. They have to get married. They're, you know, so many horrible things can happen because they don't have period pads. So like, people make such like, wild assumptions about things like wheelchairs, and they're like, oh, wheelchairs are for accessibility, so you can get from point A to point B. But to hear that like somebody's excited because considered a viable option for a date because they're in a wheelchair like this is this is, like, the whole reason why I love working on projects like this is because you you tell somebody one of those anecdotal stories, it blows their freaking minds. They're like, I never thought of it that way. I never thought that motorcycles were a tool for development and mobility and empowerment and so on and so forth. And you're like, Yeah, because nobody's put that story in front of you, like, you've no you haven't experienced it yourself. You haven't talked to people who have experienced it. And that's what I love so much about Pakistan and like, Kiki's program is like, before, I had heard about Pakistan once before from the chickistan tour, run by another woman, Liza Miller, which is an all women's tour there, which is amazing. And I almost went with her in 2021 I think it was. And my dad was like, No way, I'm disowning you as a daughter. If you go to Pakistan, that place is so dangerous, you're gonna get abducted by terrorists. You're gonna get, you know, all this stuff, like, huge fear mongering, because he's an environmental expert, you know, sits and watches the news. Support your program, right? Like, we're gonna do this Fiscal Sponsorship partnership. And I was like, Well, I can't be doing this if I haven't gone, like, I have to go. So then I went this year on the tour for the first time. Pakistan is now my number one favorite country. It's just awesome. The people are amazing. I I felt so safe there. I was so happy to be there. Everybody there is an entrepreneur. Everybody's working in sustainability, not because they get funding for it, but because it's the right thing to do. And like, there's just so much potential to keep developing this program with Kiki and keep adding to it. I'm really hoping I'm on the board of a solar nonprofit that does solar projects around the world. I'm really hoping that we can do a solar project on with one of the schools that Kiki works with. So there's just so much potential here, and that all starts with a motorcycle in a wheelchair. And it's like, we just can't, like people don't make those connections on your own, which is what we're trying to do, you know. So, yeah, it just,
2
Speaker 2
38:09
you know, through, through Kirsten work, like, I mean, like she said, she can provide these fiscal sponsorships that allow me to guess what, put all my focus where I need to put it. I don't know how to ask for money, honey, but I know how to like do good and have a good time.
Kirsten Midura
38:28
Excellent fundraiser. And like the Bota girls program, that program is another Fiscal Sponsorship partnership with Maya Fox, who runs the be nice rally twice a year. And that, I mean, she wanted to put on this event, and I talked to her about ways that she could do it, and that initial conversation was actually done, like, I just gave her some ideas, and we weren't going to work together. She's like, I'm going to go do this event. I'm like, fantastic. Like, do it, you know? And then a year after she started doing it, that's when we started having the conversations about fiscal sponsorship. So it's really cool, because some of these things have evolved, but the people that I choose to work with and I choose to support are the ones who have already taken those first steps, not the ones who are necessary, and they're going, I don't know what to do and like you do, like, you know what causes you care about, you know people, and if you know like, What you need or how to ask for help, then you know, we can do that. Or if you don't know what you need and you don't know how to ask for help, those are the conversations I love having, where I'm like, I will sit down with you and I will brainstorm an idea, but if it's your idea and you're passionate about it, like, my expectation is that you're going to be the one to do it right. I will support you, but you got to be out there already doing it, and I think that's what really fulfills the people I see, like Kiki, who are like, I can overcome anything because I have something I'm passionate about and working toward, and I can see how I'm bettering other people's lives. Like, that's what felt like fulfills people. And when I hear, when I talk to people who like, feel like something's missing in their lives, my first response to them is, go volunteer like that will fix so many of your problems if you volunteer with someone. Can be anyone. Go to a food bank, go to a homeless shelter, go, you know, whatever. Go foster kittens like, do something that fills your soul and inspires you to do more and like, it helps your mental health, your physical health, like, everything you know, and it helps other people. So,
2
Speaker 2
40:24
yeah, I love that. Yeah, nothing's more rewarding than that. And you're right, yeah, you you really were like, do it, and I was doing it, like, whether it was the fundraising, in whatever way or aspect I could do it. And then the it just started funneling in. And then, but to have support, like, to not be alone, that's it. We are community. And to lead on community and have them like, hold you, let them hold you, that's another thing.
40:54
Yeah. And, you know,
40:56
Jesus, yeah. And
Kirsten Midura
40:58
to your point about how, like, one person grows into two, grows into five. All of those people are not going to have the same skill sets. Like, I had no connection to Pakistan really, so I'm not going to go roll out a program. They're like, that would be weird and kind of colonial. But having like, Kiki has these skill sets and that she knows the community she has funded.
Kirsten Midura
41:22
She connections. And I have connections with the, you know, nonprofit project management, solar grant making, world like, you know, those are two things where you can be creative and figure out how they work together. And those are the best projects, the ones where you're like, I never would have connected those dots. And so personally,
1
Speaker 1
41:40
have the connection to the Texas rednecks, because I'm from Texas. So those crazy cowboys, who have you heard? Have you heard the what is the last what are the last words of a redneck? Hold my beer. Watch this. Oh
41:59
my god. Mary, but literally, I'm sorry, I just had to sit around.
Kirsten Midura
42:07
No, but I mean to your point, like, that's you're talking about stereotypes from places. And I think motorcyclists are get that all the time. And I have, like, a micro TED talk that I do sometimes on engines for change, for people who are outside of the motorcycle. And what I do is I I have people close their eyes, and I have them picture a motorcyclist. And again, if you're outside of the Moto like, if you're in the motorcycling community, you're going to picture something different. And if you're in the international development community, where you've seen how motorcycles are used around the world, you're probably going to fit, like, picture something different. But the average American is going to picture an old white dude in a leather vest on a Harley. Like, that's what you're gonna picture. So the first thing I do, the first photo I show, when they open their eyes, is exactly that, but it's a guy from the bikers against child abuse. And so I open on that, and I'm like, you're probably picturing something like this. But if you're going like around the world, you picture something like this. And then I show the boat of girls in Kenya, and I show national park rangers in Peru, and I show, like, all these other people who are riding different types of bikes for different purposes. And then I bring it back around to the bikers against child abuse. And I'm like, This guy, this guy supports children who are coming from
43:20
trauma,
Kirsten Midura
43:30
you know, abused by family members, so on and so forth. And they go sit in front of the courtroom. They befriend the children. Then they go sit in front of the courtroom, and they act as support for the kid when they have to get up and testify against their abuser. So it's a whole group of these burly white dudes on Harleys who sit in women. There are women in it too, but they sit in the front row with their arms crossed, like just a visual support for the kid and intimidation for the abuser to be, like, we got this kid's back. You do this again? Like it's not going to be pretty kind of thing, and that just shifts people's mindsets. Because they're like, I totally picture that. And I'm like, Do you know what those people are doing? You don't. And that's like, there's a whole history of, like, MC culture where, like, yes, some of it is violent and reckless, but there's an origin behind it, and there's a lot of community work behind that as well. So it's just the stereotypes are really, really dangerous. And I think Pakistan is a great example of that, right? There's so
4
Speaker 4
44:26
many what's happening in Pakistan. And you
Kirsten Midura
44:33
go, me, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back every single year. It's actually terrible, like, right? Right?
44:42
You know, no dangerous
44:43
like, Please don't come here.
Kirsten Midura
44:48
Video. And with that, I mean, I came back, I came back after the trip, and I showed my dad photos, and I told him stories, and he's like, wow, Pakistan looks amazing. I'm like, Dude, you don't remember this conversation where you're gonna disown me. Like, come on. So,
1
Speaker 1
45:01
so, so that's what it is. Yeah,
2
Speaker 2
45:05
that's rebels. It started with me trying to change so many perspectives, the perspective of like, all the people here, every time I'd go back to Pakistan, saying, Oh my God, be safe. And I'm like, bruh, the second I leave. LA, I feel the safe.
Kirsten Midura
45:20
You're like, I live in LA, what do you mean? Be safe there? Like,
2
Speaker 2
45:23
what do you mean? I was like, Finally, my nervous system can recalibrate in Pakistan, like, ah. And then just hearing that over and over, I was like, This is my country. I was like, and you have been like, wow, in the first, like, few days, people just come on this trip. It's, you know, a lot of it's a tour. It's a humanitarian motorcycle tour. I have people who come because they love all the things I love, you know, epic landscapes, doing good, being on a bike, freedom of the open road, all of that shit, right? And so these people go like, holy shit. We have been lied to and conditioned by our government for the past, I don't know how many decades. And I was like, You and me both baby like, there was once an anecdote about a guy on a Durban he was washing his cow, and he was like, asking us to like, I saw him, and I was like, like, maybe don't go down that alley, Kiki. And I'm like, back up. Why am I thinking like that?
46:28
The guy then asked us all to come to his home because
2
Speaker 2
46:35
he was like, You must be so over heated with all your gear and stuff, let me make you lemonade. And I'm like, bad girl, bad kid. You weren't even born and raised in America, and you had let the news get to you. You got the all those movies that all the baddies have beards and have durbans and are brown skinned. You let that affect you and change your insight on your people. I felt so much shame in that moment, but I use that shame again for like, all right, scratch that new new canvas. Not Yeah, I'm not going to let I'm going to make my own decisions. I'm going to make my own opinions on the environment that I'm in, the people that I meet, and then everybody else gets along with it, and he's like, whoa. Like, yeah, brother.
47:29
I mean, it's
47:32
it also speaks to like we're
Kirsten Midura
47:38
all we're all susceptible to marketing, we're all susceptible to propaganda, like, we think we're above it, but we're not, and the only way to, like, figure that out and overcome it is either to do it yourself, which I understand, like, that's a big jump for a lot of people. But if you know people who have gone, like, I've known, I know multiple people at this point who have gone to Pakistan, and every single one of them comes back and is like, oh my god, that was an amazing, incredible experience. I have not heard a single person come back and say, I was scared for my life. I was uncomfortable. I mean, there's, yeah, sometimes, like, you might eat something like that makes you a little bit sick, or, yes, it's a motorcycle tour. Like, people crash, you know, like you can't, you can't handhold everyone, you can't put everyone on the back of a bike, but it's never the people, it's never the culture. It's never you know, like none of that is problematic. You don't run into insane scenarios that you're picturing. It's not to say it couldn't happen, but I have story of that happening so and also, the tour doesn't go to like, the places that are war, like, war zones. So,
2
Speaker 2
48:43
yeah, yeah, well, they're exciting enough for me. I
Kirsten Midura
48:48
don't know stuff to worry about with like, 12 riders through, you know, the city.
1
Speaker 1
48:54
Yes, it's the bad news that makes the news. Like they used to use the expression, uh, bad news sells soap, you know, you know all that stuff, and it's good
Kirsten Midura
49:02
that you're doing this podcast, you know?
1
Speaker 1
49:05
Yeah, exactly. I mean, we know. I mean, just in the community that I focus on is the one I know here in the US, especially the western United States, is where I know there are wonderful people out in the middle of the woods who never see anybody. But you know, they're just the sweetest people in the world, and it's that's the great majority. They don't make the news. Nobody gets that. It's like, it's like, Well, again, I'm getting off on a tangent. People will that are from where I grew up, in McKinney, Texas. They'll say, how do you handle the winter in Colorado? I just buried with snow all the time. I'm a motorcycle. Almost every day it warms. It does warm up. The sun is really bright, you know. So it's just these perspectives that you can't fix until they get here and here, it's like, wow, people are really nice here, nobody. They're not tailgating at all. You know, in this area where I
Kirsten Midura
49:56
live, it's not, it's, I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I was, I was still a little bit nervous going on the trip, like, you know, I still had some of that fear that my dad had, like, instilled in me, and that, you know, I'd read about online and that kind of stuff. And I was like, I'm doing it. I have, I have trust in Kiki, I have trust in the shore operators. Like, I trust that this is going to happen, especially since it's been happening for a few years now. So I'm like, right? So a lot of the kinks have probably been worked out at this point. But I can't say that there wasn't, like, a little bit of hesitation there where I was like, Is this going to be all are people going to prove me wrong, right, or prove whatever, prove themselves right? And yeah, I'm like, I'm so excited to go back this year. I'm like, There's no hesitation. Like, I'm so excited.
50:38
You Yeah,
1
Speaker 1
50:46
a nursing way, but I work part time in Rocky Mountain National Park as a tour guide. Started doing that on the weekends and stuff. But I did that when I got laid off from my job a while back, I knew it was, you know, it was kind of a surprise. So I did that for about a year until I was hired back to the company and stuff. But I still do it part time anyway. People have so we have tourists who come in and they hop in the back of a modified Jeep about 12 people at a time, from all over the place, you know, la mia, whatever, mostly United States. But they have these pre preconceptions that this is, oh, this is like Disneyland. So it's the Jungle Cruise, and we're going to be cruising along, oh, there's an alligator, oh, there's a knowing all this stuff. And then I explained to them, we're going out into the real world. The animals don't know the difference between the boundaries for Rocky Mountain National Park and then the national forest that's all around them. They have no idea. They're all wild. They're all real. And it's, it's when they have that, when I when we tour, guys joke amongst ourselves that one of the things that we hear every once in a while from some from tourists to say, how many animals will we see in this three hour tour? And then we jokingly say, Well, if it's Thursday, we'll see 18. No idea we may not see
Kirsten Midura
52:02
around you're like, are we counting crows? Because, like,
1
Speaker 1
52:08
sometimes we have to, I guess my point is, though, people have to get away from what they're used to, out into this other space and realize that, you know what, it's really quiet. But wait, it's not so quiet. There's noise all the time. There's wind from this canyon down a mile below us. I can hear the wind down there, and I'd say, Listen carefully. Listen over here. You're hearing a river that's two miles away, because they're not used to the silence, and then they come back a different person. So I guess what I'm segway in there is that I've experienced some similar things, and I'll maybe share a little bit about that later. But it seems like once you step out and your
1
Speaker 1
52:51
behind you, you just step out and say, I trust you. And next thing I was like, Oh my gosh, the world is so different than what I thought. So different. Yeah, but
Kirsten Midura
53:00
having that, having someone to trust, is huge, and I realized that a lot of people don't necessarily have that, right. So that's a big part of what we're trying to do, is going, Okay, you're not going to go do this on your own, and we understand that. But if we can create like, a safe space for you to go and push your own boundaries in your own comfort zone and grow from it and help people in the process. Then, you know, that's the goal. Is, like, is, is becoming that safe space. So
1
Speaker 1
53:27
that gets to the whole point of many points where I wanted to talk with you both, I want people to know that you're real people. You know you're you're great in a lot of ways. You're flawed in other ways, just like everybody else, but you've seen something and experience
Kirsten Midura
53:39
really, I only have one flaw. Oh, really,
7
Speaker 7
53:43
humility. Obviously I can everyone can't
53:49
think of any Sorry,
1
Speaker 1
53:55
just knowing. And we'll talk a little bit later. I'm probably not going to record this part of it. We'll talk a little bit later, because I have a plan for the Peace Love Moto Tour. Perhaps maybe in the future, we'll see talk with you more about that. Okay, yeah, I can.
7
Speaker 7
54:07
We can talk about that. Oh yeah, yeah. It's just circle of goodness and
1
Speaker 1
54:14
Oh, Kiki, though I think you and I think just like, and we were talking a little bit again before we kind of before we started recording. I won't get religious here, but I believe there's a purpose we're here. I really do. I think that there's a reason why I've given up. Yeah, I've been given opportunities as I've had. I've worked hard, most definitely, but oh my goodness, I've been I've failed in a lot of ways. I'm a very flawed person, but I've got two motorcycles in the garage, oh my goodness. And tomorrow, when it's sunny, even though it might just get up to 45 or whatever, I I've got the day off right downstairs, start up, either one of them, a beautiful BMW, a beautiful tribe. I can go for a ride in the Rocky Mountains, and I'm so fortunate, there's got to be a reason for that. I'm just convinced it's not just chance. I feel like, along with this, is not, not a requirement to do good for other people and to say a kind word or go over the top with a tip, or do charity work, whatever I feel like. It's it's an obligation. It because I've been given so much, and at the same time too. I guess here I'm going down another path. But I know of so many. I know of a few wealthy people, you definitely see them on the news, who have everything. They have everything, boatloads of money, they don't know what to do with, and they're unhappy, or they're killing themselves. You wonder why? Because there was this sadness underneath. Where's that? All that? Where did that come from? And I can't help but think that maybe some
1
Speaker 1
55:59
dude have everything going on in the world. Why am I still sad? Why am I still sad? Maybe you just need to open your heart a little bit and take a step out, take a chance. Listen to people like you and say, You know what? I'm going to give this a try, and I'm going to give and I'm going to pour myself out there, and I'm going to just listen and see, see what I can learn, see how I can help. And I think that's gonna cure some of the ills in the world.
Kirsten Midura
56:24
I think that what I kind of observe, and I realize I'm a little bit biased, because I am a community builder, like by trade, but I I feel like individualism and like kind of toxic individualism is what leads people to feel that sadness, right? So you're lonely at the top, you're making a bunch of money. You can't relate to anyone. No one relates to you. You feel isolated. You might have a you might be in a huge room of people. I mean this, I kind of York I
Kirsten Midura
57:06
you're there, you're around a ton of people, but you're like, I don't have any real connections, necessarily. So
2
Speaker 2
57:14
for me, are they loving me for my status, my money, my Yeah,
Kirsten Midura
57:18
yeah, exactly. And and building those deep connections, not only with people, but with nature, like we've we've strayed so far from being part of the natural world we think that we're above it and better than it, and that it's there to serve us. Instead of being part of the planet like we are. We are animals on the planet. We need to live, you know, symbiotically with the other animals on the planet and the plants and the whole thing. But we remove ourselves intentionally and think that we're better, and think that we're meant to be stewards of the earth, and we're not like the like. We're meant to live with the Earth, but not, you know, we're not in charge of it. It's not there for us. So, and it's the same thing with community, you know, we, I think problem with, like, sitting in cars, for example, right? Rather than taking public transportation, like you're sitting there in a box all by yourself, isolated, not even knowing the face of the person who's in front of you in traffic, and you're like, Oh, why are you going so fucking slowly, like you're just angry at, like, idea of something, you're angry at, a concept, and I'm sure that if you got out of the car and you had a conversation with that person, you become like best friends, right? But we intentionally isolate ourselves, whether that's physically speaking, right? The fact that we no longer live with multi generational housing, we you know, we don't live in communities and communes, and, like, I would go crazy if I lived in a commune, but I understand the value of the connection, of having, like, tight knit communities like that, and kind of straying from motorcycles a little bit like with the direction that our country's going in, right and the direction that capitalism is going in, and all these big ticket item discussion points that is bringing in, like Climate change and all the things that
59:01
are like doing so much.
Kirsten Midura
59:10
The only solution that I have found, that I've come to that can help with that is decentralization and Community Focus, right? So how do we create local food systems again. So we're not highly dependent on the agricultural, you know, massive, like, big ag or whatever. Like, how do we find a way to support each other health wise? So we're not highly dependent on the public health system, you know, like, are there things that we can do within our communities to keep the services and the connections within the communities and so really that community focus is, like, that's the only way that I can see us getting through this without all of us coming out of this depressed and suicidal, you know. And that goes for motorcycles too. Like, who are your who are the riders in your area? Like, do can you connect with them? Can you do volunteer days and service days with them? Can you build those connections locally, obviously globally is great. Like Kiki and I aren't in the same space, but
Kirsten Midura
1:00:15
have so many friends here that are motorcyclists that I can like call if I need something. So and I think that's really special about the motorcycling community, is that we already get that in a way that most communities and most groups don't. You know, we're the first people to pull over on the side. Oh yeah, for other people,
1
Speaker 1
1:00:32
I think a great visual example, and a once a year example is the distinguished gentleman's right where I've described it. Any number of times you go, you go to the event. You're all dressed up, you're prepared, you're on your classic bike. You go up to a total stranger, give them a hug, then say hello. My name is because we've got the motorcycling connection, and we're raising, we're raising funds for really, really good cause, which is, I'm like, You Kiki. I cannot ask for money. I never like to do that at all. But when I turn around and say, it's not about me, it's about this world around us. There are these hurting people, either physically or mentally hurting people. They need us. They need
1
Speaker 1
1:01:18
how are you? And genuinely feel that no telling what you may be talking somebody out of, you know, well,
Kirsten Midura
1:01:24
and it just, and it's a two way street, right? Like, I need things I need, I need hugs, you know, that kind of thing. And so I think it's really important for people to recognize that this kind of work that we're doing, it's not a one way street. It's not like we're giving to people and we are saving their lives and that kind of thing, like, we get stuff out of it too, whether that's a sense of fulfillment, whether that is literal connections, like, if we're going to go, like, if I go and do this solar program with Kiki on the school that also helps, you know, progress the nonprofit that I work for, and then we can get funding from that. And like it all, it starts to go around, like come back around in ways that you may not expect. And I think that it's really important to remember that all of this work that we're doing is inter interdependent and not top down.
1:02:20
Yeah, any
2
Speaker 2
1:02:30
like that. But again, ask for help. If there's anything I can even say on this podcast, it is ask there's people just let yourself be held. Can you just do that? Put your ego away. Put your insecurities away. People are dying to help. All you gotta do is ask, and I don't think enough of us do. And when you do, oh my goodness, it's like the floodgates of a damn drop, and all this support comes pouring through and all this love, and you're like, Where have you been my whole life? And why was I so stubborn, and why was I so adamant about believing that nobody's got me, everybody's got you, especially in the motorcycle community, I am not riding anymore for the past four years. That doesn't mean I'm not going to ride again. Inshallah, I will. Inshallah, I will. But you know what,
1:03:24
I still show up, just
2
Speaker 2
1:03:28
like, just like my friends who lost their legs and can't ride anymore, they still show the up. Yeah, they still do, and that's why, and everyone still is so happy to have me around. Or, you know, because you're like, damn it, just because you're unwell, you still show up 10 times more than any of us. We're not even sick, like Kiki. How do you do it? Like, because I woke up and I'm still breathing like I have so much luck to have, like, lived through the day, and I am not going to let this day go by without giving it my all, like, my 200% so, so what's your excuse? What's your excuse, Mister, I got money, I got help. I got three motorcycles in my garage. Like, dude, let me infect you with with this prolife proliferation of doing good, like, like, I said, it's a cycle. Like, inspire everyone and say things now. Don't wait till people are dead. Don't wait just
1
Speaker 1
1:04:33
think it's fair to say that all three of us are extroverts. At least we fake it really well, right? And we're not. We're not afraid to go up and tell people what we think we we've we've got, we each have a story. And you two, for sure, can craft that story and tell somebody and and have it left with a with an impact on somebody's life. You never know I mentioned to you too kind of before we record. I've been getting feedback this past year and a half from this podcast, I haven't known really where it's going to go. It kind of all started with the theme of, Hey, I like the I like the distinguished gentleman's right? And what it's all about. I love to ride motorcycles. I love to try to be helpful, too. And there's a lot of people just drowning in silence out there. They just don't have the courage, or just, you know, introverts, or whatever it is to or
Kirsten Midura
1:05:23
don't know where to look, like it's not necessarily obvious. I mean, especially with, like, algorithms and stuff these days, like, it's hard to get the word out, like, we don't have, we're all volunteer run. You know, it's hard to do marketing. I'm so right now, I'm launching a community motorcycle program in Guatemala. So I'm going out to Guatemala in February to roll this out. And I desperately need to be fundraising for this, but I've been burned out from other things, and I just haven't had, like, the capacity to build a pitch deck and send it out to sponsors and build a donation page and all this kind of stuff. And it's like it takes so much work to just get the word out. And it's it i i feel like it's a disservice to the community, because there are things going on and kind of to your guys's point about fundraising, like I too hate, I hate asking for money, but I also realize that I need to start really leaning into it a little bit more. And one thing that I heard recently from I'm going to do a plug for my friend kaliopa, who runs philanthropy without borders. She may she mentioned that fundraising is you should shift your perspective.
Kirsten Midura
1:06:42
Right as, like, inviting them to, like, giving them an opportunity to have their own impact. Like, maybe nobody's going to be able to come down to Guatemala with me. Maybe you can't go to Pakistan for whatever reason. But like, you believe in the cause and you want to support it, and so you're like, hey, I understand if you can't come on the trip. But like, if you still want to support, like, here is your way to get involved. And kind of looking at this, looking at your donors more as partners than as you know, pockets is probably is the best way to approach it. So that's what I'm trying to focus on next year. Is really, like, honestly, the fundraising side of things, because we are, like, bootstrapped all the way, and we, I mean, we've had individual donors for certain campaigns, and I am so grateful to those donors who have been able to to support that. But you know, we don't have, like, regular subscription donations. We don't have money for overhead like, I think, so follow the kindness of our heart. So being able to, you know, I there's, there is some responsibility on people to go out and try to seek out the opportunities to get involved. Because if it's just coming on a one way street from the volunteers who just care, like it's the word, is going to be difficult to get out but, but that's also why I'm really grateful for things like this podcast, because you do have subscribers and an audience that Kiki and I might not have already. So being able to do stuff like this is not only fun, it's also super helpful for us.
1
Speaker 1
1:08:11
Well, that's exactly what I wanted to do, and if I'd like to shift, get specific, because, like I said, there are listeners that I have gotten feedback from who have been helped through this podcast, and I'm absolutely convinced too, that if they have an opportunity, a clear, relatively simple opportunity, in front of them to enjoy your motorcycling hobby, if that's your thing, but also to be part of a greater good that could change your life forever by going
1:08:39
and experiencing that,
1
Speaker 1
1:08:48
something they need to do and and that's why I'm gonna have it in the show notes, all the details that you'd like me to share and stuff too. Um, we here at peace. Love moto. We my wife and I, we've tried to be contributors to both of your causes too. We try to be involved in all that stuff too. But there's a lot of people though, that again, you know, may have just tons of money and just tons of time on their hand and a whole garage full of bikes and so sad every day, and they don't know why. Well, try this. That's what I'm that's what I'm thinking. Just you're you're hearing from people you can trust, who you're getting to know. Now, give it a try. So how about, how about we kind of go this route. Now, like Back to you, Kiki, what specifically could the listeners of this podcast do to support what your cause is and make something possibly magical happen in their own life,
2
Speaker 2
1:09:51
there's something very special about what I have been able to do for the past four years, which I've not seen in a lot of nonprofits, Is that still to this day, four years later, 100% of my proceeds go to the cause, and it's like real life, like Ron the money you you donated, you saw me donate a wheelchair to a person. It's full freaking circle. You get to see your donation, your participation. Full circle. We don't get to see that anymore because of everything. We're just losing everything now. Everything's like being bought up by bigger corporations. Mom and Pop stuff is disappearing. Small tradesmen and craftsmen are disappearing. We see it every day. We don't even have to go far to see like our own friends who are metalsmiths, fabricators are out of business, and who's making the big money, the big corporations and who are buying out all these people. But you get to see on such a small scale, but such an intimate scale, that even if you're not on my trip, you're a part of it, because I show you from beginning to end where your money went, babe, that is that's worth all the gold in the world. And that makes you want to, like a friend who sent me like a Venmo. He's like, here's 100 bucks. Kiki, do it whatever you want. And I was like, Well, I'm gonna and then I showed him. I was like, This is my, my assistant over there buying, buying the wheelchairs. These are the wheelchairs being distributed. These are the wheelchairs like with the people. Their names are so and so, and you've changed their lives forever. And he's like, holy shit, here's another $200 and this is before I even had an EIN number. So I was like, Babe, I can't do anything for you. You can't even get your, you know, tax exemption from this. But, yeah, everyone's donation now is money you weren't you were giving to, and it's all going to, like, actually, palpably change the life of a child, a little girl, a family, you know, you start with wheelchairs and books and crayons and desks, and then you become like, oh my god, solar panels. Oh my god, computer labs. I mean, yeah, this is Game changer, game changer. And this is all, thanks to all the rebels. It hasn't been big people from like IBM and so on and so forth, who are like, hey, we want to give you this. No, it's my rebels from past tours and current tours who are finding their connections and making this happen. So if you're out there and you work for anything that you think, I mean, we need everything from water filters to money, they don't even care for money. Honestly, I give big, nice, big fat, you know, bills to the teachers because I was focusing so much on the students for the past
4
Speaker 4
1:12:43
years and the like the women the community, for the children
2
Speaker 2
1:12:48
of the community. And I was like, wait, you gotta support their pillars as well. Like their main pillars, who are their teachers? Who are there?
1:12:57
My daughter's a teacher. They're Oh,
2
Speaker 2
1:12:58
bless her soul. Oh, oh, my God. I was like, How do I know you have to they're the ones, and they're giving their valuable free time, volunteering at these schools, to give these kids an opportunity and a future. So, you know, I mean, a lot of these kids, I mean, suicide is not something wrong that's normal in my culture or my religion, and we started to see a lot of suicide, and we were like, What the fuck is happening, really, and what is happening? And I didn't just stop there. I'm like, I need to find out what's happening. I dig deeper. I asked the community, and they're like, the culprit is the literacy rate. Kids are going to people are going to school, but they can't do shit after
1:13:43
they have no resources.
2
Speaker 2
1:13:47
After the fact that they've gone to school, they filled up their brains with dreams and desires to like, fulfill such wonderful careers. And they're they're so full of life and opportunity, but there is no opportunity. Then they realize they're like, Well, this was a nice stint in my life, and I gotta go back to being a shepherd's son. So how do we fix that? That has been racking my brains. And then I was like, oh, computers giving them little windows to the outside world. They speak excellent English. Give them jobs. Find them jobs. Guys, I will say it now, there are women in the north of Pakistan, graphic designers, social media, girls, not just girls, children or teenagers. Or there's, you know, there's people who want to be hired, but they don't have any way of funneling and finding that person who'll hire them, and they guys, if you want to hire someone who you know it'll be
2
Speaker 2
1:14:54
literally sustain the life of an entire family or multiple Families in Pakistan by just hiring someone who's freaking it genius, or, like, graphic design and all of that, do it, I have the means I will send you around the details. Someone sent me this the other day. He's like, Kiki, can you help? And I was like, I was like, bro, leave me alone. You know? Because I was like, I'm in treatment. I was literally like, I had, yeah, I was having transfusions and all my treatments. And I'm like, really, really, I already do so much and and then I was like, I'm so sorry I wasn't in a good place, but I'm listening, and I'll do what I can do. And even if I can't personally do it, I might know somebody who can. And even if it's one person, like we said, Ron in the beginning of this, when we were waiting for you, Kirsten, we were like, if you can touch one person, you're so, yeah. So anyone who wants to help, I mean, I do bikini bike washes, guys, so I'm not really
1:16:02
that's another event.
Kirsten Midura
1:16:07
I mean, Kiki got assets, you know? And she likes, she likes to share them, and we love her
2
Speaker 2
1:16:13
blessings from Allah, I use it, you know, I'm doing the work Sunday through Saturday, honey.
1:16:21
It's all for the good. It's all for
Kirsten Midura
1:16:22
the good. It's all for the good, yeah, and kind of building off of that, I mean, a lot of people, especially people who we you know in the States, I know a lot of people who are pretty well off, or work for big companies or things like that. And of course, we appreciate literally any dollar amount you can donate, like $1 and we're like, great, we can do something with that. We love that we're here for it. But there's also an opportunity, like, should say, and there's also an opportunity
1:16:53
for
Kirsten Midura
1:17:01
run campaigns on our behalf in their company, right? And say, Hey, this is a cause I really care about. I'm donating $1 can everybody in this 500 person company donate $1 and then that turns into 500 right? There are corporate sponsorship opportunities and donation matches that people should be aware of, right? So if you work at Google, you can donate up to a certain amount and submit it to global grid project. Who so engines for change is a dB, a legally registered DBA under an organization called global grid project. And global grid project's mission is to provide basic human resources. Yeah, I'll send you all this information too. But basic provide basic human resources to under resourced communities around the world. And so motorcycles is one of those resources. So engines for change and global grid project are the same thing from a legal entity standpoint, just with two different names for clarification. So you can go to your company and you can say, hey,
1:17:59
global to global
Kirsten Midura
1:18:07
$100 and your company, a lot of companies, especially big corporations, will donation match whatever you donate or whatever you raise. So if you get your 500 colleagues, or your bigs or your two colleagues or whatever, to donate a certain amount of money, there are often donation matches that are offered by your organization. And I actually a couple of my friends helped with that, and that is how I was able to fundraise the like $13,000 that it took for me to go to Peru a couple years ago with rally for Rangers. A big part of that was being able to fundraise through corporate like corporate donation matches, so you can get creative in terms of how to donate and how to fund things and how to sponsor things. And I'm happy to talk to anybody about that, if you would like to help fundraise on our behalf. But we have a give butter page, and we're launching a new website very, very soon, which will make it easier to donate to
1:19:06
sun or any of the program.
Kirsten Midura
1:19:10
But I think your original question was also like, what can people do? And I know I've been in the position for a long time working in nonprofits where I'm like, there's so many nonprofits that I care about, but I am financially kind of strapped, so I will donate time. And what does that look like, right? What are those opportunities? I mean, for us, sharing information is huge. Like sharing our stories, sharing, you know, a bunch of things. We're going to have some organizers that I'm that I'm going to be working with to roll out a men's mental health program, kind of going back to the DGR conversation, because there are a lot of men, especially, out there who do feel really isolated and have found some some sense of community through motorcycles, but don't necessarily have the tools to create something a little bit bigger and more formal with that. And so we're going to be launching a pilot Men's Health program that's run by men with within our community, but then also connecting them with resources like, you know, mental health professionals who can give some, you know, advice and kind of work through some things with them, and community organizers like people who lead these types of things professionally, so so that they it'll be like a train, the trainer kind of program, so that those individuals can then go back to their communities and have more tools to be able to support their community. So that's something that like we're rolling out this year, and if people have experience doing that, one of the things that's going to be on the new website is toolkits for how can you be a community organizer and an activist in your own communities? So I need help from people who already have experience doing this, or from people who have no experience doing this that are willing to try it and document their experiences so that the rest of our motorcycling community can learn from that, and so that I don't have to be the one to go out and organize every single event across the country. Everybody can be empowered to organize their own so that's kind of some of the stuff that I'm working on right now.
Kirsten Midura
1:21:14
A lot of these things. So if anybody has an idea of something that they're willing to actually do and try out and trial and error and fuck it up and try again. Those are the kinds of people that I could personally use a lot of help and support from.
1
Speaker 1
1:21:28
You know what? I didn't from either of you I didn't hear, and this is how I'm going to make a lot of money for myself. Kiki, that's huge. We've all got to make a living, yeah, earn a couple of years. That takes money, you know, in a savings account and all that stuff. And that's that's hard to attain. But everybody
Kirsten Midura
1:21:50
knows of any capacity building grants, or wants to give us a capacity building grant, we would love to be able to be to pay ourselves to focus on this full time. So it's not just a passion project. You can talk to me about that too.
1
Speaker 1
1:22:02
Well. We're going to talk after we stop recording, because I have a thought, and I want to share that with you, because I need your feedback, and so I'm not going to
1:22:11
record that for the next episode.
4
Speaker 4
1:22:19
Announcement coming in 2025 Yes, yes, yes.
2
Speaker 2
1:22:25
Rebels tour will be launching in the next couple of days for next year, for 2025 we were just dialing in, like, the itinerary, and all the kinks and the things that we learned from this this summer. You know, it was incredible and incredibly useful to have feedback. Kirsten had, like, set up something so that every writer could, every rebel could give their their, you know, their, yeah, just their feedback from how their experience was. And that was very helpful. And another thing that was really helpful is that, like, Sure, maybe you have, like, no money and and you want to still help, because it's usually the people who have no money who want to help. Bizarre, that's so true. So if you want to, like, go to these schools in Pakistan, or, you know, like, if you, if you, if you do metal smithing, and you're like, you
1:23:26
it's for a month, we
2
Speaker 2
1:23:28
will like we will make sure and ensure to set you up. You won't get paid, honey, but you will get your ass there, and you will be able to be accommodated, and you will have changed the lives of dozens and dozens of children, for so many or women or men, for time to come, like, why wouldn't you, right? So I'm calling out to artists, musicians. Go for like a one month, you know, teaching opportunity. Go to Pakistan. They will accommodate you. You won't like it'll be volunteer based, but you'll get accommodation and possibly food, because, oh God, everyone's trying to feed you, and
Kirsten Midura
1:24:06
the food is so good. I know
1:24:10
why Kirsten is actually coming, but I'm actually
Kirsten Midura
1:24:13
not going to be involved in the tour at all. I'm just going back to eat. So gonna be great. Oh
4
Speaker 4
1:24:19
my goodness, that's, yeah, any is welcome.
2
Speaker 2
1:24:32
Just keep talking about it, you know. And it's just wonderful. We're all rebels at heart. We ride motorcycles that's already made us and, you know, yeah, instant rebel. But you know, we're doing something. So there, I would
Kirsten Midura
1:24:47
love to make a plug for the things that I have planned for 2025 just in case it resonates with anybody 2025 and beyond. So obviously, we're going to keep working with Kiki on Pakistan the rebels tour right now is a lot about going and experience in the culture and meeting the schools and donating items like wheelchairs and water filters and solar panels, you know, personal solar panels, to these groups. But I'm hoping to, like I said, do a solar install on one of the schools that could really use it. And I also am going to be rolling out a community motorcycle program. So the idea behind that is, you donate motorcycles to like, you know, a handful, 125, specific community
Kirsten Midura
1:25:41
profit or a specific school, or, you know, some group who could really use it. We're going to go there. We're going to donate the motorcycles. We are going to teach people how to ride motorcycles. So, for example, the women that Kiki was talking about, who are the teachers. They're volunteer teachers at the school, they have to walk up this crazy rocky hill every single day from their houses to the school and back. And so if we could teach them how to ride motorcycles and donate, I think they're like, 10 teachers. There 810, teachers, something like that. So if we could donate, like, I mean, even a handful of motorcycles, but if we could donate 10 motorcycles to this group, teach all the women how to ride them, and then teach basic mechanics like this is how you do chain maintenance. This is how you do an oil change, like that type of thing. That is the holistic program that I want to set up in Pakistan and in Guatemala. That's what I'm going down there in February. Out
1:26:37
is that program,
Kirsten Midura
1:26:41
some either either discounted or donated motorcycles set up for Guatemala, but I don't have anything set up for Pakistan yet. So motorcycle
2
Speaker 2
1:26:50
like $1,400 to 2000 just so you know that is a brand new Honda. So
Kirsten Midura
1:26:56
if somebody is like, I need a tax write off for the end of this year. I don't know when this podcast is coming out, coming out, but all of this is tax deductible. So if you make a $2,000 donation to engines for change, and you say, I want this to go to the school in Pakistan or the the program in Guatemala is supporting a nonprofit that you like, teaches community members to collect trash in their area and build sustainably built schools using a waste and they are. They need a couple motorcycles to be able to go do supply runs, like when they need three nails, they can go pick up three nails and come right back, as opposed to that being an entire day of somebody walking and then coming back. So that's the group that we're working with in Guatemala. They're called Long Way Home. And then obviously rebels in
4
Speaker 4
1:27:41
you want to donate from
Kirsten Midura
1:27:51
Guatemala, and I want to donate to that bike, or I want to donate to that service, or I love what Kiki is doing, and I want to donate to the Pakistan you get that's, that's a tax write off for you, right? And you get to donate a motorcycle to a teacher who needs it to be able to get to school in the morning, that type of thing. So if you have, if any of that resonates, and you have the opportunity to connect us with bike suppliers in the areas, if you want to come train people on how to do operate, like, how to do chain maintenance and oil changes, right? Like so, many of us have those skills, but being able to, like, teach that to people would be huge. Or, if you have ever been a motorcycle, like a basic rider instructor, and you want to come to Pakistan and be the person to teach them how to ride a motorcycle, those are all opportunities for people to, like, really get involved and make a difference. Yeah, if you have, like, I said, bike suppliers would be huge if you want to donate gear for, you know, the women, so that they're geared up, they have
1:28:48
helmets like that type of thing.
Kirsten Midura
1:28:53
You know, we can, we can set something like that. So the idea is really to, like, launch this as a template. And there are people around the world who already do this in some capacity. So I mentioned the Bota girls and the tiba foundation in Kenya. They already do this with women. In Kenya, there's a group called free W run by this woman, Allison, who's in France, and she does tours through like India, and does community motorcycle programs there as well. So this is really taking like, programs that already exist, working with the communities. Like, you know, the concept already exists, working with the communities to roll that out and adapt it to the local cultures and local languages, and then hopefully be able to, like, build that up on a global scale, so that we can be like, Look this and obviously track all the data. I'm like, I come from a science background, so having baseline data and understanding how it changes things like literacy and job placement, workforce development and whatnot, to really be able to show what kind of impact cycles i
Kirsten Midura
1:29:57
stuff that I need help with, because it's just me and my board and are, you know, very small handful of volunteers. So