Ep.54 Racing Through Life: Balancing Passions and Overcoming Burnout with Lara Moto

Join me for an exhilarating conversation with the multifaceted Lara Small, more commonly known online as @LaraMoto, as she takes us through the thrilling journey of balancing her passions with a demanding career. Dive into her adventures across Europe on a Triumph bike and discover what it’s like to navigate the fast-paced world of motorbike journalism, engineering at Rolls-Royce, and serving as an army officer. Lara’s infectious enthusiasm and insights on mindset and overcoming life’s hurdles promise to inspire, whether you’re a motorbike enthusiast or simply someone seeking that zest for life.

Lara illustrates her unique approach to blending corporate life with her racing passion, mental strategies and self-affirmation techniques, proving that confidence can be built in unexpected ways, and offering a fresh perspective on tackling high-pressure situations and challenges.

In the final stretch of our chat, Lara opens up about overcoming career burnout and rekindling her love for motorcycles and content creation. Her journey from overwhelmed professional to passionate content creator, with the birth of Lara Moto, highlights the importance of pursuing what truly drives us. We also touch on broader themes of balancing ego with authenticity in the digital age, and the profound satisfaction that comes from sharing genuine experiences. With plans for new adventures on the horizon, Lara’s story is a vibrant reminder to live boldly and cherish your one wild life.

Find Lara on YouTube

*The book Lara mentioned by Ali Abdaal is this one

Chapters

• 0:00 Embracing Passion
• 4:37 Fearless Creativity and Visualization
• 9:53 Thrilling Race Memories and Learnings
• 13:08 Balancing Passions and Responsibilities
• 24:59 Overcoming Burnout, Embracing Passion
• 31:54 Balancing Passion and Authenticity
• 38:47 Finding Balance and Pursuing Passions

Transcript

Lara Small: 0:00

But when you just are really passionate about something and you tell people you're passionate about it, it tends to just build momentum.

Zoe Greenhalf: 0:06

Hey there welcome, or welcome back to the Mischief Movement podcast. I'm Zoe, your guide on this journey to shake up the status quo and design a life that truly makes you feel alive. If you've ever felt disconnected, stuck on autopilot or trapped in a life that feels more like a treadmill than an adventure, you're in the right place. I know that change can feel scary, so let's turn down the fear and crank up the fierce as we transform your life from the inside out. Whether it's solo episodes packed with actionable advice or interviews with some absolute badass human beings who've dared to defy the norm by living life their way, we're here to inspire, activate, empower and challenge you each week. My mission is simple To help you reawaken your rebel spirit, break free from mediocrity and design a life that's anything but dull. You only get one wildlife, so what are you planning to do with yours? If you're ready to stop settling, start living boldly and create a positive impact along the way, let's dive in and stir up some mischief together. Now buckle up and let's go.

Zoe Greenhalf: 1:20

Today, I'm sitting down with the incredible Lara Small, also known as Lara Moto, motorbike journalist and presenter on YouTube's Bike World, rolls-royce engineer, army officer and all around badass. We dive deep into juggling your passions with a day job, making mischief in corporate environments. And the power of mindset, not just in racing, but in bouncing back failures, burnout and disappointments. Mindset, not just in racing, but in bouncing back failures, burnout and disappointments. If you love being on two wheels, I know you'll identify with lara's passion for adventure and moments of pure freedom. If you're not into motorbikes, I urge you to stay tuned, because this is a real, honest and inspirational conversation on how to create opportunities for yourself so that you can live a life that truly lights you up. So this week I'm joined by Lara Small, which is very exciting. I actually got to meet you again in the flesh. Yes, would you like to tell everybody what your mischief is?

Lara Small: 2:19

Oh, absolutely, zoe. I think my mischief is motorbikes, and I think it's more than just mischief, it's a huge driving passion, and even talking about it, my palms are sweating with how much I bloody love riding my bike, and the reason why I feel like I'm beaming full of energy about it is I'm I'm in that kind of post marshmallow feeling of joy after a phenomenal holiday, and it was certainly, uh, interspersed by the opportunity to see you in Italy because, uh, I was enjoying a day off riding, did about three and a half thousand miles and we met in the top of Lake Garda, basically, didn't we, I think, Riva del Garda?

Lara Small: 3:12

And you very kindly adjusted the diary, which is amazing of you, and we managed to grab a coffee over, just looking at some phenomenal mountains and even though it was like a bit rainy and dreary, just the intensity of the mountainside with the mist is so beautiful and I feel like that whole holiday experience is still emanating from me at the moment oh, that's amazing.

Zoe Greenhalf: 3:39

I guess your holiday was, in a way, like the extension of this passion for motorcycling, because you did come over on your bike, didn't you?

Lara Small: 3:48

yes, yes, so I was fortunate enough to get a bike from Triumph and do a considerable trip over the north northern France and a little bit of Switzerland and Italy. But, um, I think it's kind of coming back to your question about the the mischief part of it. I think it's kind of coming back to your question about the mischief part of it. I think it's more trying to challenge the status quo and spending more time doing the things I love as well as maintaining the things I've worked very hard for professionally, career wise. So the bikes are like my escape, but I probably will think of an example, but less immediately. I do try and seed mischief into kind of everyday life just to make the more mundane parts of our world slightly more interesting. Absolutely, I am an engineer, a middle manager. I work for Rolls-Royce. I'm really proud to work for them. I love to play games in meetings where I tick list bingo words where people have said stuff, or I try and seed in words that, um, you can get away with in the meeting and try and embrace just.

Lara Small: 5:01

I know it's still a heavily corporate environment I work in, but one of the graduates that I had the opportunity to look after for about three months I found out what he does in his free time and he showed me some pictures on his phone of his watercolors, watercolor painting.

Lara Small: 5:16

I was like that's incredible. And then somehow the conversation evolved into well, can you teach me how to do watercolor? And then we ended up coordinating, uh, a team, a bonding event where he became bob ross and he taught us how to do watercolor at work. And we got a conference room. I covered it in newspaper, I made an apron out of flip chart paper and he then he, he found a suitable video and then taught us how to do watercolors, um, using the theme of the um, the building I'm currently developing at the moment. So we did a landscape with about 10 of us, and that's just from like senior management down to like fresh apprentices just all this stunned silence trying to nail this like a fence slide or some bluey mountainside. Yeah, so I try and introduce something just a little bit different at work, just to keep myself engaged and making subtle little changes to a more corporate lifestyle as well as bikes, bikes, bikes, bikes.

Zoe Greenhalf: 6:17

I love that. I love that you brought some creativity and some sort of alternative thinking into what might have been a bit of a dry scenario. Yeah, t-ride, I love that. Well, that's what the mischief is all about, really, isn't it so? Okay, I know that you ride bikes, but you don't just ride bikes, like I want to be really clear about this. You also present on youtube bikes and you also race them, so I reckon you must be pretty fearless.

Lara Small: 6:47

I guess. So People either are fearful or have lack of fear in different environments. I don't like swimming pools. I'm very scared of them Really. I'm scared of the drains down at the bottom and I'm scared of suction pumps and stuff. But I will try and get an elbow down around a corner at 120 miles an hour on my motorbike.

Zoe Greenhalf: 7:10

Absolutely. Yeah, okay, because that's much safer, no problem with that at all and I don't think you become fearless.

Lara Small: 7:19

But it's over little incremental chunks of pushing your comfort zone and then, um, finding out what's actually safe. Because, believe it or not, carrying speed through a corner with good throttle control and good technical application of your body position and riding position and the direction you're going, actually makes it safer to then conduct that position through the corner. And I wish I could remember his name. But the chap that, the free climber that climbed I'm going to have to Google it, I'm going to cheat, but he free climbed a very famous mountain without obviously any ropes and you'd call him fearless, but he knew every single handhold and foothold off by heart for the whole of the ascent. So to him it's not fearless. He'd lived that mountain for decades before he did it. So I think there's a balance in being fearless.

Zoe Greenhalf: 8:17

Yeah, but which also makes me wonder, then, whether you in some ways visualize being out on the bike. Do you do any sort of exercise before you go out there, where you're actually, you know, mentally preparing yourself by visualizing yourself going through those 100%, those turns?

Lara Small: 8:37

so when you start taking yourself too seriously as a racer, one of the ways to prepare um before the race is to visualize the whole race and where you're braking and where you're accelerating the gears, you're going down on your braking markers, where you're tipping in, where that kind of event or doing any kind of activity or when you go into kind of more chasing, elite athleticism you can win by visualizing, really even to the point where I think I was doing some self-affirmations and before I would start a race I'd go into the toilet mirror and I'd do a superhero pose in front of the mirror.

Lara Small: 9:30

So I stand really proud and like stick my chest out and shoulders forward and to say you are going to win this race. Or I do this like a celebration high V shape, so all those body positions are conditioned in the same way. That smiling makes you feel happier. And I just tell myself you were there, you're gonna fight and do it. It didn't always work out, but at least I started with a plan in mind no, I think that's a really good tip.

Zoe Greenhalf: 9:58

I think that's so valuable for anything like you say, anything that you're going to do where, whether it's on a bike or whether it's like an athletic race or whether it's not even a race at all but just going into something that you care about, really passionately care about and want to do well in those things have been proven to actually boost your kind of mental state, haven't they?

Lara Small: 10:19

Yep, but I'll also, instead of filling this whole conversation with rose-tinted glasses. I have cried my whole way around the race Inside my helmet. I came back in at the end, in Parc Fermé, and I didn't want to talk to anyone. I was embarrassed and I didn't want to be there. So there's Chasing the joy of it can also be quite punitive. There is a reality to holding yourself to the standards that aren't possibly relevant to you at that time and wanting to be the best you can be when actually you should just be grateful for what you're doing. But, to be fair, you've got to go there to come back.

Lara Small: 10:55

So I have had some tricky times on a bike and many boo-boos. I think I've fallen off a few times now. But that's part of the joy of freedom of being on a bike. It means that you know sometimes traction doesn't work in your favor.

Zoe Greenhalf: 11:09

Yeah, so when you're actually on the bike, what's going through your?

Lara Small: 11:14

mind when I'm racing. It's quite a laser, intense focus on chasing a tiny inch of tarmac versus other people. Your question has made me think of the first corner at Cadwell Park. You launch off the line and you're just I don't know, you're probably picking up third, fourth gear and you climb up this hill but all of you are trying to climb for like this inch of apex where the red and white curbing is.

Lara Small: 11:45

And I just remember yeah, there's two other memories I just remember going we're both gonna have to fit because this is getting close and you're kind of rubbing elbows like and you're approaching 80, 90 miles an hour trying to get into this uh climb. And then there was another moment at donington Park where I was racing this super mono, a single cylinder Kramer race bike, and I was having a really good tussle. I was on a faster bike so that it was a little bit easier, but he was a phenomenal rider and I remember going into the top of a Craner Curves at Donington Park. Now you never want to be part of the Craner Club. the Craner club is a bad place to be because you come off and your bike is just obliterated and hopefully you aren't just so messy and I ended up like uh elbow to elbow with my friend uh, Boonie uh, and there's no friends on a racetrack, obviously, uh, not that you're competitive no, not at all, but we were both like neck and neck on the way into korea, cubs.

Lara Small: 12:46

I was like, well, I'm not moving, this is it, we're going for it, and it's just. It's so flipping stupid zoe, because if he does go wrong I might not be here. You know, it's just. But that thrill of just chasing and entering something so fast with your mates is unreal. I was writing a bit of a summary for my website recently and I think it's riding a motorbike is where I feel most present and most connected with the world around me. So, racing aside, because racing is basically I'm faster than you I'm going to fight, whereas when you're truly riding and in the scenery so racing aside, because racing is, it's basically I'm faster than you I'm gonna fight, whereas when you're truly riding and in the scenery, there's a sense of perspective and the feeling of flow. Uh, and you again, you can get that with any sport. You can get it walking or anything, even smelling a coffee in the morning. It's just connecting you and grounding you to being present, and so that's what biking does to me when I'm not distracted by stuff.

Zoe Greenhalf: 13:49

Yeah, I wondered whether it was like that. That's part of your life. It's not all of it, though, is it? You've got the job at Rolls-Royce and you're an engineer, if I'm not wrong.

Lara Small: 14:02

Yeah, engineer. So I did an aerospace degree at uni and then got myself on the Rolls-Royce graduate uh development program. So I joined Rolls-Royce and, uh, getting to uni was a little bit late but I wanted to do like a good degree. That was going to be quite challenging. So, um, I had to work quite hard through that uh, and that led to working my way through different leadership positions, fortunately at Rolls-Royce, largely complemented by the fact that I've done a lot of military training. So I'm a commissioned officer in the British Army and I'm a reservist. So the military leadership principles helped me on my interview to get into Rolls-Royce on the kind of leadership program that they were recruiting for at the time. And, zoe, you and I both have that in common as well, as well as motorbikes, um, because of your military background yes um, and there's certainly uh, the army's pushed me um into places that I didn't like.

Lara Small: 15:01

I've been so disgustingly wet and miserable with the army on exercises in the field that I never want to do again.

Lara Small: 15:08

Um, but I feel like sometimes you've just got to be broken down to be brought back up again yeah uh, yeah, and one of those examples was exercise Cambrian Patrol, where I'd attempted it whilst I was at university and I had the wrong attitude and the wrong mindset. But I tried it again when I came back as a staff member. I got a all-female team to do this. Uh, 48 hour exercise really, which doesn't seem that much. But it's about 60 miles um 30 kilograms of all your kit on a challenging patrol scenario. So you have to look after yourself and your team in the field and then clear minefields and do river crossings and do assaults and do kind of infantry-based attacks and you just don't sleep for that whole time and it's just incredibly, incredibly arduous and sapping. And you know, running around in full chemical but like the full we call it CBRN but the kind of gas mask kit, but that head to toe so hard. I never want to do it again.

Zoe Greenhalf: 16:13

Oh, I still have horrible memories about having to go and do the like. The dummy runs in the gas chamber and gas, gas, gas and trying to put your mask on in. I don't know how many seconds you've got, like nine seconds or something, and that's it. You died if you haven't got it on in yeah, you did.

Lara Small: 16:29

Yeah, what I was getting to, it's just the stuff I've done with the army has pushed me way beyond what I think I could do, but with that group of girls we we're still the highest performing all-female team ever to have completed it.

Lara Small: 16:42

Uh, the opportunities that I've had with the army have been phenomenal and, uh, I'm now like a ski instructor with the army, so I get to teach other people how to find their best feelings on snow. Uh, because the army taught me, I raced motorbikes for the army, so I was part of the british army motorcycle road racing team. Um, I've skydived with the army, skeleton bobbed with the army, and I've also done military training on behalf of, like, homeland resilience. I got mobilized to go to iraq because I'm trained in finding improvised explosive devices, but covid kicked in just as we were doing our mission rehearsal exercise and the whole battle group had to stand down, so I was so close to actually doing something abroad. I've got a great respect for how the army trains its soldiers and leaders and I think it's helped me considerably with resilience in everyday challenges with life. But you've got to dash it with mischief.

Lara Small: 17:38

I haven't figured out how you can dash put mischief in the army. But I've kind of figured out the more you go up the ranks, more mischief you can add I would say exactly the same lower rank, as you kind of get told off for doing mischief, and then I rank just like fine, um, you can wear red trousers, that's okay yeah, it's interesting, though, because for all the things that you enjoy doing, you're in very male dominated environments in all three of those.

Zoe Greenhalf: 18:05

So how do you deal with that? I mean, does it present problems because you're a female? Does it mean, do you feel the need to prove yourself because you're?

Lara Small: 18:16

a female, I think, if I was truly honest, I'd feel more intimidated in an all-female environment really yeah and I wish I could give you an answer as to why that is.

Zoe Greenhalf: 18:28

Maybe it's because I don't know. Is it just what you're used to? Maybe Are you just used to being surrounded by guys in every environment that you're in.

Lara Small: 18:37

I went to an all-girls school and that was brilliant. But I've just chosen a path where I guess it's more male-dominated In the UK. Engineering abroad is far more especially what I've noticed in the US far better gender split and in Europe, but I've not really noticed it too much. But I'm trying to think whether it's a kind of a dated question now or whether I've just gone blind to it blind to it.

Zoe Greenhalf: 19:14

I don't know. When I was in, other women who were senior to me used to say in order to be seen to be performing at 100% as a woman, you've got to give 110.

Lara Small: 19:19

I've heard that and I thought about that recently, so maybe that I've got a bit blasé with it. But it's a kind of extra discretionary effort to feel like you're being seen as a peer rather than something subservient yeah, I was just.

Zoe Greenhalf: 19:33

I mean, I was just curious because you know, of all the things you could be doing, we're talking about three and they are they are just quite sort of male dominated.

Zoe Greenhalf: 19:44

But I guess what I love about what you're creating is that you are designing a life around the things that you love, the things that you enjoy.

Zoe Greenhalf: 19:56

It's not the case that you're working in a way that means you can only do these things at the weekend. You're squeezing them into tiny pockets. You're actually organizing yourself to be able to take these, to do these motorbike trips, to do the filming for the YouTube, and you've found a way to incorporate it in such a way that you are able to do the day job, the presenting, the army stuff. I'm not going to ask you if you've found a balance, because I don't know, but what's interesting to me is that you're doing the things that you enjoy when so many people I know are stuck in their day jobs. They hate them and they just cannot see a way of incorporating anything that they do enjoy, because they either haven't got time or they haven't got the money. So I love talking to people who've got like lots of different passions and they're finding a way to bring them into their lives and have a bloody good time whilst they're doing it.

Lara Small: 20:58

Yeah, it's certainly a challenge, though, and my now husband recognises and tries to tell me you're doing too much, you're going to burn out, and eventually he'll find me kind of wrapped up in just a pile of duvet on the bed somewhere, like I'm done now, and I can't even keep my eyes open. So there's. I've not in any way suggesting that I've nailed my ability to organize it, and the other penalty is that I'll struggle to be present when I should be, so my brain will be. I like the dopamine of you doing your favourite thing. So you need to plan your next favourite thing on your bike, and I'm meant to be like paying attention in a work meeting, whether it's Rolls Royce or Army, and my mind will go oh, but you could be doing this. No, this pays the mortgage, this is your army duties. Get back in the room. I can't help but chase the next thrill. Yeah, so I think there's a rationality in managing my manage my time and trying to be more present in what I'm doing at the moment. Yeah, it's, it's a bit of a struggle, but it's not too bad, and there's always time in the margins to seize little snippets of making progress with your favourite thing, because in the same breath I am far more happier, powered, energised at work, because I'm getting the little snippets of movement to the other favourite thing. So I think that's it. It's kind of swings and roundabouts, and the more companies allow their employees to celebrate their and find their happy, find their mischief, the better, because you end up with a much, much happier workforce.

Lara Small: 22:50

There's um a series that I'm absolutely fascinated with. It's a bit odd, but it's called Severed and it's about a corporate climate where, prior to work, you have a chip fitted in your head and you, when you go to the office and you go in the lift, the chip activates and then you perform your work having no knowledge of what your life is outside of work. You know you have a person outside of work and you are that person, but you don't know about if you have family, what your hobbies are, what you do. You just turn up to work, you do your eight hours and you leave, and I find the concept so fascinating because when you leave, the chip kind of switches the other way and then you have no idea what you do at work. And I'm curious to see it's a part comedy, it's by a relatively famous comedian, but it's very well acted, but it's a little bit odd and dystopian, but it's.

Lara Small: 23:48

I find the principle really, really interesting, because as I walk down the stairs from my office and I kind of go, I've delivered what I need to do today, and I don't really watch hours as much. I kind of go right, this is what I need to do, I've delivered that, move on. As I go down the stairs, my life comes flooding back to me. Oh yeah, I've got this, this to do and this sort out and this to collect and this to do. And I was like all right, now we're in Lara's own, and then it all kicks in. Sometimes that can be overwhelming, sometimes not.

Zoe Greenhalf: 24:18

Like what have been some of your struggles or obstacles in getting to this point where you can now enjoy your career as an engineer. Have the army, have the motorbiking I'm sure it hasn't all been plain sailing.

Lara Small: 24:34

No, I think probably the major struggle with engineering is two ways. My degree was incredibly difficult. I really had to push myself to get that over the line. I definitely enjoyed most of it, but it was cheeky. I definitely enjoyed most of it, but it was cheeky, uh.

Lara Small: 24:59

And the other one was the reason why I'm celebrate and encourage others to celebrate their kind of freedom outside of the eight hours we get paid to be at work is because I got so obsessed with a job about four or five years ago where I didn't make that time for myself and I thought that working really hard, not really stopping, was a good idea and not really telling anyone to the point of utter burnout, I'd say I don't really know what the true definition of depression was. But I'd just get into work and then I'd just sit and cry at my desk and I couldn't see my screen. I remember I was being told to look at this excel spreadsheet and I like I was too embarrassed to stand up because my face was streaming. And then, um, I'm crying in the toilets and then go to the doctors and then crying at the doctors and he was like you need to take some time off work. I was like, oh, I'm too scared to do that. I didn't have a really strong relationship with my manager at the time and I felt like I'd failed and I was looking for an easy way out by getting signed off. And I was just like that's the opposite of like the Lara win do can succeed attitude. I just I thought I think I was just a right person, wrong job maybe. So I was pushing out 60 70 hours a week for too long and I know people do more than that. But I just totally burnt myself out and I'm really glad I did, because it caused a pressed a big old reset button and I went on a trip to the Pyrenees on my Ducati and we're going up Col de Termelay, I think, in France, which is a quite an aggressive cycle on the Tour de France.

Lara Small: 26:40

It was a bit of a clouds breaking into the view moment and then it hit me like a brick. It's like oh, this is what you want to do, go and do that. I came back on that after that holiday, designed a logo on the ferry, on the Brittany ferry, on the way home with my friends called it Lara Moto. Uh, the first logo was rubbish because I drew a helmet, but a helmet with like speed and wind coming off the back of it. And my male colleagues, colleagues were like no, that just looks like sperm, you can't use that as your logo. And then eventually settled on like Lara Moto, because moto is quite a easily translatable word. It means motorbike quite literally in at least in Italian. And then I went to Fowler's in Bristol and said I would like to ride your bikes, please, and make videos out of them, and I have no intention of buying them, but can I?

Zoe Greenhalf: 27:37

and they said yes and I made Lara Moto and then okay, okay, there there was a lot of stuff that you just that you just said there, like I mean first of all the the most recent thing. I guess you just weren't afraid to ask them, or were you? Because I can imagine people being like, oh well, I could you know, oh, but they might say no, and then what will I do? Whereas you're just like I'm just gonna see if they'll let me invite to film.

Lara Small: 28:05

Yeah, I don't know whether the give a shit attitude kicked in at some point, but when you just are really passionate about something and you tell people you're passionate about it, it tends to just build momentum.

Zoe Greenhalf: 28:18

Yeah, I absolutely agree, yeah, and it's really interesting that things really did come to a head before you were able to kind of see how things could play out differently. Yep, proper meltdown.

Lara Small: 28:32

And also bear in mind, I was too scared to talk to my camera in my garden. So after that Pyrenees trip, I did in my first youtube video about my about the bike I owned with my GoPro on that trip and that's the one that's somehow been the highest performing on youtube I've ever done, but that's because most motorbike journalists that's me now uh, basically ride a bike for two hours and then try and share an opinion on it, whereas a Pyrenees trip I actually took a bike and spoke up really reviewing it for 10 days on tour and therefore it adds a lot more value. Yeah, but I was too scared to talk to my camera, um, even alone in my garden, but how did you get over that then?

Zoe Greenhalf: 29:13

or was it just a sense of? I mean, you had this kind of reset inside and what happened? Was it just a bit of a fuck it moment? Were you just like fuck it, like I don't want to be doing it this way, and I do want to be doing it this way, and so I'm just going to have to get over this fear of talking on camera and do the thing.

Lara Small: 29:34

I think well, I kind of got swept up by the YouTube revolution, like loads of other people doing it, so I was like why can't I do it?

Zoe Greenhalf: 29:44

You had a good attitude, though not like oh God, I could never do it. But if they're doing it, why can't I do it?

Lara Small: 29:56

And the other bit is um, no one cares, so you get. So I think I got so perturbed with, or what people are going to think. And, uh, I was at Californian Superbike School doing a like a brief video about one of their level training days and I was it was the first time or second time or so recording in public where I'd put my GoPro on a little tripod and then sat in front of my bike and spoke to it and loads of other people around it in the paddock and I was too kind of scared to start talking to the camera and I was like no one fucking cares, like just they're too busy sorting their own lives out to even give a slight nats. Whatever about you. Just try not to get them in the shop because they might not want to be in it. So just start talking.

Lara Small: 30:38

And then the other bit is I went to Bristol Bike Festival and took my camera with me and went I'm going to go and interview people, let's see what happens. And then just walked up to people and said I'm Lara Moto, I have a youtube channel, would you talk to me? And then you suddenly become a bbc presenter at that point. Because you? I think it's because you're leading the situation and you're owning it and going. I'm just gonna have a chat with people. There happens to be a camera here, which makes it a little bit weird but let's just pretend it's not there.

Zoe Greenhalf: 31:10

I love that, because you are literally saying I want to be a bike journalist, I have a YouTube channel, I have a camera, I'm going to go talk to people and that's it.

Lara Small: 31:21

It's like I want to be the person I'm being the person and you're doing it, yeah, in a very distilled four years in the making.

Zoe Greenhalf: 31:29

Well, I know, I know, I know I may be simplplifying, but in the same way.

Lara Small: 31:34

I am too.

Zoe Greenhalf: 31:35

I get the sense of something clicked in you that you had to just embody, yeah, who you wanted to be before you were even there.

Lara Small: 31:44

It was like we manifested, we made it work, but it's uh I think I'm the final bit I struggle to remember now, but it's um.

Lara Small: 31:54

What I'm really enjoying is creating content, but it's about bikes, it's not about me, and I'm trying to take away my ego because sometimes you can take it too far. No one cares about you. They just want to see how you as a person can help them on their journey. Whatever that is, I'm just a conduit to encouraging more people to find a sense of freedom. And'm just a conduit to encouraging more people to find a sense of freedom, and you're a conduit to finding more people to find a sense of mischief. And so the the toying with the kind of ego versus content and what it, what it can open up in people, is a careful balance. I'm still toying with that now, but you know that I think that's perhaps what the army's taught me a little bit is that you don't, you are literally nothing without the team around you and the people around you. So there's messaging in the framework and Venn diagram of my life that blends itself more than I think it does sometimes can.

Zoe Greenhalf: 32:51

Can you see that? Can you see these kind of common threads that kind of play out in the different areas of your life?

Lara Small: 32:57

Yeah, the army taught me quite a lot about failure when I had the wrong attitude, and that haunts me if I think I'm doing that again in Civvy Street yeah uh, because I went through the Sandhurst commissioning process, which took takes about four or five years to get to that point, and then, like the final exercise, and then you know, I've put a lot of effort in whilst I was at uni to get there. And then in that room we got segregated a handful of us that were the day before we were commissioning uh, I got separated and told I wasn't going to pass and I wasn't going to commission. And these is why this is why you're a, you're not a team player. You, you had the wrong attitude and it was a very, very grounding moment when I had to tell my parents that they, when they travelled to Sandhurst, I was like I failed, we're not going to do a commissioning parade, uh, we're just going to go home.

Lara Small: 33:52

And there's a lot of deep cries at that point and then a lot of deep hate. I hate the army, I hate the people that sent me there, I hate the whole process. Why me? Blah, blah, blah, because what else are you going to do other than hate the system that you wanted to be part of? And then, a couple of years later, I was like, oh, actually, maybe it's not the army. You know this system that's existed for many, many hundreds of years, based on military discipline and rigour. Maybe it's you. And so I ate all the humble pie and went back.

Lara Small: 34:23

I didn't suddenly become brilliant and I still think there's underlying behaviors where I still focus on what I can get out of something rather than what can the team get out of something In the same breath. Is that excusable? Are we not all self-centred in such a way? But there are ways of making a team win, and it's definitely more brilliant to do that with people. So I commissioned for the second time, and that was a major, major life lesson. So whenever I feel like, um, there's a challenge to be undertaken at work, I'm more enticed around the people I can bring with me rather than putting myself in the limelight. But then, on reflection, is this whole kind of YouTube and journalism bit growing, growing an Instagram account? Is that because it's now feeding the ego that I've parked for a while? Or is it just I just want to have fucking fun on a bike and I want to record it? So here's the content take it or leave it.

Zoe Greenhalf: 35:25

What do you think it is?

Lara Small: 35:27

Probably both. Well, I think I just like sharing what I've got up to, but there are. There's probably a balance of are you doing this for camera or are you doing this for you, and I think I'm still figuring that out.

Zoe Greenhalf: 35:40

Do you think it's okay to do it for both, though?

Lara Small: 35:43

I hope so.

Zoe Greenhalf: 35:45

I think, it is.

Lara Small: 35:46

I hope so. I sent a message to Ben, my husband, recently. I was descending into Bormio in Italy and I was quite tired because we'd had quite a few big days and I just started crying on my bike on the way down this hairpin and yet I still have the video now and I sent it straight to Ben and I was like this is why you do this. I was in absolute happy tears. I was like this is why you do this. I was absolute happy tears. I was so overwhelmed and tired but just utterly blown away by the view and the scenery I was in and the bike I was on and the hairpins I was devouring, and had a really good cry and just stopped to go. Anytime you feel sad at work or you're just things aren't right in life. Watch this video and I told myself that I said, look that this is this is why you do it, this is what you're grateful for. You're crying because you're happy and so I'm going to keep that as my in my motivation bucket when things do get you know.

Zoe Greenhalf: 36:45

I think the people that are watching your content, the people that are involved and invested in your journey because it's you know, it's going to be as much about the bike reviews as it is to see you growing and your racing capacity and what you're going through I think they also want to see that side of you. I don't think it's selfish to want to be doing something and sharing it with other people, but wanting to do it from a place of this really matters to me.

Zoe Greenhalf: 37:15

You know, I could say the same about what I do, but I don't feel selfish about it. I don't feel like I want to apologize, that I enjoy doing this as much as I enjoy sharing it. So I don't know. I just want to say to you I don't think it is selfish. I think it's normal that you love something and you want to share that with other people. There's always going to be a bit of you in there. As you say, like maybe you want to get the achieve a balance between making it about you and how it helps other people. For sure, but there's going to be a big part of like what drives you in whatever you're creating, and you don't need to apologize about that.

Lara Small: 37:58

Okay, I appreciate that, Zoe.

Zoe Greenhalf: 38:00

That's what makes you a great person to be doing this content. If you weren't passionate about it, if you weren't that interested, if you weren't the person who's crying as they finish a really long day on a motorbike, because it's just so fucking amazing, nobody's going to want to tune in anyway, because you just sit there in a sea of I don't knowhearted journalists who are like oh, this is fun, we just get to ride a bike. You know, because, as you say, when you're that passionate about something, it's contagious and it just you know, that's just what you transmit. So don't stop being. You, don't filter that passion out because you feel like there's too much of you coming through. That's the thing that people enjoy, I think.

Lara Small: 38:46

Thanks, Zoe.

Zoe Greenhalf: 38:47

Well, I guess I will probably see you this summer at Women in Moto, will I? Yes, please, can I be back?

Lara Small: 38:53

there. Yes, yeah. So we've got new adventures to launch Trying to plan a trip to Slovenia with Maja @Biker_ Maja on Instagram and we hope to launch that at the Women in Moto event. So 10 weeks off-road now. So, no longer a tarmac princess, I'm going to learn how to ride capably and take an adventure bike off-road with Maja.

Zoe Greenhalf: 39:19

That sounds super fun. And what else have you got lined up then? What's, um, you know, have you got any sort of strategies in place or a plan for where you want to arrive in terms of, like the YouTube channel or anything else that you want to create, or are you just very much playing it by ear?

Lara Small: 39:35

I'm still cuffing it a little bit. So my own YouTube channel I've not done anything with for a very long time. It was a baseline. So I wish to create more content with Bike World. Because of the time efficiencies, I turn up, I create the content and then I give the SD card to the producer who then gets rid of all the waffle and makes it viewable on Bike World. And I really enjoy that because with the way I'm running my life, I need to work, deliver at work and then go and do the bike stuff, finish and then go back to work. I don't have the time to have editing hangovers and then.

Lara Small: 40:12

So I'm going to do more adventure. I think it's just really setting up for just more off-road skills. So if my mantra is ride all the bikes, then I need to develop my skills so I can ride all the bikes. At the moment I'm a very good road rider. I'm going to learn trials riding because I'm scared of rocks. Again same reason I feel fearless when it comes to high speed turns, but I'm really scared of jumping over a rock.

Lara Small: 40:37

So I'm going to build that confidence level up and I'm going to do that with the Stuart Day Trials Day team and I'm going to do some off-road training with the Honda Adventure Centre the Dave Thorpe Honda Adventure Centre, with Maja, and then we're just going to ride along the Trans-European Trail to Slovenia and see what happens. Amazing. And then I should probably find time to be grateful and spend time with my husband. Um, spend time with my parents, see times with friends and family, because, uh, none of it really matters without them. So I think, in the balance of life, uh, I should probably tick, do yoga, read more books and spend time with friends and family. Tick, be more mindful do you know what?

Zoe Greenhalf: 41:22

we all have that problem, though. Have you got any? I don't know if you have you got any like hacks or tips, in terms of things that help you to organize your life?

Lara Small: 41:32

I guess it's just, uh, I do keep lists of everything and then get really over on the lists, but it helps me just write stuff down now and then I'll stop and replan and go right, this is a lot of stuff to do. How am I going to do this? So, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday what do I hope to achieve in those kind of sideline margins, two minute jobs in the week? I did do something, uh, in google calendar. I made my perfect week. Uh, Ali Abdaal, uh Feel Good, Live Better or something like that.

Lara Small: 42:01

Uh, a book he wrote, but I was into his podcast. He basically opened up a new Google calendar block out when you'd like to wake up, when you'd like to go to sleep, when you actually have to be at work because mortgages, and then what actual time do you have around that to do stuff during the working week, and then what's your perfect weekend? And if you write down what your perfect weekend is and you don't find the time to have your perfect weekend, then you're kind of missing out on what that perfect moment is.

Lara Small: 42:28

So Ali Abdaal explains it a lot better than I just have but that helps me, give me a sense of focus, as in like, oh, there really is a full time to do everything I want to do. Right, let's start prioritising. But I do burn out because I've just said yes to everything and, like past lara says yes, and then future lara's like yeah, it'll be fine, you'll have all the time in the world for that. And then present lara's like fuck, what have you got me doing now? And I want to go to bed. And now I have to learn how to do wheelies on my mountain bike, because you said you would gonna do that. So it's like please stop. That's why I was napping before coming to see you, because I was like I already just left.

Zoe Greenhalf: 43:06

Now this is what happens. I mean, you know, you live at 100 miles an hour. More, more than 100 miles an hour. Yeah your body will just jump in and save you.

Lara Small: 43:18

Just pull out the usb sticker and no, that power cord's gone. You guys go to sleep.

Zoe Greenhalf: 43:23

Oh, lara, it's been wonderful talking to you and it just fills my heart with joy seeing you go off and do these amazing trips. And I don't know, maybe you haven't found a balance, but you've certainly found a way to integrate the things that you enjoy, which just goes to show what's possible when you really want the things to happen. Where can people find out more about you? We mentioned a couple of different youtube channels, but where's the best place to connect with you or find you?

Lara Small: 43:52

daily life. It's just going to be instagram. Um, I'm still building a website and figuring out what that means because, uh, that can tell my story from a broader perspective of not just bikes but army and Rolls Royce. But, yeah, instagram works. And then I do have a YouTube channel called Lara Moto. Instagram is called @Lara Moto, but a lot of the kind of more professional content will come out of the bike world YouTube channel, and I'm really proud to be part of that team, and what's particularly special about it is it's about the bikes and is a very capable presenting team to talk about them, and it's just really good motorbike content of adventures, off-road skills, on-road skills, uh, and all the bikes you could think of.

Zoe Greenhalf: 44:40

I haven't even asked you about how you got there. How did you even get?

Lara Small: 44:43

involved with them, because it's the first rule of achieving your goals, zoe, tell other people about your goals and then go and do your goals Nice. So, because I made a YouTube channel and it gave me a public window, I got a phone call about four years later and said would you like to come and present with us?

Zoe Greenhalf: 45:06

I love that. I'm waiting for the radio station to phone me.

Lara Small: 45:09

Yeah, yeah, but make a thing and other people see you doing the thing and go, oh, he did that thing for me. Yeah, it depends. If you want to sell your soul though, because I, you know, could I have built my own profile and chinned him off, but it suits the lifestyle and we're going from there. Um, something about aiming for the moon and landing along the stars, but it kind of did you just say that?

Zoe Greenhalf: 45:31

no, you didn't. It's so true, isn't it?

Lara Small: 45:33

because I didn't know I was going to be working as a journalist. But, yeah, I there was things I like doing and things build momentum, and that's where we are, with a little bit of mischief, obviously.

Zoe Greenhalf: 45:44

Well, Lara, thank you so much and all the best for your next big adventure. I'll be watching to see what occurs on the ride through Europe and, yeah, I'll speak to you again very soon. Thanks, larry. So ready for my takeaways, here we go.

Zoe Greenhalf: 46:06

Number one you can start to sow the seeds of mischief, even in a corporate environment, by thinking outside the box. Where could you add some fun? How could you deliver a training in an interesting way? Also, take the time to get to know your team so you can discover what their outside interests and hidden skills are, so you can bring more of those into the workplace. Two you don't become fearless. You just start to fear less in small increments, of stretching your comfort zone.

Zoe Greenhalf: 46:36

Three don't underestimate the power of visualization and affirmations to help cultivate a winning mindset, not just on a racetrack, but in any moment where you're challenging yourself. Four being ambitious is great, but don't let the big goals or disappointments take you away from the overall joy of the thing that you're doing. Five Lara said sometimes you've got to be broken down to be brought back up again. Or put another way, breakdowns can create breakthroughs. Six keep making time for your outside interests, even if that can only be in the tiny cracks and pockets, between other things, because you will still see the progress and it will keep you feeling happier and more energized in the other areas of your life. Seven, when you're really passionate about something or have a big goal, start telling people about it and sharing it, and it will not only build momentum but could also open up completely new and unexpected opportunities. Eight, you can always reframe your fear of creating something like a blog, a podcast or video content. Instead of asking why would anyone be interested? Turn it into why not me? Nine, take ownership of that dream or goal and start behaving as though you're already achieving it. Embody that person that you want to become before you're ready, and you will then grow into that person.

Zoe Greenhalf: 48:11

And number 10, plan out your week and weekend and block out the time for the stuff you love doing so that you can start prioritising it. You can start prioritizing it. However, I would caveat that at the same time by saying please schedule some downtime so you also don't burn out. That's a wrap on another episode of the Mischief Movement podcast. If today's content stirred something in you, let's keep in touch on Instagram or connect with me on LinkedIn. You can even click the link in the show notes to sign up to my Mischief Mail newsletter, where you'll get exclusive insights on upcoming episodes and your chance to submit questions to future guests. But shh, don't tell anyone, it's our secret. For more info on ways to work with me and some fun free resources, check out the website themischiefmovementcom. Until next time, stay bold, stay rebellious and, of course, keep making mischief.

Lara Small: 49:40

It's frozen. I don't know if it's broken. You've gone quiet when zoe gone? Oh, no, zoe.