Building a Motorcycle Brand: The Evolution of FÉROCE (Website, Merch, More!)

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Annick Magac provides an update on the FÉROCE brand. The brand's website is now live, featuring a basic merchandise collection of apparel like hats, t-shirts, and hoodies. Magac seeks feedback on a potential summer motorcycle meetup and ride in the Northeast. She also celebrates nearing 1,000 YouTube subscribers, which will unlock new platform features, and discusses her surprise at the solo videos being more popular than the interviews. She acknowledges feedback on video editing and content style, explaining her background and future plans for the channel. Finally, she mentions the BFF's motorcycle projects and expresses excitement for the upcoming racing season.

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Transcript

FÉROCE UPDATE

Annick: [00:00:00] Hello, my beautiful Motorheads. Welcome to FÉROCE, where we inspire you to live fiercely. I'm your host, Annick Magac. It is the middle of winter here, and as you can see, it's cold, it's snowy, we got a major ice storm, and I'm actually standing on two inches of ice with my good trusty old L. L. Bean boots and my micro spikes, and I'm not even breaking through the snow at all.

Look at that. I'm just standing right on top. It is chilly. I love winter. And one of the reasons why I love winter is, well, I was born in the winter, but I also just love to do winter sports, whether that's skiing, hockey, anything like that. But it's not motorcycling. the winter offers us a time to like, just basically, for me, reset and take care of some projects, get ahead, because I know that as soon as the weather breaks and I'm able to go out riding, I am not going to want to be home on the days that I don't have to work or

have any obligation. [00:01:00] So there's been a lot going on behind the door, at FÉROCE and I thought that today would be a great time to share that with you and get you caught up on kind of what's been going on. And, you know, also see like what you guys have been up to. So let's dig in.

 * INTRO *

 The weather's been so crazy. but it feels good to be outside after the crazy ice and snow that we got over the past two days and was kind of cooped up in the house.

So let's go inside to the shop and, uh, catch up. How about that? Right. Walk in, come with me as I make sure that I don't like totally bin it, with this ice. I mean, it's crazy. I'm literally, I'm not breaking anything. And, uh, Didn't get a plow truck up here, so What are you gonna do? We do what we can.

I had a hike in. So, all right, here we go.

Ooh, hello beautiful.

You know, what's great [00:02:00] about being an adult is that you can do things like Basically, just, oof, I slowed the spikes on. You can basically do whatever you want as an adult. And one of that is, is that you can put a motorcycle wherever you want. If you want to put a motorcycle in your bedroom, you can do that.

If you want to put a motorcycle in your living room, you can do that too. They don't tell you about those things when you're a kid.

It's no joke, it's a little chilly willy in here. Uh, like I said, it's been snowing for a couple of days, so. Oh, let's get some heat going, let's get some heat going. Alright. So I told you guys I was going to update you on what's been going on, and the number one big news is that the website's done.

If anyone has ever worked on a website, you know it is a true labor of love. It is a true labor of love. It was a big project. So I created a [00:03:00] website for FÉROCE and the whole point of doing this podcast is to not only have these interviews and bring the motorcycle community closer together and to also share my viewpoints on things all related to motorcycle.

The other part to it is that I am a designer by trade. I was educated as a furniture and product designer.

To my very favorite things are design and motorcycles. And this website is now allowing me to merge those two things together. Because what I've always wanted to do, and this was a vision for FÉROCE from the very beginning, was to offer products, underneath a brand, which is FÉROCE . FÉROCE.

So the website is done and it's going to be an evolution. I'm very happy with the way that it came out. I know that it's going to change over time, but it's liveferoce.com, L I V E F E R O C E dot com. the [00:04:00] link will be in the show notes. So the whole part to bring this website to life is that it would become a central hub for all things FÉROCE. So that would be videos, the audio, and then, which you guys may have seen in some of my videos, um, pretty much all my videos, is that I have been wearing different gear and designing some pieces for merchandise.

I have linked the store to YouTube, but I also have the website, the shop, and I wanted to show you guys some of the products. I'm starting off with what I'm calling the basic collection, because I have ideas. I've had, I've had these ideas for a very long time and it, it just takes time to make things happen, especially when you're growing a business and also trying to still work and do all, do all the things, right? Wear all the hats. So I wanted to show you some of the basic [00:05:00] collection because I know that I've been wearing it, but it's different if I just like show you in person.

So first off, I've had these winter caps, which has been a godsend in this, uh, in this cold weather. And it, comes in a few different colors, but as you can see, fits very well. I also have, which I've worn, is this ball cap. And this is more the, uh, what I call like the sporty ball cap versus. It's , you know, you guys have seen like in a lot of the motorcycle stuff, people do like more trucker hats.

I like the ball cap just like a traditional ball cap. This is a small medium. this also comes in a few different colors. The underneath of the bill is gray. This also, but I have to put this back on just because it's so cold. So hopefully, hopefully it works and, you know. My hair's not all like, In addition, we have the basic t shirt, which I'm wearing medium.

This is, uh, the clothing right now is unisex, so that, you know, we just [00:06:00] kill two birds with one stone, as they say. And, um, I'm wearing a medium, which is kind of big and baggy. And these are some of the other colors that it comes in. I didn't bring everything, but the black on black is my favorite. My second favorite, personally, You can get whatever you want.

It is asphalt with the black. I think that looks pretty sharp. And then this is pebble, which is kind of like a light brown beige, which you've also seen me wear, uh, in some of the videos. So that color is pretty cool. I've been testing out the clothing and trying to wear it as much as possible. You for sure have seen me wear this green hoodie, and I pretty much live in this thing.

It's pretty cool. Oh, let me, let me back up and just say something about the t shirts. They're unisex and one of the things that I made sure to do was find a cut that was a little bit slimmer. because it would more easily fit underneath your jacket and your riding gear. [00:07:00] So, if you like things baggy, if all you men like things baggy, size up.

Definitely go, you know, one or two sizes up for a more relaxed fit. Otherwise, I would say that this is, uh, it's narrow through the torso and on the sides, but it's super soft and it's 100 percent cotton. Lightweight, so great for the summer and for layering. And then the hoodie, also a slim cut unisex, Did it on purpose so that it would, again, fit underneath your riding gear, your jacket, your leather jacket, and just be another layer.

But, if you want to, again, be more relaxed, size up. And especially in the hoodie, definitely one to two sizes bigger. I've been wearing this, like I said, almost every day. I wanted to test All the apparel just to make sure that it was rugged enough, that it worked enough, that it washed well.

Uh, this is also in cotton and it's been a workhorse. I also like the black on black. Which of [00:08:00] course, you know, is like kind of a theme. They're very soft. Oops, we don't want that. That doesn't look good. Alright, here we go. the black on black. This is a large. And in the videos, I'm wearing a medium. The green one that I typically wear, this army green, is a medium unisex.

So, if you'd like things to be more relaxed, size up. And on the website, underneath the descriptions, I have what the fit and feel is of the apparel. This is just the beginning with the, with the t shirts and the merch. And I want to do more specialty t shirts and also do collaborations with some of the guests that are going to be coming on and have come on.

So that's going to be fun and that is going to evolve over in the rest of the year. In addition to that, Like I mentioned, I am a product designer So there's other things that I want to add to the store and [00:09:00] that will happen over time. I don't want to give out my ideas. Not that anyone's going to steal them.

It's just, I like to make sure I have all my, uh, as they say, the I's dotted and your T's crossed, before I leak out that there's a particular product or something that I'm putting out. And. That's exciting. And one of the things that I think that you guys will appreciate is that most of the products are going to be motorcycle related or theme related or lifestyle related, which will be really fun to develop over time.

And I love a design challenge. So this is going to, for me, this brings me a lot of joy. It's a lot of work, but it is one of those passion projects that's completely worth it.

that being said, that the website is now live. You can go over to the website, liveferoce.com. And if you sign up for the newsletter, once you get on the mailing list, you will get a 10 percent off coupon for, or 10 [00:10:00] percent off code. Coupon. We're going shopping. We're clipping our coupons. Uh, you'll get a 10 percent off code that you'll be able to put towards your first purchase. In addition, once you're on the mailing list, I'm not going to spam you.

I would like to evolve the newsletter. which is the mailing list, which will become the newsletter to giving you guys a little bit more behind the scenes and more, up to date news on things that are happening with the podcast, things that are happening with the store and things that are going to happen in person.

So the second thing beyond the store and the release of the store, which I feel like I wish I could have. like be popping bottles right now. Because like I said, it's super exciting. Once you finish a website, the other thing that I'm thinking about and I'm on the fence.

So I would love your feedback about is that I'm considering doing a meetup and ride during the [00:11:00] summer. I would plan out a route. And we would be, take a small group because you know how I am a lone wolf rider. And that, uh, I don't love to ride in large groups. That I would do a more intimate group ride that, you know, may be limited to no more than 20 people.

And then we could go explore an area in the northeast. the summertime is absolutely gorgeous. There's beautiful roads everywhere. And it would be fun to take a more intimate crowd out where we could, kind of chit chat in between riding and explore some beautiful places and just see.

I don't know if that's something that you guys would be interested in. Please let me know. You can comment, in the comments whether you are watching this on video or you are listening to it or you can email me directly and that email address is info at liveferoce.com. I will also have that in the show notes so you can check that out.

But, um, how would you [00:12:00] feel about that? Do you guys want to go on a ride with me? I think that might be fun.

And if I were to do it, it would be during the summertime where the weather is guaranteed to be warmer, but not too hot.

So I'm thinking maybe like, early June or September, in between, one of those months before things get totally crazy or people go away on vacations.

It's hard to think about doing a group ride or doing a ride right now when there is snow on the ground, but I think we've got to have something to look forward to. Again, I love winter, and this winter has given me the opportunity to take care of these projects that, again, it's really hard to want to be chained to a computer when the weather is absolutely gorgeous outside.

Because we all know that the only thing that we want to do during nice warm weather is ride. So, let me know. Let me know what you think about that. 

In big news on YouTube, I'm so close, we are so close to 1, 000 subscribers. if you have not subscribed [00:13:00] and you would like to support the show for free, the number one thing you can do to any content creator is to like and subscribe.

And I know that most people just never subscribe to any channel because, um, We just don't even think about doing it. And I know, you know, I have been guilty of this, but since I really have gotten onto YouTube, I've stopped doing it because I understand what the difference can be to a YouTube creator, is that it's really easy to watch a channel for years and years and years and just never subscribe.

Well, YouTube Basically, uh, what would you say, like, rewards you for having subscribers and we're so close. We're so close. I'm like, right now, as of doing this, recording this video, I'm at nine hundred and fifty, think when I looked this morning, nine hundred and fifty three. So close to 1, 000. Can you help me get to 1, 000?

Because once I get to 1, 000, we get to 000 together. It unlocks a bunch of [00:14:00] different things for YouTube. And it is a, it's a great milestone. I started the channel with, I started doing the podcast at 60, I should know this, I just looked at all the numbers, at 68. in five months, I've gotten up to 950 and it's been fun.

It's been a challenge. It's been doing this has been totally different than I would have anticipated. There were like some things that I, I knew would be hard, but the other things that I wasn't expecting to be hard was getting subscribers. Cause like, I just didn't occur to me that people just weren't subscribing or following even the audio podcasts that people just consume.

But don't like and say that they, they like the content or not. like I mentioned, it unlocks these different things, and when I was able to get to 500 subscribers, I was able to add the merchandise to YouTube, which, that was very exciting, as a brand, to be able to launch your brand.

I did it kind of covertly, and this [00:15:00] is the, the video where I'm announcing that yes, like, everything's live. I needed time to make sure and test that, you know, things were actually working because I didn't want to, have a few people go to the website and it, not work for whatever reason.

Because you just don't know until you test these things to just make sure it's all working and it seems to all be working. And if something isn't working, you're just going to let me know, right? Because that's the kind of relationship we have. We talk to each other. if you don't want to buy something, totally cool.

If this merch is like, you know, you're not feeling it, not a problem. The one thing that you could do again is to like and subscribe. And the third thing you could do to support the channel, if, uh, if you just want to just want to, it's a buy me a coffee, which I have it as buy me an oil change. And the link is in also the show descriptions where you can donate amount that you want, to help support the channel.

You guys have been giving me feedback as I've been putting out these videos and There's a guy who is [00:16:00] a, he's a regular, a regular viewer, which I, I highly appreciate, and one of the things he wrote was that he thought that, and, and he's not the only one to say this, so I'm just going to put it out there, that he thought that, some of these videos could be more casual, , what he was essentially describing, and I'm just going to paraphrase, is that he wanted it to be he anticipated that it would be more vlog style than more me sitting back, or I guess I would just say like more professional videoing.

And I want to speak to that because one thing is, is that, you know, when you're doing these videos, you're putting yourself out into the public to have feedback, whether you want it or not. I'm okay with that. That's totally cool. The irony of all this is that I spent years, studying and practicing being a professional speaker.

One of the things I did was that I did professional speaking. So I would go out and give talks on primarily health and wellness and mindset. So it's funny that the style has now [00:17:00] become to be more casual, more laid back. And, while that might be my personality off screen, is that, you know, I'm approachable.

And I, you know, like, I like to hang out and chit chat and hang out with people. I love humans, which is why I'm doing this, right? But it is so counterintuitive to be casual on camera, because I did everything to practice being professional and, showing up to work events and corporate events, being able to speak eloquently and to drive a point home.

So, you know, social medias. One day you're, you know, one day you guys want this, one day you want that, one day you want this, one day you want that. in looking at the stats and kind of going over in, in reviewing the feedback, it's been interesting to see that you guys don't love the interviews as much as I thought that you would.

But the whole premise for creating this podcast was [00:18:00] to do the interviews and to expose to our community all the wonderful riders that I've met or have met through other people or want to meet. Like, you know, some of the people I've just approached because I've been a longtime admirer of them, such as Walt Siegel.

Who is the, top notch bike builder, uh, you know, next level designer, right? I had not met him in person, I used my connections to reach out to him and to get an interview because I just love his work and wanted to connect. So, that's an example of somebody that I didn't know before doing the interview or asking him to, to do the interview.

A lot of the other people that have been on here, I have met over the years and we just have like such an amazing community in part of building the website and wanting to offer products underneath the brand is that I wanted it to be a platform to show all the different, All the different designers who are [00:19:00] part of this great community, whether they're, and you consider yourself a designer, a maker, an artist, all of it.

it's just, it's been interesting to see that the interviews just, I don't know, you guys just aren't really watching them. And I don't know if it's because you don't know the people that I'm interviewing or it's not that interesting, but, getting back to what that one viewer said about, wanting me to be, or it's not that he was wanting, that he was just mentioning that, he preferred the videos where I'm more casual and I'm more the center of it, which is these solo shows.

I thought a lot about this on my way over here and as I was scoot along the snow to get to the shop is that,

one of the other things that has changed with social media is that I wanted to always do this as a podcast and in a traditional podcast format, it is, you're, you're only hearing the audio, right? So you're just hearing. whether I'm speaking [00:20:00] or it's an interview. There isn't an expectation as to like what all this looks or like what all the background looks and all that.

what's interesting about YouTube in particular is there's this expectation because of what we see all the time are these highly, edited and developed videos where there's b roll, there's, you know, shots of, you know, people riding through Sturgis, or, uh, you know, I might be talking about, and then I could, you know, show Supercross video.

it's a whole different thing than, the visual part of it is completely different than the focusing just on the audio and what the topic is that's being spoken because I am having to entertain you not only audio wise, auditory, but also visually. I wasn't expecting that to be an expectation.

And I just want to be, transparent about that So that you could understand where I'm coming from and I can understand where you're coming from when you're giving me feedback. So because it is a primarily a [00:21:00] podcast, I've been focusing on the audio being good and trying to, you know, maybe add a little bit more music or to try to drive points home with some, with some other sounds.

And it's still pretty basic. And that is mostly because I like, um, Things to be very minimal and clean, whether that's visually or auditory wise. when I decided to do the video portion and to just, take advantage of this beautiful medium that we have, which is video, and really where I think that everything is going in the, in the world anyway, that immediately the expectation was different.

And the expectation was that, because we're so used to seeing things bombarded by, graphics and visuals and film and all this stuff that, that is just becoming the norm in what's expected. So I think that sometimes maybe when, and I'm guessing here, Or from the feedback that I'm getting is that when I'm just sitting and talking to you, some people find that [00:22:00] boring.

Sorry to disappoint people. Sorry, sorry to disappoint. But, but editing is a, is a whole other beast. And as I mentioned before, I'm currently editing all the video myself. So I, I've been learning in the five months that I've been doing this, I've been learning a crash course in editing. I'm trying my best in like, you know, doing what I can.

And then at some point, I would love, you know, again, people start buying merchandise, people start, deciding that they want to support the show because you do like the basis of the, Content that I'll be able to hire somebody to do the editing which then I can just focus on trying to make things more Fancy schmancy, right?

So we'll get there. It's all an evolution. It's all an evolution and if I Lose people before I'm able to get there, this is, this is really what it takes. And, hopefully in like a [00:23:00] year I can look back and we'll show this video and be like, wow, look at that. You know, look at when I was doing this and now look at where I'm, where I'm at.

that would be really fun. So we're all a work in progress this is all I got for you right now. When I first started all this, I wasn't anticipating on doing any solo shows.

So. The fact that you guys even like me talking about motorcycles, my personal viewpoints or me sharing stories about my experiences, that's pretty cool because I really, I just wasn't thinking, thinking about it as even a thing to do. that, that has probably been like the biggest surprise in doing this.

And This is the 21st episode, like that's pretty awesome, right? I'm 21 episodes in already. Very cool, like very, very, very cool. And I thank you so much for watching, and liking, and subscribing, right? Because that's what you're going to do today, you're going to subscribe. 

What do we have coming [00:24:00] up?

Well, lots of good things. Number one, we're going to do evolve the website. So I'm going to add more products over the year. that's, that's its whole one thing beast. And then I'm going to continue to do these videos. I love your feedback. I love it so much. And you guys are very inspiring by your comments.

It also shows me what you're interested in and what you're not interested in. Because if I'm spending a lot of time doing these videos and it's like something that you guys are like, Uh, no. Like, the one thing that didn't go over so well is like, You guys didn't like me reading the poetry. I don't know why.

Actually, I knew when I did it, I was like, I don't know how this is going to go over, but I like to experiment a little bit. And if it, you know, if it doesn't do well, it just doesn't do well. And then I won't do that again. So I get it guys. No more poetry, even if it is motorcycle related and cheeky and fun.

I get it. No more poetry noted. I'm also getting requests now [00:25:00] to be interviewed personally, not me interviewing, but for somebody else to interview me on a couple of podcasts coming up. I don't want to say what those podcasts are yet because I don't like to say or do anything until it's a done deal, but I'm looking forward to that.

And it'll be fun to be on the other side of the table as it were, and to be interviewed because it's fun. And I like to see what other shows do. And maybe we'll have those hosts on this show. So we'll see. I love the give and take, right? Again, we're a very small community. So who knows what's gonna happen with that?

 I think that's a pretty good wrap up. speaking of wrapping up, because it is, you know, it is winter time right now, that, you know, we're working on projects, not my projects, not my shop, but I'm in here a fair amount, this is where I get all, I do all my personal projects and work, but

this beautiful shop belongs to the BFF, which I, always talk about. 

The BFF's [00:26:00] been, uh, working on this project behind me, actually both projects. The, the other one, the GSXR 1000, will be getting its paint is done and is going to be coming back from the shop next week. So in future videos, uh, and Wolf Geist and a couple people have asked, what, uh, what's going on with the GSXR 1000.

Annick: So when it's got its new shoes on, we will, uh. I'll show you guys what it looks like. It's a, it's a very cool bike. And as I mentioned in a previous, it is the bike that made me decide to sell my Ducati 999s. Heartbreaking. And this, uh, Honda VFR, the BFF also been working on, which was a Basket case find that he has been putting together and I am looking forward to test riding it in the Springtime summer and I think that I'm probably going to get some miles on it if if he doesn't so that'll be fun So many good things to look forward to you know, we're even though again, it's like [00:27:00] it's Super cold.

It's icy and I'm skating across the parking lot here I'm excited for the season coming up. Daytona is coming up soon. And as soon as those races kick off, I always feel like, all right, cool. The racing season for Supercross, MotoGP, you know, like everything's already started.

So it's getting exciting. And once those races start hitting the television, I, uh, I really am excited about what this season is going to bring and what's going to happen with the brand FÉROCE. Cause we got cool stuff going on. So I

look forward to sharing more with you. And as always. Ride smart. Ciao.

 * OUTRO *