Topsail Insider
Topsail Insider interviews local businesses and nonprofits in the Greater Topsail area of North Carolina including Hampstead, Surf City, Topsail Beach, North Topsail, Holly Ridge, and Sneads Ferry. Locals can learn about all the new businesses popping up in our area, prospective residents can find what’s available before making the big move, and vacationers will see we have much to offer beyond our beautiful beaches!
Topsail Insider
Salty Turtle Cycling Club and their Haunted Hundred Bike Ride
Discover the perfect blend of cycling, community, and conservation with the Salty Turtle Cycling Club!
Today, I’m chatting with Jill Schiffelbein, Club Board Member and Chairperson of the Haunted Hundred! Jill shares all you need to know about the Cycling Club and their Annual Haunted Hundred Bike Ride, an exciting fundraiser supporting the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center.
We dive into the perks of club membership, including insurance coverage, local business discounts, and a warm, welcoming atmosphere for riders of all levels. And safety is a top priority for the club, ensuring both bikers and drivers can enjoy a safe experience sharing the road.
Interested in joining the cycling club? Sign up at Salty Turtle Cycling Club.
Not quite ready to commit? Get to know the community by joining their Facebook Group first.
And you can get all the details about the Haunted Hundred Bike Ride on the event's dedicated Facebook page.
If you’re looking to support the riders with a cold beer and prime seating on race day, or just want to learn more about a local favorite and Pender County’s first brewery, be sure to check out Salty Turtle Beer Company’s website!
Topsail Insider is Sponsored by:
Saltwater Suites & Resort - Topsail Island’s premier luxury hospitality experience! Book your beach getaway today at SaltwaterTopsail.comor call (910) 886-4818!
Surf City Line! Come out for Beachin’ Bowls, Margaritas, and Live Music, and enjoy your meal on their top deck with Ocean Views! Visit SurfCityLineNC.com for their full food, bar, and brunch menus!
Topsail Insider is edited by Jim Mendes-Pouget | jimpouget@gmail.com
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Thanks - I’ll see you around Topsail!
Welcome to Topsail Insider, where you can hear all about the businesses and events in the beautiful coastal towns in the greater Topsail area of North Carolina. Coming up all right cycling enthusiasts who also enjoy excellent beer. Head on over to Salty Turtle Beer Company and meet your tribe. I am here today talking with Jill Schiffelbein, board member of the Salty Turtle Cycling Club and the chairperson for the annual Haunted 100 Bike Ride. This exciting event benefits the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital, so stay tuned to find out everything you need to know about joining this awesome club for brews, fun and fundraising.
Speaker 1:On today's episode of Topsail Insider, it's time to indulge and experience the finest coastal hospitality on Topsail Island. With Saltwater Resort and Suites in Surf City, north Carolina, designed to exceed your expectations. Guests can enjoy elegant suites featuring premium luxurious bedding, fully equipped kitchens with dishwashers, 75-inch flat screens, en-suite washers and dryers, and gorgeous ocean views. With the grand opening of their newest location, you can now relax in their saltwater pool opening at the end of July, and their modern clubhouse, perfect for unwinding and socializing, is now open for private events. Book your next beach getaway today at saltwatertopsailcom or call 910-886-4818. Saltwater Resort and Suites redefining luxury on Topsail Island. Come on out to Surf City Line for the best made-from-scratch beach and bowls on Topsail Island. Treat yourself to their delicious bowls with shrimp steak, fish, chicken or pork, or enjoy their peel-and-eat shrimp beach break salads and more. They offer a full bar serving handcrafted cocktails, incredible margaritas and they proudly serve North Carolina craft beer. The line boasts the biggest deck on the island with three levels for listening to live music, relaxing in the sun, or head on up to the top deck to enjoy your meal with ocean views. Visit Surf City Line NCcom for their full menus. The best service and beach vibes on the island await you at 2112 North New River Drive. Whether you're a local or visiting from out of town, celebrating a special occasion or just soaking up the sun with family and friends, it's always a great time at Surf City Line.
Speaker 1:Hello everyone and welcome to Topsail Insider. My name is Krista and I am your host. Today. We are talking to Jill Schiffelbein. She sits on the board of directors of the Salty Turtle Cycling Club and is also the chairperson for the annual Haunted 100 Bike Ride. Welcome, jill, and thank you so much for joining me today. I am so thrilled to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah, my pleasure.
Speaker 1:Before we dive into today's episode. I want to just take a moment and introduce anyone who's new to the area, or those planning a vacation to the Topsail area soon, to one of our local gyms. It's called Salty Turtle Beer Company. It's located on Triton Lane in Surf City, north Carolina. It's veteran owned and operated and a real community favorite. It offers a very laid back atmosphere, they offer creative brews, they host awesome food trucks and they are dedicated to supporting a lot of local causes like turtles, pets, vets and food pantries. It is also Pender County's first brewery, which opened in 2017. They also host two clubs, the Run Club and the Cycling Club, and we're going to talk today about the latter. So, jill, how did you learn of and join the Salty Turtle Cycling Club, and then just tell us what you enjoy most about being a member?
Speaker 2:I learned about it by drinking beer.
Speaker 1:Somehow I knew you were going to say that. Of course I mean.
Speaker 2:I cycle so I can drink beer. That's what most of us do, I mean not really, I love cycling.
Speaker 2:I earn my reward Right, but no, I learned about it just going to the brewery when I first moved here. I bought my place on the island in November of 2020 and in February of 2021 became a full-time resident and shortly after that I'd gone up to the brewery a couple of times and I saw on their walls they have signs for cycling club and I'm thinking I should really get back into cycling, because in a previous life I was really into triathlons, did Ironman and all that type of stuff 100 mile races, yada, yada, yada and thought you know, maybe it's about time to pick that back up.
Speaker 2:So went and got a bike in April of 2021, got involved.
Speaker 1:You have this amazing professional background, which we will touch on much later, but now you're this incredible athlete too, with triathlons.
Speaker 2:Come on. Oh, I was, that was previous life, previous life. You're not getting me running right now. My knees, four knee surgeries later, my knees do not do that. But cycling is great.
Speaker 1:I was talking to my husband about the cycling club. He loves brews and he loves cycling, but it's been a while If he loves turtles too.
Speaker 2:our slogan is ride bikes, drink beer save turtles.
Speaker 1:We have a trifecta going on here. I love it. Do you know the story behind the founding of the Salty Turtle Cycling Club? Who came up with the idea and did it just take off right away?
Speaker 2:I don't have the full story and I could say some salacious things that my fellow board members would laugh at. But the real story as I know it is, there are a few people who are also on the board. Hayden Frost is our president, dale Steele is our treasurer. Dan McDonald and Brad Pfeiffer are also in the area, also on the board with me, and Hayden and Dale met coincidentally when Hayden was looking for a house with his wife, chris, and him and Dale. Both are wearing the same exact biking shirt from an event in Iowa. Oh no, way.
Speaker 2:Rag ride, which is actually literally happening this week, right now, where you ride for seven days across the state of Iowa. And so it was their sign. They're like this is our neighborhood, this is our town. We were meant to live here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 2:They hung out, they would cycle and they'd be up having beers and eventually talked with one of the owners, Dan Callender, who also rides, and a club was formed and that was September 2020. So people are really just starting to get back out again and let's, you know, let's get something in. And I came into the picture in April of 2021. And there wasn't an official board or anything like that right away.
Speaker 2:The nonprofit 501c7, I believe it is. It's like a not-for-profit social entity, so we don't get taxed as long as we are not making profit, which is why we make sure, of course, that all of our proceeds from everything we do support any administrative logistics for the club Because, as you can imagine, cycling, like most sports, require insurance in some way, shape or form. But with cycling there's a lot of things to consider. I know we'll talk about safety a little bit today. Yeah for sure, there's some good and bad things about that. We decided it was probably good. We are growing to a few dozen people that were showing up regularly and we thought we should protect ourselves. And so we decided to do this and form the entity and have not only the business structure behind it but also being able to apply for insurance for the club and things like that.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, you sit on the board.
Speaker 2:You're also the secretary, so I'm the secretary of the board. And then Haunted 100, which is our now annual public bike ride. Again, 100% of proceeds benefiting the sea turtles. That is what I'm chairperson of.
Speaker 1:What are some of the benefits of joining the club? What kind of activities and events does the cycling club organize?
Speaker 2:We do a lot of different things. We have our standard Sunday ride and this is how I joined. It's 10 am every Sunday, although right now we are starting at 830 because the traffic I mean with all our beaches being named some of the best beaches we keep getting more and more tourist traffic and so, as a board we decided in the summers, we're now moving the ride to 830 instead of 10, just because it's a little safer for everyone involved.
Speaker 2:And safety is huge for us, so we do that. But most of the year it's 10am and you can find out exactly when that switches over on our Facebook group and, of course, at the brewery too, they have that information. But really, you come out, you can ride. We do a 20 mile route. We leave and return from Salty Turtle Do you have the same route each week.
Speaker 1:We do, you do. Okay, same exact route each week.
Speaker 2:It's 20 miles and we like to do it. We like to keep it consistent, One for locals who live in the area too. They'll see us every Sunday. Some people know if they know members of the club, they'll stand outside and wave, or sit on a balcony or stuff.
Speaker 2:It makes it fun, but it's also just. It makes it consistent and it also is good because sometimes we have members who are not here full time, as a lot of people are not. People come in and out and it's nice to have that consistency because if people get lost there's always a standard regroup points and we do communicate about a lot of things before every single ride, including safety procedures and group riding safety etc. We just like to keep that consistent. However, the club does have. Brad is our. We call him the chair of non official Sunday rides and so once or twice a week there will be these rides posted. Wednesdays we do a ride from Ironclad Shaka Taco yeah, and ride around this area and it's nice. And sometimes there are Saturday rides and sometimes we'll do gravel rides and we mix it up. And anyone on the Facebook group we have 400 plus people on the Facebook group.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:You don't have to be a member to be on the Facebook group, but it is a private group because we don't want the spam to come in. But anyone can post a ride anytime. We just have a member who's training for Ironman right now and says hey, september 8th, I need to get a hundred mile ride in. Anyone interested in joining?
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Boom People sign up.
Speaker 1:I love that. It's very supportive.
Speaker 2:It is a supportive community and we formalized membership right and directly to the question you asked, because I get so excited talking about our community. I love it. We decided to have the membership because as a member we can provide different insurance benefits for the group rides and everything like that, which is good. It just keeps all of us a little safer. But we also then have just kind of more of a standing within the community right, we can contribute to it. So it's only $20 a year to be a member and you get discounts at area businesses, so reasonable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 15% off of merch at Salty Turtle, oh my gosh, that's great. That alone may save people more than $20 in a year. Right, but like other area businesses, sundial gives us discounts on some coffee and tea. Salt Marsh, on Sundays, gives us discounts, so cool. It's just a really great way to involve the community, and now that Top Soul Surf and Cycle is also right across the Surf City Bridge, they're a sponsor and great people too.
Speaker 1:What about what you do?
Speaker 2:after a ride you act like riding isn't enough in and of itself. Of course, after the ride is the best part. You know you've earned the reward, so after the ride.
Speaker 1:Do you guys all sit down at the Salty Turtle and enjoy some beer and hang out and have fun?
Speaker 2:We do, I love it Every Sunday, every Sunday. And what's great is, if you, the community, is built up so well now, and when we say we welcome riders of all levels, right, people are like well, what does that really mean?
Speaker 1:I wanted to ask you about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah so let me go into that first before we get social right. Sure, logistics. It's a 20-mile ride, so if you're not comfortable riding 10 miles on your own on the road, it's probably not where you should start. However, join the Facebook group. Say I want to get into cycling. Here's where I'm at. Is anyone willing to help guide me? And you will have people jumping on board to help guide you. That's great. You will have people jumping on board to help guide you. You will have some people say don't go over the bridge, you're new, just ride on the flat island. I will meet you on the island and start the ride with you there instead. And you have to. Mandatory if you ride with us must wear a helmet. Zero tolerance policy for non-helmets. We will not let you out in the group with us, period, if you don't have a helmet.
Speaker 1:How many members do you have in the club and how do you become a member?
Speaker 2:Yeah, to become a member. We have a link to a site that runs through an organization called Racklet. It's a software program that helps us keep track of membership, ticket, events, that type of thing. But we have a site through there you become a member, you come to an event, you're going to get a scan of QR code and and get to figure it out. We make it as easy as possible. You don't have to become a member to ride with us.
Speaker 2:We prefer you do, of course right, but you don't have to become a member. We genuinely do welcome cyclists and make it a big community thing.
Speaker 1:But why wouldn't you? Because you get the benefit of being in the insurance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, which is a huge benefit. Right, there are some people we have some people who ride with us that are USA Cycling members which is like $150 a year or something and that covers their ride insurance.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, okay, you don't want to pay?
Speaker 2:an additional $20. That's fine and there's reasons why people would or wouldn't and we're not going to do that, but we try. If you come more than a few times, join us so we can get in. If there's announcements, we can make sure you're informed on the information. And to answer your question on members, we have I think the exact town is 123 paid members right now.
Speaker 1:What are the membership fees? You said it's $20 a year, yep, and it covers the insurance.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, you get the insurance Anything else. You get the insurance and then discounts at local places, Gotcha, so from different food merchandise services, discounts that type of thing, and you're helping us cover the administrative costs. So we can, of course, be this 501c7 and make the donations we do.
Speaker 1:Perfect what age groups are represented in your memberships and also, is there an age minimum to?
Speaker 2:join the club. That's a really, really great question. Legally, from insurance it's 18 and up. You have to be a legal adult to be a rider. We do have some families that will come with younger kids, teenage kids who are active in cycling communities. We have some like award-winning youth marathon triathletes.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:It's great, but there's the separate process for all of that and it's something just to communicate and give us a heads up beforehand if that's going to happen, because we want to make sure we don't invalidate insurance or anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:That makes sense, yeah. But believe me, the families for the after part, the socialization part, even the spouses who don't ride friends who don't ride my parents, when they come into town I bring them out with us. It's fun we have. We had our first like cycling club baby not too long ago. She just turned a year old Like it was great. That's so cool.
Speaker 1:What other activities are you doing? What other events are you organizing with the club?
Speaker 2:I know we'll talk about Haunted 100, because that's one of the big things here today.
Speaker 2:So I will table that one for now. But we do, you know, in addition to socializing after the rides, just such an active community. If somebody we had last year, somebody from our club was dancing in the stars for Onslow County and so we got a group of people from the club together, purchased a table and supported right, and so it's just again. It's genuinely a community and I've lived a lot of different places and a lot of people in this area have lived a lot of different places and most people, once they find this club, they just feel like they're home because there's something for everyone, there's an age group for everyone, and it's so nice. So we have gotten.
Speaker 2:This year we actually started doing an official quarterly potluck. It sounds so simple, but, oh my gosh, after the rides we're all hungry and thirsty anyway. And so once a quarter we have potluck and, like one of our members is I'm talking like top in the country bakery level sourdough guy. Shout out to you Michael Makes like the best sourdough bread and he joined us within this past year and he brought that bread once and we're all like you have to stay.
Speaker 1:And bring that bread every single potluck Every time. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:But there's people. We have a guy who used to own a barbecue company. You know the company shut down, but once a year he'll do different things. It's just fun, and you get to know people outside of the ride. The challenge is, though, we all look very different in our bike kits, with our helmets on and so sometimes you don't recognize people when you're out just living normal life.
Speaker 1:I wanted to know the age range within the club. Is it like 18 to 80?
Speaker 2:I think we probably, I know for sure we have 60s, we might have 70s, we might even have 80s. Really, yeah, and we have 18, you know, barely barely out of high school. And it's really cool also, I think, to see, especially now, people in all generations, maybe a part of three or four generations of people writing and socializing and being in community together. Yeah, we just had some members shout outs to you misty and rob I'm going to make sure you hear this episode. Rob got stationed in okinawa and they left and they were very, very involved in the club and volunteering and everything. Everything we do is 100 volunteer run and driven, so we don't have any administrative staff or anything like that.
Speaker 2:So, it's all labors of love for those of us in the community, but it's like when people move away we throw a big old goodbye. Away parties Going away not goodbye, going away, coming back, ride and after party and everything, and it's people come and they go, but most of them come back and it's really great.
Speaker 1:I don't even ride and I want to join your club. Come on over, right?
Speaker 2:You don't even have to ride to join. You can just come drink with us afterwards. We're happy with that.
Speaker 1:Just driving in our area period Highway 17 is it feels like a death trap some days right and then when you get closer to the island we've got all the tourist traffic during high season it just feels like it can get super dangerous. So I'm wondering what kind of safety concerns do you typically face when you're riding, both when you're alone riding your bike, but also as that larger group.
Speaker 2:You know we try to do as much as we can as a group that educates people that we're out there.
Speaker 2:So on our Sunday rides we have warning riders ahead signs before and after the entrance of Salty Turtle, so we're at least notifying people. And then we, instead of riding out in mass in one huge group that's going to take up a longer period of time, we ride out in smaller groups so that again we can let more traffic go through, et cetera. Because what happens is, even though again we can get on the road and be on the side of the road and people could still get by just fine, they don't and thank you for being cautious, but we don't want to. Our goal isn't to impede traffic, our goal is to be in the flow of the road. So we'll get there and we'll release in smaller groups intentionally so that there's not this mass blocking traffic. When we do have our big events like Haunted 100 that I know we'll talk about in a little bit, we pay Surf City Police overtime and do police efforts and escorts and blockage. We do all of the things to keep riders and drivers as safe as possible.
Speaker 1:Do you have any tips that you just want to give the drivers today that they could just hold on to when they see you and just try to remember to stay focused on your safety?
Speaker 2:You know I'm going to call something out because I think, again, we're all guilty of being in rushes. None of us are immune to that. It happens, life happens, and some are legit emergencies and some are just because, wow, I sat on my couch enjoying my coffee too long and I'm going to be late and it is 100% my fault and we just have to own that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's so true, it is, it is, and we all coexist. The reality is, though, 30 seconds can literally save a life, and when you have people who not calling out names, but who own businesses in this community posting on Facebook groups a picture of a cyclist riding on the far right side of the road when there is a gravel, mind you sidewalk saying why are these people trying to be hood ornaments? It's bad, and I think a lot of people we innately think that we're good and we don't do this, but we're all guilty of getting frustrated at times. Again, I have been frustrated when I've come across cyclists and I am a cyclist. Right, you have a legal right as a vehicle on the road. You have a legal right as a vehicle on the road If you're this person. The picture was hugging the line of the road and someone is posting publicly and calling them a desired hood ornament. That's not OK. No, it's not. That's not OK.
Speaker 2:We're not going to have those same type of behaviors in a lot of other areas. So really it's take a breath. It may be 30 seconds, but it's somebody's life and you don't know their reason for writing. We don't know your reason for doing the activities you do, but we all just get to do them. Like we're fortunate to live in a place and in a country that allows us to exercise a lot of freedoms, to do the activities we want to do.
Speaker 1:Let's all just let people do their hobbies and be safe. Can I ask what the response was to that post, do you?
Speaker 2:recall, Unfortunately mixed, Unfortunately mixed. There's a lot of people that will publicly come out and comment in this area about just hatred for cyclists Again being on a legal road. I am not saying all cyclists are perfect, because there are some that will just be in these massive groups and take up huge chunks of the road and even though they could do that, be considerate cyclists. This is my shout out to all of you too Be considerate. We're all coexisting here together. But drivers, if you see a cyclist actually signaling, it is the same as a car. No, yeah, that's legit Signaling. It doesn't mean swerve around them and then underswipe them so they fall under the belly of your car, like happened to one of our riders last year. It doesn't mean that it's. I am legally signaling and so people are doing that.
Speaker 2:So I have to ask what accidents have occurred during your club rides, the ones that I know about there have been a few people hit. The worst one was definitely when a person was signaling, moved over and a person swerved around her into the turn lane and sideswiped her and her bike went under the vehicle with her. That was by far the worst. It was absolutely terrifying. Was she injured? She was, and it took her almost a year and she is a very active member of this community and like a high volunteer and it took her almost a year to get back on. I was almost hit.
Speaker 2:I was run intentionally into the side of the bridge on Surf City Bridge in a five foot bike lane in February and I actually Intentionally run into the this person the wall, the wall that's on the bridge, yeah there's a like, it's like four or five foot bike lane which I'm going to use because I want to be safe. I want to be safe. Yeah, had pulled on there. I think the person did not see me at first. You heard the slam of the brake. Okay, they weren't paying attention. Whatever, we were all guilty of distracted driving at some point. Yeah, fine. But then got aggravated that I existed and gunned it and swerved into the bike lane to where I was holding. I got my arms scratched holding the wall of the bridge to not fall over. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Now that you're mentioning it, about the bridge riding in particular, I have heard people say why aren't these bikers in the walking path?
Speaker 2:I don't think that's where you're supposed to be, no, and actually it's a hazard and there's trying to be educational campaigns, because you will have people on bikes and now on e-bikes too zooming down the sidewalks. The sidewalks are for pedestrians. You're walking your dog, you have your children with you Do you want an e-bike zooming down on you then, or any cyclist for that matter, no, no, it scares them.
Speaker 1:It scares the people who are walking.
Speaker 2:I've seen it happen. Yeah, no, there's a four. I think it's like four and a half foot wide bike lane on that bridge.
Speaker 1:Intentionally.
Speaker 2:Intentionally. But yeah, and even that I didn't fall. I grabbed the wall, I got scraped up. But even that scare right now in high traffic season, I won't get on my bike. I am not mentally stable enough to do that and ride in a group, because when you're riding in a group it's also the safety of the riders around you. And if I'm going to get scared and push my brakes when I probably shouldn't, because that's not normal, that's going to damage other riders I probably shouldn't because that's not normal. That's going to damage other riders. So I take my leave.
Speaker 2:We've all had experiences in multiple areas of our life on something that scared us or something that scarred us, and I still got back on the bike. But now, if I'm going to do it, I have people around me who know what happened to me, so they know that I'm going to have a high heart rate and have a little trauma in that experience. But that's the reality of anything and I think anyone who's pursued any type of active hobby or supply-based hobby whether it is running or triathlon, paddling, kayaking, boating, surfing, shooting all of these things you can have scary experiences that take you away from them for a while. It's really unfortunate when that experience is caused with intention by another human.
Speaker 1:When was that February of this year. Oh wow, no wonder you're still feeling it.
Speaker 2:A little shaky. A little shaky On a happier note.
Speaker 1:Yes, on a happier note Everybody we love cycling now.
Speaker 2:But may I just say one thing in summary. It's like cyclists don't hate drivers, drivers don't hate cyclists. We all, in reality, are all fine together. It's only when we think our time on either side on either side is more valuable than the other people's out there, and that's when misbehavior occurs. It occurs when cyclists decide to group up and ride outside of the bike lane and block some traffic, and it occurs when drivers aren't willing to take a breath and wait a few seconds to safely pass. So road cycling is different than other types of cycling and I think a lot of people don't realize that there's tons of different types of cycling tires. We see those wide fat tire bikes right that have about three-plus-inch tires.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have seen those. What is that?
Speaker 2:for Riding in sand. Much easier to ride in sand with it.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, that makes sense, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But if you take my bike, a carbon racing road bike, and you put that on the sand, you're going to wipe out because there's no traction, because my tire is less than an inch.
Speaker 2:Really thin. Yeah, and that's what a lot of people don't understand when they're seeing cyclists on the road and they're like, why aren't you staying in the bike lanes? Well, the bike lane's not cleaned. There's glass there and if I ride over that in my one inch tire it's going to pop and I'm going to crash and it's not safe. So that's why, if you see cyclists on the road and we're signaling we're moving over, it's not because we don't want to be in the bike lane. We love the bike lanes, we love staying on the right side of the road even though legally we can take up more.
Speaker 2:We don't Granted. There are some cyclists that do, but they're not us, I promise. But we want to be safe and we talk to our members. We brief everyone every single ride. Before you sign up and start riding, there's waivers you sign.
Speaker 2:You learn how to ride in groups you learn how to signal All the different things. So we are very big on just trying to educate people. So when people are coming new into the community and they want to learn, a lot of them have just ridden by themselves around their neighborhood and it's their first group ride. So we take the time and we always have someone leading the ride and then we have someone that's called the sweeper that's at the end of the ride. So no matter what level you are at, there will always be a sweeper to help you along and figure it out.
Speaker 1:My gosh, I love how safety conscious you all are in making sure that everyone on your team or in your club is following the same rules and you helping, helping each other out that way. All right, everyone. So why don't you head on over to salty turtle beercom and you can click on the events drop down menu and you can go to the cycling club page. There you can click on become a member button and they also provide a button to to easily find their Facebook group there as well. Okay, now you have a wonderful fundraiser coming up near Halloween. Tell us about the Salty Turtle Cycling Club's Haunted 100. What is it? When is it and how did it all get started?
Speaker 2:The ride. This year is October 27th and it's always the Sunday immediately before, or in the case of the very first one, it was a Sunday, that was Halloween, and I am a nerd to the extreme and a fan of alliteration, and this all ties into the story of how it got started, which was September of 2021. There was a normal Sunday ride and we take a break at North Topsail Beach Park to regroup one of those safety checks that we talked about earlier and regroup, and there's water there and bathrooms and things like that too Nature. And we were there and I was having this crisis of conscience Not really, it really wasn't affecting me, but I hadn't. I had just gotten back into riding that April.
Speaker 2:It had been so much time away from riding triathlon, everything. It had been about a decade and I said you know what I really want? To ride a century ride, a hundred mile bike ride before my 40th birthday, which was November of that year. I said any of you want to do that? And slowly people were like, well, yeah, I do that, done that, I've never done that, I've never done that. Like oh, it's amazing, like essentially right, it feels like a really cool achievement. You're like great, we'll do it. And what happened is? We mobilized and within it was like a month and a half later, it was a couple dozen people got involved and people volunteered all just from the club and we did 100 miles so this, this was the first year it wasn't as highly organized as it is now, oh no.
Speaker 1:Did you come up with?
Speaker 2:the route. Yeah, we came up with the route. We were joking about it and we're like, oh, it'll do this and it'll be on Halloween, because my birthday is a week after and haunted hundred. Yay, alliteration, it's going to be so fun. Yay, spooky ride. And yeah, we came up with the route and there was some lapping, because there's not a ton of areas around here that have smooth enough roads without tons of potholes for road bikes to traverse easily. Yeah, and you know, we want people to be safe. So we made a route and then did a full loop and a half a loop of the island to add the last bit of the 100 miles. I will tell you that last part of the loop was so miserable because you're like I could just be at the brewery drinking a beer right now, and so we actually ended up because of that and the looping, which is just not really fun for anyone who.
Speaker 2:you know you're not going to go boating and just circle an island around and around and around right. You're going to you to want some different change of scenery.
Speaker 2:And so we found out that, okay, the next year, when we decided to make it a public event and had about 100 riders come in, oh, it went up to 100 really fast. Yeah, it was crazy. We'd made it 100K, which is like what? 62 miles. So it's still a very good distance of a ride and we also have a 50K option. So what's great about that is we wanted to have a 50K option, which is about 30 miles, a little over 30 miles, so that people who'd been riding with us and they were just comfortable with the 20, they could feel like for one day, like they could challenge themselves and push a little harder.
Speaker 2:And it was really really cool. So we had family and friends supporting us, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and kind of tossing them out to us.
Speaker 1:Not really, we got off the bike and ate them.
Speaker 2:But it was casual and three of our active members, myself included, have November birthdays and another member came up and surprised us with a cake, like it was just again showing what this community really is. So a few months later we were all talking after a ride and I'm like why don't we open this up to more people? This?
Speaker 1:was great.
Speaker 2:But then it becomes a real event, then it becomes not just club, then it becomes outside riders.
Speaker 2:Then it becomes. Oh, if this is going to be official and something that we know, what else do we have to do? Well, that means, whatever route you pick, you have to talk to every single municipality, you have to get permissions, and you're going through three, four you pick. You have to talk to every single municipality, you have to get permissions, and you're going through three, four, I think. So we have Holly Ridge, well, surf City, holly Ridge, sneeds Ferry, which is just Onslow, which goes with North Topsail Beach and Topsail, so we coordinate with all of them.
Speaker 2:They all have separate insurance forms and event forms you fill out, which we do. We have our event insurance, which is additional on top of the club insurance that we have, but if you're already a member, it helps save us there. So that's why member pricing is going to be cheaper than non-member pricing for the event. And we also have to get the route approved through the North Carolina Department of Transportation. So there's actually a ton of logistics that go on with this and shout out to Hayden Frost, our president, who navigates this seamlessly and also goes around and when he's telling people about the event and doing presentations, brings in the bike tires to educate and show the differences and why it's important that the roads are cleaned and everything like that Nice.
Speaker 1:That's cool and you said all the proceeds go to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. This is one of Salty Turtle companies. It's their primary charity that they contribute to.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and oddly enough, that's not actually why we picked it. We are all just big supporters of the Sea Turtle Hospital and, of course, who doesn't love them? I think there's probably a good dozen or two dozen of our members that are certified nest watchers and walkers and have been trained in all of that, and we decided that if we were going to open it up outside, we wanted to make it about more than riding, and it was a unanimous decision to have the proceeds go there and we thought, great, if we can contribute a thousand or two dollars, this would be really lovely, and the first year we contributed 5,200.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I wanted to talk about that. The first year was just the concept of it and figuring out that this could be something more than just a group ride.
Speaker 2:It was really. It was really. Let's get some people a hundred miles in and have a really nice beer and food afterwards, but the second year you raised how much?
Speaker 1:$5,200. Amazing. And then, combined the second and third year, you said over $13,000. Yeah, so the third year.
Speaker 2:Last year we raised $8,500. So $8,500 went to the hospital and this is an event, mind you. Our ride this year and it has been capped. The first year we had like 20 riders, the first public year. The second one we had I think it was like just over 100. And then the third year we had I think it was 120, something. It has capped at 160 riders. And why is that?
Speaker 2:Namely because we have certain capacities in that area for the after party which is a huge part of the event for us, so fire marshal capacities and everything like that, and also it's a manageable amount of riders for the area and we did it during a low season. So what's amazing about it? And we didn't even realize this was going to happen. We had people from all over coming in, people who are on-again, off-again residents of the area, coming back, bringing friends, people who are not members of the club, people who hadn't visited here before the next year. They came back. We had a ridiculous like 80% return rate or something.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's wonderful.
Speaker 2:Which was it was really high and people brought new people. We had people flying in from other places and driving in from other places and renting houses and bringing more tourism during an off season yeah, which is really great, and we support the local businesses, especially right around that area, and we know that area around Triton Lane is blown up now. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:So it's so many people and places get to benefit, but of course, most importantly, the Turtle Hospital, and they have been Kathy the president over there, I mean, she's amazing and they have all been just a huge supporter in this, and not just because it benefits them, but they come out, they volunteer, they set up a table. We have someone dressed up in the turtle costume. They've arranged so the guests of riders, so they have something to do during the ride, because if people are coming in town, their families are with them, they get tours of the hospital. There's things for them to do. We've really made this a conscientious. Let's raise awareness about the turtles, let's have education at the event, let's make sure your family, your kids, are taken care of. You drag your parents there, like I do every once in a while. They're taken care of and it's just a really, really nice time.
Speaker 1:The after party. That's for the bike riders and any family members, yeah, and any family members. And you all come back to the Salty Turtle. Is that where that event is held?
Speaker 2:We hold the event at the Cove which Salty Turtle owns.
Speaker 1:It's their other space, the event space. Like an event space yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's. This is it's one of my favorite parts of the event, right. So, because of capacity, we can't just be like, hey, anyone come to this event, right, but find somebody to ride 50K or just sign up to ride it. The proceeds are good, it's a donation. Come to the after party, but we have an after party that is fully catered. Your registration, if you ride, includes a t-shirt, a finisher pint glass, a beard coupon or a wine, beer, wine, like. You get whatever you want, some other swag, it's amazing. And then you get the tour of the Turtle Hospital and even riders. If you want to go, you get a ticket. Now we started this last year to be able to redeem to go if you wanted to go at another time.
Speaker 2:So if your family wanted to wait too.
Speaker 1:You could all go together. Oh, another time. So if your family wanted to wait too, you could all go together.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's wonderful, yeah, amazing. But the after party too. We have a 50-50. That's really popular. Last year we introduced an auction item. We're going to do some more auctions this year, which is going to be fun. I get to the auctioneer. I don't speak fast at all, so I'm sure you're not surprised there. And then we have live music. Our members Dale and Robin. They're amazing. They sponsor live music now every year. Dale's a musician and plays in a band.
Speaker 1:So they'll be playing there at the after party for the registered writers.
Speaker 2:Dale won't be, but, yeah, we'll have live music for the writers and the guests. And then, yeah, there's a fun photo booth that we get sponsored. Patriot Illumination gives us that. We have sponsors in the community that help us put on the event and everything like that too, and all of them, of course, are listed on the websites as sponsors. Okay, yeah, I do need to give a shout out to Lighthouse Engineering, though, who has, after doing this the first year he was one of the inaugural providers said next year, what do you need to do to make this happen and count my company in for the biggest sponsorship without anything? And so for three years in a row, lighthouse Engineering, thank you so much. Paul Scott has really just kind of kicked and led that off Wonderful.
Speaker 1:So people that can register to ride on the website can they register on the day of the event if you're not at capacity?
Speaker 2:No, our registration cuts off on October 1st, and there's a number of reasons for this Number one of course we want to make sure we have the right amount of T-shirts, glasses and all the swag stuff. But people are like, oh well, I don't need any of that insurance. We have to have specific numbers that we're giving the municipalities that we provide the insurance and everything else ahead of time too. So those number caps that we give them, our policies are based on certain rates and also we have to do certain things for communication with all the municipalities.
Speaker 1:Okay, so registration cuts off October 1st, so you need to hurry up and go to the website and register for the event. The registration fees Can you give me the member fees and the non-member?
Speaker 2:fees, absolutely so. If you are a member of the club again, which is only $20 a year, and if you've never ridden with us, you can still become a member it's amazing and get the discounts at local businesses. But with that it's $65. And that $65 covers the ride and event insurance, which is huge, super important. Snacks, coffee, muffins, et cetera at pre-ride, all the SAG support and the aid stations. So we have very well-stocked aid stations all along the ride. It is a fully supported route and anyone who's ever ridden a long-distance bike ride you know what that means. It's not just oh, here is one type of power bar in Gatorade. No, there's like fruit, there's sandwiches, there's snacks. You have, I like snacks. Right, they're fun. You want to ride for the snacks. So we're fully covered.
Speaker 2:Topsail Surf and Cycle comes their bike mechanics on site and everything if needs help, and it also includes, of course, the t-shirt, the pint glass, the included beer after it and your entrance to the after party, which is a fully catered meal, and it's a lot of food. We have been very fortunate to work with Burrito Shack. Allison and Mark shout out to you guys love you guys who work with us to provide great food, and also with Coastal, who is the next door neighbors. Coastal Wings, yeah, so we can also you know, we can provide some type of variety and meet most dietary needs and all of this stuff Gotcha, so it's really great.
Speaker 1:So $65, I think for all of that that's extremely reasonable. It is.
Speaker 2:And then if you're not a member, it's $80. But become a member for just five more dollars. So if you spend 85, you're a member and you get the member rate, but you don't have to.
Speaker 1:You don't have to. It's just easier for some people to be 80. I'm assuming that the participation age is 18, just like joining the club. Yeah, you need to be 18.
Speaker 2:You need to be a legal adult to ride in this event in particular. But again, you can come as a guest to the after party and everything else if you are not a baby.
Speaker 1:Okay, and how can people who can't participate in the ride or even be here for the after party, how can people still donate to your cause, to your ride?
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you so much for asking that. That's amazing. So we have a group of amazing volunteers. Robin is our volunteer chair and she does an amazing job. She's done this since the first public leader. Like it's amazing, she coordinates everything. Our Salty Turtle Run Club actually steps up and a ton of them volunteer.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great.
Speaker 2:We share a lot of members in common too. I figured you might. It's great, Even though I don't run.
Speaker 1:I still pay their membership fee and I am part of the 0.0 club, which means I will go out and socialize and drink beer but I do not run.
Speaker 2:Finally, a club. It's great. So you can look for a call for volunteers. We will have them. The Run Club will have them on their page, the brewery will probably put a link on their website and then the cycling page, of course, will have a call for volunteers. And even more than that, I know the route and everything is on our website.
Speaker 2:If you are along the route the coolest thing ever and last year this happened for the first time the Turtle Hospital told all their members and volunteers and some of them who lived along the route just came out with signs and cowbells and just cheered when people rode by. And when you are on your bike for hours and hours, it makes so much of a difference. And so if you just want to see what it's like and peer in from the outside, look at the route and just be along the route. Maybe, if you want, just come up and go have a beer at the brewery Our event's over at the Cove, the brewery's open that day or go there and watch as the riders come in and just be like, forget this, I'm going to stand outside with my beer and cheer the heck out of everyone.
Speaker 1:I did see where the routes were posted online.
Speaker 2:Yeah we have an event Facebook page, a formal event. We have a haunted 100 Facebook page, that last year after year after year, and we also have our registration page. The routes on all of them, okay, gotcha.
Speaker 1:Just continuing with the logistics really fast. What time are the riders arriving that morning?
Speaker 2:The 100K ride starts at 8.30 am, so you'll have riders arriving starting at about 7.30, depending on what their pre-ride routines are.
Speaker 2:They open up Salty Turtle for the restrooms if riders need to use it. But yeah, we have coffee that is sponsored and put out there. We have snacks and everything, if you want some pre-ride fuel. And we do just as we do every Sunday we have a ceremony before the event starts. We don't do a ceremony every Sunday, but we do an event and there's. We thank all of our sponsors who have been so generous with us. We make sure everyone knows the route. We have route sheets, we have downloads that riders can use for their GPS, for their phone. All of that's taken care of. And then we also have a safety briefing, of course. We make sure everyone knows the signals. We make sure everyone knows the different areas that tend to get clogged up on the roads Just really how to ride as considerably and safely as possible in the area. And then we have a fully supported police escort rollout, which is really, really fun.
Speaker 1:That's exciting. And the 50K starts. At what time?
Speaker 2:An hour after the 100K at 930. And we stagger those starts. Number one for the number of riders, even though they're both police escorted, but number two because we want all the riders to finish at approximately the same time. Because, again, the after party is the big thing. It's where we do the 50-50 raffle, we have the auction and my favorite part is we make the donation.
Speaker 1:Oh, so they come there and get the check the same day.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we got one of those giant checks for the perfect photo opportunity. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I saw that online. I thought that was really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's so fun, so I get to always sneak away every year and go hide in the back storage room of the Cove and ride it out.
Speaker 1:It makes me so happy it's the best. How long does the ride last? So, if you take off at 8.30, what time are?
Speaker 2:fastest riders, maybe three hours later so they'll cover about 20 miles per hour, plus now we have many riders that can go faster than that, but sometimes they'll stop, take their time at aid stations or whatnot. I mean some people could finish sooner than that and sometimes they do, but that would be the fastest. So you're looking at between three to five hours, depending on the ride speed, and then the 50k. You can add that out, but we have for the 50k we have people and ride mountain bikes. I mean it's a long 30 miles on a mountain bike but it's flat, you know.
Speaker 2:So it's a really nice thing, but I think what makes it so fun and we see this more on the 50k ride than the 100k ride, which might be, for obvious reasons, it is for if you're a cyclist, but if not, because it's a lot easier of a route is, you know, a lot of the 50K riders will go in costume.
Speaker 1:So this is probably the most important question of the day. Most people want to know. It's at Halloween, right before Halloween or on Halloween, depending on the year. So can people dress up in their Halloween costumes before, during or after the ride, and I'm wondering if riders must abide by any kind of rules as far as safety concerns, with costumes getting caught up in chains and stuff?
Speaker 2:I think there were five questions there. The answer is yes, yes, yes yes and yes, so yes to all of those. But we actually do, and we started it for the first time last year. We keep adding things every year, so this year we have a bigger like, more items in the auction and things like that. So we're just now. It's like, okay, let's slow our roll. This worked. We get crazy high ratings from our surveys and everything, so let's just stick with what works. But we added a costume contest.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, this is after at the after party.
Speaker 2:At the after party we announce it, but it's you have to ride in it. Now you can show up with some accoutrement to your point of if it's not safe to ride with, we ask you to not ride with that. The best one last year, the winner of the costume contest. I don't know if any of y'all have seen it, but like the professional hobby horsing competitions where people the hobby horse, like the horse head on a stick and people gallop around, they're like doing dressage with this hobby horse.
Speaker 2:I saw that, but I thought it must be a joke. It's not a joke, it is a legit real thing and I think it started in Finland, or at least the ones I've seen are Finnish. But the woman who won the costume competition and you get salty turtle gift cards for winning came dressed as a professional hobby horser, and so she had a horse like a hobby horse on her bike, kind of taped there, and then the outfit had like a jockey outfit on.
Speaker 2:It was amazing. She rode without the hobby horse taped to her bike for safety reasons. Right, but she came with it all taped in and we're like we're going to ask you know yeah, let's, I'm going to hold this for you, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:We had so many amazing costumes though last year and it's super, super fun. So, yeah, now we have a rider costume contest. Your family, your friends, kids all welcome to come in costume as well. Not a contest for them, it's for the riders, but you can help judge. And what I find so fun about it is the year before we had it official. Some people just showed up in costume. Anyways, we had, oh my gosh, jess and Mike. They showed up riding in Batman and Batwoman costumes together. Super cute, super showed up riding in Batman and Batwoman costumes together Super cute, super cute couples outfit and we're like, oh, this is great, but what even started it before then?
Speaker 2:And I've said their names a couple times. So Dale and Robin shout out to you guys again. Dale did it the first year by himself. He got a gigantic turtle costume and he put it out there that if he could get $1,000 of pledges all going to the turtle hospital, that he would ride the 50K, the 30-some miles, in this gigantic turtle costume Did he do?
Speaker 2:that he did. The next year he got his wife on board on a tandem, so it was two turtles on a tandem, two turtles on a tandem and they brought in like $1,700 additionally in the club. So of course, the club members, they announced it at the rides and people are throwing in money to make it happen and it's just awesome, it is so very cool.
Speaker 1:It's fun. It's so fun. I want to just go watch.
Speaker 2:Be there, just come up, watch. It's a good time.
Speaker 1:So you've done the ride, you've had that wonderful after party. When do you call it?
Speaker 2:I mean kind of a loaded question, depending on how loaded some people are. Yes, I know you see what I did there, but we do the official announcement. So the auction and the live auction, the announcement of the 50-50 and the presentation check. That ceremony starts at 2. And so plenty of time for you to get back from the ride, relax a little bit, calm down enough to actually enjoy a really good meal, stay and enjoy the photo booth, the music, the festivities, and then we have a nice ceremony all together.
Speaker 1:Jill. We jumped right into the club and the ride, and I normally love to start out just by asking guests a little bit about where they're from and find out about them, because I think this podcast is important too, not just about the events and the businesses that we cover, but I want people to get to know their neighbors and make some new friends, that's so nice, so I just wanted to ask you some questions quickly, because you have such an interesting background.
Speaker 1:Let's start out with where are you from originally and what brought you here.
Speaker 2:Originally born and raised small town in Kansas called Pittsburgh, then by way of the Phoenix metro area in Arizona for 14 years, by way of New York City for seven years and then six months of craziness during COVID and a relationship that didn't work brought me into the Raleigh area and I said I don't want to be here. I'm close to a beach, I'm going to buy a place there and alas, it's now home.
Speaker 1:You said you came here in 2019? 2020. Yeah, 2019?
Speaker 2:2020. Yeah, November 2020.
Speaker 1:Okay, In the pre-interview you mentioned that you are an avid traveler. How extensively have you traveled and what has been your most memorable travel?
Speaker 2:experience, oh man. So I do a lot of travel for work. I have two businesses, one I've had for over a decade and the other one is newer, that I'm a partner in, and for that company I'm a spokesperson, and for my company I speak on stages, that's as a keynote speaker and a consultant. That's my life. So I'm traveling a ton for that. And so every place I've lived in the past decade it's always been for me it needed to be a place that felt good to come back to and to be my piece. And wow, did I find that here? Oh, that's good to hear, right, yeah, wow. But I also I love travel. I love exploring the world. I learned so much more about myself by learning about others and different ways of life.
Speaker 2:So this year, with what's currently planned and this can change in a day Tanzania in December I'm going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and it will be my 59th country, 59th country. Earlier this year I was in Kenya, uganda and Ethiopia. And, latter part of your question, the most memorable travel experience there have been, so many and I think from a memorable experience, trips that I have taken my parents on are definitely super memorable, but for me personally, getting to trek for gorillas in Uganda, oh wow, and work with habituating gorillas, which is one place in the world you can do this where you are following gorillas that have not been habituated to human proximity, and it is a four to seven year process that they will habituate a single gorilla family and you have guards and stuff. But every day there's four people that get to do this and you pay a license and it's a large donation to you know the conservation efforts and everything Sounds frightening to me actually.
Speaker 2:It's a little intimidating. And, yeah, you have your pack and you're trekking and it is wild jungle, so you are going through with machetes, cutting your way through, but you're sitting and you stare into the eyes of a wild gorilla that shares 98% of our DNA. It's crazy, right, it is surreal. The eyes, it's like wow, what are you trying to communicate? It blew my mind and I just learned so much about not only that, but the conservation efforts that area is taking, what tourism actually does to an economy, when it's done safely and in a sustainable way. The parameters they've set on the percentage of the gorilla population that they will allow to be quote unquote, trekked, which is what the tourism industry around it is called, and there's very strict rules. You don't touch them, of course. Right, you do a lot of things. How far away were you from them? The closest I got was probably five feet which was crazy.
Speaker 1:And if they approach you?
Speaker 2:you're staying still. You're staying still. And the ones I did trekking one day, which is the families that are already habituated, and the habituation the second day, which is more of the why, and we had a gorilla charge us for a little bit. It was a little intimidating, but oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:See, that's my fear. I just that's no longer on my list of things to do.
Speaker 2:But it was amazing. I'd done safari before and I've done you know I call it the ice safari in Antarctica those types of things, but this was the most intimate experience with another living being in the wild that I've ever had Sounds amazing.
Speaker 1:It's not something I want to do, but I love hearing about it.
Speaker 2:It's not for everyone but man, I feel so fortunate to have met the right people to know about these things and have the opportunity to contribute and be a part and giving back. I mean our cycling club gives back a lot to the community and it's always in my businesses, it's been a big ethos of mine. Every single year is a percentage of profits every year goes to nonprofit causes of some shape, and they don't say the same every year. There's some that stay consistent, like American Cancer Society, personal experience and other things, but I just believe it's so important to give back.
Speaker 1:You have a business down in Wilmington. Is it open?
Speaker 2:yet the AI business, where we specialize in digital likeness, which is basically creating digital clones of you. We clone your video presence and your vocal presence and through our application, which is actually what the business is, you're able to generate personalized communication at scale. So, for example, if you knew the names, locations, interests, whatever, if you had a CRM customer relationship management software with all of your listeners information and I got you cloned, what I can do is you can set up an automated communication that goes out, where every single listener would get a personalized video mentioning by name where they live, the first date of the show they listen to, the name of the next episode coming up. I love that.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh the communicative power of this is huge. We have partner studios around the country. John and Moki, my two business partners, actually started this. They talked to me about it, I got on board, was using it and this is back in 2021, before chat GPT was even announced. Right, we met, I was the one using it, started studying use cases and, since my business is all about communication strategy, it just fit and so we formed a formal entity and our studio partners are all over the country and we are going to have the first one in North Carolina that is certified in producing digital likeness clones Amazing, it's going to be in Wilmington. That's so great.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited about it. When is that going to open?
Speaker 2:I don't know the exact date going to open. I don't know the exact date. We are in the training phase right now. So, as you can imagine, there's kind of a rigorous process of learning and the shooting and the capture processes that we go through, but at the absolute latest this fall.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's coming up. It's close.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't even think I'm smart enough to interview you on any of that. Is that that's Render? The name of the company is Render. Yeah, the name of the company's name of the company's render and you've written some books. Can you just tell me about your books quickly and about your speaking and coaching?
Speaker 2:my fourth book is coming out this fall, which is exciting. The first one was a business textbook actually, which is like business and professional communication in the global workplace. It was used at universities came out 2009 this was a while ago when I was teaching at Arizona State and then the Athletes Media Playbook was the second one, and that was something that got me in the door at the NFL Super Bowls player networking event Because I didn't have a book on athletes in sports. But I was being interviewed about communication in sport and the guy's like well, you need a book on this if you want to speak. And I'm like, well, I'll get you one in a month. And he goes yeah, you do that. I'll be on stage in New York next year with you. And then 21 days later he had a book. No, okay, I'm just blown away.
Speaker 1:I don't even know what to think about you, honestly.
Speaker 2:In 21 days you had another book. It's not like the most riveting thing. Writing a book is not hard, Selling a book is murder.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Selling a book is different. So this but this was stuff. I was coaching it already. I was working with WNBA players, some NFL players, whatever, on media and communication and getting their presence out there, and my first business focused on that and executives and organizations, helping them speak better in public. So it was relatively easy to put together from that standpoint, but I sent it to them. Yeah, I got to speak at the New York Super Bowl player networking event. That was like pretty cool Fun thing and I'm a tomboy from Kansas so I was all geeked out about it. But my baby, my dynamic communication 27 strategies to grow, lead and manage a business came out in 2017. And I divided it into 27 strategies and interviewed 27 different successful business people, one for each of the strategies along with it. So it was bringing in a whole community into the book. So it wasn't just my viewpoints, it wasn't just my teaching, my expertise, and so we did that and it worked.
Speaker 1:So what about the Effective Business Communication for Dummies? And is this the official For Dummies series? It is the official For Dummies brand which I was super honored to get this request.
Speaker 2:So it's done. It's done. It's in final author review right now, and then either October, november, it comes out.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Let's talk about future plans. So what can you tell me about future plans for the Cycling Club or the Haunted 100 ride?
Speaker 2:From the Cycling Club side, we continue to welcome more riders. We genuinely love it. We love fresh blood, new faces. But it's great, the community keeps growing and people who come in and stay are people who care about others. They care about the community, they want to be involved and it's again just such a genuine and loving group of people and I'm so, so fortunate to have found it and I'm so fortunate to call many of them friends and for people listening that will join future friends. So please come be a part of it and when you have ideas and you want to volunteer and step up like, we don't turn that down.
Speaker 2:We have members doing all types of things. We have official gravel rides at gravel trails, at Holly Shelter, the game land now that we never had before because a member stepped up and said hey, I want to ride gravel and I'll lead this effort. Great, come on down On 100. This year we have a goal of fundraising. I am really hoping that we will break 10,000. And my board is going to kill me when they hear this, because they're like no that's not what we agreed on.
Speaker 2:That is my hope. That was not a goal, but I am putting that out there in the world and we have a lot more people involved this year, from leading in a volunteer perspective in terms of the coordination, and it really does take an army to put on events like this and people are like, oh, it's just a bike ride. No, I mean five municipalities of insurance and paperwork and roads and Department of Transportation and everything else. It's a lot and there are a lot of people who volunteer a ton and too many to name right now with the time we have. But check it out and if you don't want to ride, just come to the brewery that Sunday and have a beer and watch the craziness unfold. It's a really, really good time and it's a really important thing for our community. The Sea Turtle Hospital, karen Beasley Center it's an institution here.
Speaker 2:And it's a really, really important one for a lot of reasons, and we're just honored to support it.
Speaker 1:With the Haunted 100,. Let's say you meet the 160 max this year. Do you see growing that number in the future?
Speaker 2:If we were to grow, we would have to find a new venue because of capacity, and we have talked about that, and, as of right now, we like the size, we like the community and the super close nitness of it all afterwards, where we can fit everyone in a space. You never know what will happen, though, and it's not decided maybe the chairperson, but it's not decided by me. It's definitely a full committee vote.
Speaker 1:So, before we wrap up this episode, what is the most important thing that you want listeners to take away from this conversation? Either it can be about the Salty Turtle Cycling Club or it can be about the Haunted 100 bike ride or both About cycling in general.
Speaker 2:Again, 30 seconds and a deep breath can save a life. Yeah, and I will continue to push all of our riders to be safe and courteous and considerate, and if we can all just do that, it's just better for everyone. And if you're curious about what this is like, come out, even on a sunday after a ride just to hear the stories of cyclists. If you want to get involved, and if you want to get involved as a cyclist and you want to pick this up as a hobby, genuinely join the Facebook group. Put out in the world where you are right now. There's going to be someone who's going to step up and say, hey, I'm just, you know, I remember starting at that point too. Or hey, we have members that are working off of recovery from surgeries right now who are like, oh my gosh, riding five miles would be perfect. Just get involved.
Speaker 1:Let's give out that contact information. The address for the Salty Turtle Beer Company is 103 Triton Lane, that's in Surf City, North Carolina, 28445. And again, that website is saltyturtlebeercom. The Salty Turtle Cycling Club, as well as the Run Club, can be found on the Salty Turtle website under the events tab and you can register for the event there. And I will have all of the links to the registration pages the Salty Turtle to their Facebook pages. I'll have all of that in the show notes for you, clickable for easy access.
Speaker 1:So thank you, listeners, for joining us today and thank you again, Jill, for being on T Topsel Insider and telling us all about the Salty Turtle Cycling Club and the Haunted 100 bike ride. Thank you so much for having me Been a pleasure. Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode of Topsel Insider, please show your support by clicking the follow or subscribe button on your favorite podcast listening platform. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Please also go to topsoulinsidercom and join our mailing list by clicking on the Make Me a Topsoul Insider button. While you're there, you can click the Send Me a Voicemail button and let me know exactly what you're thinking. Your message just might be on an episode of Topsoul Insider. You can email me at Krista at TopsailInsidercom, or call or text me at 910-800-0111. Thank you for listening and supporting Topsail Insider and our local businesses and nonprofits. These are our neighbors and our friends and together we build a mighty and a beautiful community I'm super proud to be a part of. I'll see you around Topsail.
