Guest Bio
Matt Hoffman-Beals is the founder of Breaking Away Adventures, an experience-driven motorcycle touring company focused on community, exploration, and personal growth. An adventure-driven entrepreneur and lifelong traveler, his journey has taken him from a career in hospitality and event management to the open road on two wheels. After more than 20 years creating memorable experiences in fast-paced environments, Matt shifted his focus toward a life centered on exploration, connection, and freedom. Drawing from a nomadic upbringing and a deep love for motorcycles, he built Breaking Away Adventures to bring riders together through off-road journeys designed to challenge, inspire, and connect. His approach blends adventure with inclusivity, encouraging riders of all backgrounds to discover confidence, connection, and joy on the road less traveled.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Matt about the path that led him from a life in hospitality to building a purpose-driven motorcycle adventure company. Matt shares how his early experiences with travel and discovery shaped his worldview and ultimately pushed him to pursue a more adventurous, community-focused lifestyle.
The conversation explores how Breaking Away Adventures goes beyond traditional motorcycle touring by emphasizing inclusivity, shared experience, and personal growth. Matt discusses the power of bringing people together in challenging outdoor environments, where riders not only explore rugged terrain but also form meaningful connections and build confidence. He also opens up about the mental health benefits of adventure travel and the importance of creating spaces where people feel welcomed and supported.
Listeners will also gain insight into what it takes to start and grow an adventure-based business, as Matt reflects on the importance of authenticity, passion, and starting small. His story offers both inspiration and practical perspective for anyone looking to turn their love of adventure into something bigger.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Shared adventure experiences create strong, lasting connections between people
- ✓ Building an inclusive environment helps riders feel confident and supported
- ✓ Off-road motorcycling offers a unique way to experience nature and freedom
- ✓ Community is at the heart of meaningful travel experiences
- ✓ Starting with small, intentional efforts can grow into something impactful
- ✓ Outdoor challenges often lead to personal growth and self-discovery
- ✓ Passion-driven businesses resonate more deeply with participants
- ✓ Adventure travel can play a positive role in mental well-being
- ✓ Diverse groups enrich the overall experience of group travel
- ✓ Authenticity is a key ingredient in building trust and loyalty
What You’ll Find on Breaking Away Adventures
- Off-road motorcycle trips designed for a range of skill levels
- Community-focused group rides that prioritize connection
- Experiences that combine challenge, exploration, and fun
- An inclusive environment welcoming riders from diverse backgrounds
- Events that foster personal growth through shared adventure
- Curated routes that highlight scenic and lesser-traveled landscapes
Learn more about Breaking Away Adventures and connect with Matt at:
https://breakingawayadventures.com
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:01.031)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the Adventure Traveler. So happy to have each and every one of you back here with us today and very excited to have a wonderful guest to share with you. We’ve got Matt Hoffman-Beals here. He is the owner of Breaking Away Adventures. Matt, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (00:21.314)
Thanks, Jason. Super excited to be here.
Jason Elkins (00:23.859)
be a fun conversation. We’re going to dig into your childhood traumas and your past and figure out how that how the heck did you end up doing this type of project and work that you’re doing. But before we do that, let’s give our listeners a quick kind of 30, 60, 30 to 60 second or minute and a half, whatever elevator pitch on what is breaking away adventures.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (00:46.038)
Yeah, so I’ve never really been great at my elevator pitch, here’s the final test, right? Well, yeah, know, right? Breaking Away Adventures honestly was inspired by the movie Breaking Away. There’s a spirit to that movie that is just so powerful and so positive that I’ve not really found in the motorcycle world.
Jason Elkins (00:50.132)
That’s okay. We’ve got an hour, so you can take as much time as you want.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:09.966)
sections of adventure motorcycling and continuation of some of these huge routes that companies are putting together across the Southwest, all over the US, all over the world. I wanted something that could cater more towards my age, middle-aged people that weren’t rich or retired dentists and doctors and could get into it before they were completely white-headed.
And it’s really just about getting out into the country, the deep country, and camping off of our bikes, experiencing what it’s like to really be part of nature, which a lot of people just don’t have anymore. Especially where I live in New Mexico, there’s so many people that never even leave their town or county. So it’s really just about exploring and experiencing those areas.
Jason Elkins (01:59.315)
Very cool. Now is this, these are group trips. So what is your typical trip look like? I mean, we’re not going to discuss the itinerary per se, but is this a group of two or three people, 40 people, you know, give us kind of an idea what, you’re offering your clients.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (02:08.269)
Sure.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (02:15.841)
Yeah, I mean, it’s really,
It’s a challenge in a lot of ways because you not only have to have your own bike, your own setup, your own camping gear, that is kind of the prerequisite. And so I’m taking out groups as large as eight plus me, which is actually pretty small. When it’s on the trail, it seems a lot longer because you can have these big lines of people following you. it’s a small group. I’ll do as minimum as or as little as three people plus myself. And it’s not like I’m showing how to camp, but I’m showing how to do
Jason Elkins (02:32.072)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (02:47.947)
the entire package together and they get a little bit of training on the trail. They can experience on these challenging sections they may not have the time or the fear factor to get over by themselves and so we tackle those things as a group and while we’re tackling those challenges on the trail we sit by the campfire at night and we challenge up we tackle other challenges such as mental health issues or depression or family life or
any one of the things that we all have going on in our lives.
Jason Elkins (03:19.451)
Are these mixed groups? Because when you said that, I imagined a bunch of guys sitting around because guys don’t always have an opportunity to talk to other guys about things like life and mental health. Are these primarily men’s groups or do you get mixed groups or what does that look like?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (03:34.126)
Well, it really depends on the group. Now, motorcycling is still heavily male dominated, but every year the female side of it ticks up a few more percentage. I think in 2025 it was up to 22 or 23 percent of the adventure and dirt riding community was emerging winning. And some of these women are some of most incredible riders you’ve ever seen.
say is Jocelyn Snow who could ride circles around anybody and she’s probably five foot one and she rides one of the biggest bikes. So there’s really no excuses either the bike’s too big, I’m too short, I’m too fat, I’m too old. I mean anybody can do this and that’s the beauty of it. So there is quite a bit of men but we try to really reach out to not just women or younger or older but the LGBTQ
people or communities. In fact, we do a big event in the spring that is called the Misfits Rally that really does bring in people of all types. So it’s a lot. It’s very eclectic.
Jason Elkins (04:36.115)
I that last time we spoke before we decided to come have a conversation here. You mentioned a little bit about that. So that’s on my list of things I want to learn more about because I love the name. I’m like, man, that’s like the type place I should be. And I want to make sure our listeners, because your audience, like when you send this out and say, hey, I was on Jason’s show, they’re going to understand what you’re talking about when you talk about dirt communities and trails and stuff like that. But I want all of our listeners to get
Matt Hoffman-Beals (04:46.347)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (05:05.171)
and also myself just to make sure I’m on track. What I hear you saying this is, I don’t even know the terminology, but this is off-road motorcycling. This is not taking a bike and driving to Sturgis or something. This is like out in the wilderness, dirt trails, motorcycles that are designed for that, that type of thing, right? It’s all the, 100%.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (05:22.795)
Yes.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (05:27.435)
Yeah, absolutely. give you the 10 second version of it. So it’s very, different than Sturgis. People do not trailer their bikes to these events. They ride their bikes to these events. Now you have dirt bikes. Those are generally smaller than say 500 CCs. You can take that to a motocross style or OHV style park where it’s all inclusive inside. And those are like the types of riding that you see where people are taking jumps and they’re doing Superman.
in the air, that type of thing. Adventure riding is a little different. These bikes are just as big as the big Harley-Davidson’s, but they have knobby tires, they have luggage on the sides, so you can pack literally a week’s worth of camping gear, clothes, food, water, emergency supplies, and then we take those out on the back country. And so anything from like a fire road to a single track trail,
Some of these areas don’t even look like they have trails that go through, but we find ways to make it. And we find remote dispersed areas for camping. And for those of you who don’t know what dispersed camping is, that is when you are digging holes for that. So there’s no free ways.
Jason Elkins (06:39.763)
for your waste. Yeah, not everybody’s gonna be watching this. You’re held up to number two. I knew what you meant, but for those things that you don’t wanna carry out with you, yeah, I get that. So when you describe this, the picture I see in my head is the type of motorcycle that somebody would decide to drive from Nome, Alaska to.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (06:49.226)
Yes.
Jason Elkins (07:00.723)
Is that the same type of bike?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (07:01.101)
Yes, it is. And they’re incredible touring bikes. have all the power and steering. They usually have three to five different ride modes for rain, off-roading, sport modes. They have different suspensions that can take you up a little higher or a little lower, depending on your heights or what kind of riding you’re doing.
So there might be trips where you’re going to Alaska where you’re going to be on pavement for a couple of days before you get to your area and then you’ll be off into the dirt and exploring there. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (07:35.875)
It just sounds really really cool and it’s not a conversation we’ve had a lot on this show to be honest with you and it so I’m excited because You know, I’m one of those guys that has that idea someday, you know, I had a motorcycle when I was in the army I got it. I went and bought it They had to load it into the back of my pickup truck because I didn’t know how to drive it They loaded the back of my pickup truck I drove to a loading dock in in this
Matt Hoffman-Beals (07:40.172)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (07:56.844)
Right.
Jason Elkins (08:03.165)
place right next to the apartment complex and I drove around the building enough times that I felt like I kind of could not kill myself and then a few days later I left Tennessee and I drove to Wyoming on a motorcycle. No license, nothing just it was a lot of fun it was pretty cool and you know long story but I was I was from Wyoming so I wanted to get to Wyoming and I figured by the time I got there I’d be able to pass the driving test.
So I got my Wyoming driver’s eyes is just kind of a one of those crazy things But I guess where I’m going with that is I always had this idea that it’d be great to do like that You know gnome to terror the way I go type of ride So every time I and I’m in I’m in Mexico now, it’s been a lot of time in South America So every time I see some guy going by on one of those bikes I get excited. So that’s a So I’m happy to hear it’s the same type of like same same thing Let’s
Matt Hoffman-Beals (08:29.654)
Right.
Jason Elkins (08:56.625)
I think we covered, are they typically mixed groups? Always mixed groups or is it usually a group of guys that know each, I say guys, but a group of people that know each other that hire you to take them out or what does it look like?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (09:08.237)
Sure, that’s a great question. Generally what happens is we will have somebody that either sees an advertiser, knows about the ride and they’ll sign up and they’ll convince a friend of theirs or two to go with them. We’ve had a lot of family which is incredible. We’ve had fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, we’ve had brothers, we’ve had mothers and daughters, best friends, we’ve had a bachelor party decided to take a few days and go out for a ride.
Jason Elkins (09:20.292)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (09:38.318)
Sometimes we’ve had complete strangers, which is very interesting, especially when I’ve never met them or only had a phone call.
with them to do a small vetting before we get to it. you know by the time we get there everybody stands around their bikes and oh that’s cool where’d you get that and it’s kind of a puff your chest moment of showing off what you’ve done with your bike. And then after you get into the riding you get into the dinners the campfires and you’re a day or two into it everybody’s just family. And you know we’ve all been picking up each other’s bikes we’ve been picking up each other’s spirits we’ve been sharing stories that maybe we haven’t shared with
Jason Elkins (09:46.211)
huh. Yep.
Jason Elkins (10:08.381)
Yeah, yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (10:15.553)
or husbands or wives or family or best friends. And it builds just a bond that really I’ve never found anywhere else. So it’s incredible.
Jason Elkins (10:17.19)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (10:24.975)
It’s pretty cool when you’re all kind of singularly focused. I shouldn’t say it that way, but I mean, you’re obviously drawn to the motorcycles and that part of the adventure. But it’s neat when you bring those people together. I used to lead a lot of fishing trips. I was a fishing guide, but I also, for quite a while, would take groups to different places to go fishing. And fishing was kind of the same because like that first morning, you have a group of guys that mostly don’t know each other. There might be a couple that are traveling together or whatever.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (10:42.591)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (10:53.725)
but they all pull out their equipment and they’re comparing their rods and they’re this and they’re that and then they go fishing and then they come back at the end of the day and we all sit down and sometimes we’re camping and I’ve done that too. But there’s that comradie and that conversations and yeah, it’s usually like within a couple of days, it’s like everybody, buddy buddy sitting out on the patio at the lodge smoking the cigars and bullshitting and it’s great. I sense it’s very similar. But camping is another level. Camping does…
Matt Hoffman-Beals (11:17.943)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (11:23.559)
bring people together quicker. I’ve learned.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (11:26.317)
It does and know a lot of people you know most people I would say have camped in their youth or in college or in their 20s and then they still have all that camping gear in the garage but they haven’t touched it and so they’ll see this event and say just pull up all that camping gear.
Jason Elkins (11:32.787)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (11:42.582)
you need like back country camping gear. You need a sleeping bag that packs down to this. Your tent needs to be, you know, this. And so you need to be able to fit like an entire setup into one of your side cases and still have room for something else. So there’s so much challenge just leading up to it, you know?
Jason Elkins (11:42.843)
No, no.
Jason Elkins (11:47.921)
yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (12:02.359)
You, well, one thing is I imagine a lot of these guys and my dad, my situation was a little different because my dad, we’d like have to carry it. If we went camping, we were carrying it. But I know a lot of people’s memories of camping was throw everything in the back of the station wagon and go camping somewhere and you’ve got a tent and you’ve got a sleeping bag, but you’re not carrying it. So it’s different, different type of equipment, right? I do want to touch on, cause you mentioned, you know, the prerequisites having camping gear, having a bike.
Presumably they need to know how to ride the bike at some level, probably be licensed drivers. I mean, you’re out in the wilderness, but they probably need to be like licensed motorcycle drivers, right? Yeah, that’s a…
Matt Hoffman-Beals (12:45.141)
Right, I’d equate it to fishing too. know, somebody that has the setup, can afford the setup, buys the setup, goes out to the river, and then is like, hmm, what am I supposed to do now? And I mean, when I first started riding, I was like everybody else. I started on the streets, and I had never been exposed to anything like this before. I didn’t start in the dirt and work my way.
Jason Elkins (12:50.408)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (12:54.611)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (13:07.873)
as a kid. started off on a big bike in my late 20s and then worked my way into dirt later. So when I found this world of adventure, was like, what is this? And it is hard and having to get to that point where you’re like,
Okay, I got all the stuff, now what? Because you still have a full-time job, you still don’t have the time to plan and organize these trips. And then when you get out there, how do I get over this obstacle? How do I set up my camp? How can I do a five-day trip where we’re camping in a different spot every night? So that’s really where I come in. So I mean, it’d be nice to say, you don’t need anything, just show up and we’ll take care of you. But there has to be a buy-in.
Jason Elkins (13:22.951)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (13:30.696)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (13:35.879)
Yeah, yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (13:46.721)
mean the cost of the trip. There has to be a buy-in to really undertaking that adventure and that challenge.
Jason Elkins (13:53.435)
Right, right, right. On the bikes. You specifically, I think you specifically said you need to own a bike. So I want to push back on that a little bit. Is this something someone could rent a bike? I mean, they probably need to know how to drive it a little bit, but could they rent a bike? Can you help them with that? Or is that, is that easy to go around a dirt bike? In Santa Fe? I don’t know.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (14:08.609)
Yes. Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (14:16.269)
It actually is, well, what’s interesting, so yeah, I’m in Santa Fe and I do events all over the Southwest and any type of brick and mortar rental shop will never let you take a bike out of the dirt. And that’s just, well, it’s a liability. However, there are some sites that are online where you can rent people’s personal bikes, either by the day or by the hour, and those might have options for you to take them out. So yeah, you do need know how to ride a bike.
Jason Elkins (14:28.573)
That’s what I was guessing. Right.
Jason Elkins (14:36.435)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (14:44.141)
It’s preferable that you’ve had some dirt experience, but a lot of our events are tailored for people that don’t. And the Misfits Rally is one of those where you can show up with a bike, whether it’s rental or friends or your own, and say, I don’t know what to do with this thing, and we’ll show you.
Jason Elkins (14:50.311)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (15:01.299)
All right. All right. I know that’s that’s very cool because because I suspect, you know, if somebody’s thinking this might be fun, I had a motorcycle like I was describing. I had a I never went off road with it, but I had a motorcycle. So somebody like me might. Yeah, it was a Honda Magna, like a 750 CC or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was. Well, I don’t know if it’s a good starter bike for somebody that.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (15:16.161)
What kind of bike was it? Do you remember?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (15:22.151)
Okay, that’s a good starter bike. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (15:28.807)
I’d never ridden a motorcycle to buy it and drive it across country, I, know, yeah. And it was, you know what? It was one of the best adventures I ever had. mean, I learned, I learned that the seat feels really comfortable in the beginning of the ride. And by Kansas, it was like, man, my butt was so sore. But anyway.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (15:33.281)
That’s usually what we do. We’re not the smartest people.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (15:41.772)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (15:50.663)
Ugh. You’ve never felt pain. You’ve never felt like that pain is that get that, it’s like half asleep but still so painful. You’re like, I just want to die. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (16:00.621)
yeah, yeah. And I was camping. mean, I had a very, very small bag. I had like a little poncho liner and I’d pull over in rest areas and sleep until somebody came along and got too friendly. I’m like, I gotta go. It was an adventure. It was really fun. But anyway, but so someone like me might think, you know, I’d really like to get back into it, but I really like to get off the road. I want to go up into the mountains. I’m an outdoors type. I grew up in Wyoming. That’s a thing, right?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (16:15.52)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (16:30.119)
But at the same time, it’s kind of intimidating for a lot of people to get on a motorcycle that they don’t maybe know really know how to ride that well. And then to go off of the highway and get back in the mountains. Cause what if, you know, it’s like, I don’t really, you know, you come to a ravine or a wadi that you got to go through and you’re like, how the heck do I get through here? And it can turn into a kind of miserable experience. So I can completely see this great opportunity to go maybe rent a bike.
Go learn how to use it, learn about it and see if they even enjoy it. And then they probably buy a bike and come back next year. Right. I bet that happens. Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (17:08.182)
Sometimes, yeah. you know, what happens, the parts that I really never expected from this was how many people and connections and friendships I would develop just through this with the people that I’ve taken on Rajanath. But you really build a rapport with people and I’ve met…
Absolute strangers and within just a couple weeks of talking to him. I’m like, hey, why don’t you just come out take one of my bikes out? We’ll just go do an overnight 20 minutes from my house and it’ll be we’ll call it a practice run and If that if that sparks your passion then exactly what you said, they’re gonna go out. They’re gonna go find their own bike they’re gonna pursue that passion and That’s actually become my favorite thing about this is just trying to keep the community building and growing and growing and
Jason Elkins (17:33.651)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (17:53.677)
because it’s a very, very inclusive environment versus other motorcycle areas or events. I don’t know if you caught that, but there are some biker events that can be a little unfriendly. And I think this is one that really has a chance to really outgrow those other type of rallies because of the inclusiveness of it.
Jason Elkins (18:03.675)
You
Jason Elkins (18:18.227)
Yeah, that’s very cool. And I hear what you’re saying about some of the events might be kind of exclusive, a little harder to kind of get into. Again, growing up in Wyoming, Sturgis wasn’t that far away. So we went out, I didn’t have a motorcycle at the time, I was a teenager or whatever, but we went over, checked it out, it’s fun to see, but you’re not part of the, you I didn’t even have a bike, I was a teenager, but I saw some fun, interesting things. But where I’m going with this is,
Matt Hoffman-Beals (18:29.642)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (18:47.665)
I don’t know, but I suspect even at Sturgis is probably more inviting to people than a non biking event. I guess what I’m trying to say is when I, when I bought my motorcycle and I was driving, I had no idea that people waved at each other. Like, like, you know, I like, I got a bike and I’m driving and every bike that passed me, they would wave at me, even if they were like on the other side of the interstate sometimes, you know, like wave. And I’m like, this is really weird. Like people and
Matt Hoffman-Beals (19:11.477)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (19:15.879)
Growing up in Wyoming, if you’re in back country and you’re on a pickup truck, you might wave at somebody when you pass them or whatever. in the rest of the world, in my normal life, I never saw that until I got the motorcycle. Or I’d pull up into a rest area or a gas station and people just approach you and start talking to you. Sometimes even if they didn’t have a bike, they were just interested in what are you doing here? But people, it was just so much more approachable. I think emotionally, psychologically, you don’t have that shell around you.
You’re out and about. If I pass a guy on a motorcycle and I’m in a motorcycle, we’re both sharing the same airspace. You pass somebody in a car, you’re driving a car and they’re driving a car, you’re each in your own little bubble. I don’t know if that makes sense, but that’s what it felt like to me. So it sounds like, yeah, it wasn’t just my experience, it sounds like.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (20:05.612)
What, yeah, you know, it’s funny and maybe I should start over when I’m doing my pitch, but you know, you’re naked to the world. And that is one of the most amazing feelings I’ve read in a motorcycle, whether you’re on pavement, whether you’re on a dirt road, you’re going 100 miles an hour or 20 miles an hour, you feel everything around you. And sometimes the cold is way too much, sometimes the heat is way too much, sometimes the road conditions are too much, but you will find a zen moment.
And when you realize that, you feel it, and then you pass somebody else, you share it with them, because they get it. They’re like, we get it. I get you, you know?
Jason Elkins (20:39.923)
Yeah, probably especially when it’s really cold or really miserable. I can only imagine. And if somebody has not been on a motorcycle before, they don’t realize that like, you drive just down the road, it’s like one minute you feel the temperature shifts, temperature shifts. You don’t realize that, wow, when I drive by this
Matt Hoffman-Beals (20:45.457)
I’ve got stories. I’ve got stories, brother.
Jason Elkins (21:07.751)
tilled field over here that’s all plowed up that there’s a warm wind and then when I drive past the little pond I feel the nice cool breeze and you’re like you just and you smell everything. Whether it’s good or bad you smell everything and it’s like you’re just so much more in tune with the environment as opposed to in the car with the windows up and the air conditioner blowing and the stereo on you just it’s just a totally different thing. You use the word Zen.
Part of why I think I really bought the motorcycles, because I’d read a book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I’m pretty sure you’re familiar with that book. And it was just one of those books that I just was fascinated by. It just sounded so cool. And I just like, and I think that at that moment in my life, I needed a Zen moment. I was getting ready to get out of the army and I thought, I’ll buy this motorcycle. When I get out of the army, I’m just going to get on my bike and ride.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (21:45.046)
think I have my shelf right here, but yes.
Jason Elkins (22:05.171)
until I find a place that I like and then I’ll stay there for a while and then I’ll just keep going and then I and then I met a woman had a daughter stayed in the army a little longer sold the motorcycle and the pickup truck and bought a sport utility vehicle so yeah I and then they come and then probably a lot of people that ride with you did that at one point sold the motorcycle and then are coming back they’re finally taking
Matt Hoffman-Beals (22:17.931)
Yep.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (22:24.204)
That’s a common story, my friend.
Jason Elkins (22:34.045)
that opportunity, right? I suspect.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (22:35.998)
Yeah, that’s generally that each group is probably mid 40s to mid 60s that are, know, kids are finally out of the house. They have a little bit more free time, a little bit more free cash, and they want to get back into it or get into something they never tried before. You know, hear a lot of people that started off like on a CB 350 and just, you know, put it around town or…
who took like a 300 mile trip to go get Coors beer in Denver because that’s the only place you could get it back in the day and probably not unlike you he was wearing a poncho that got completely ripped to shreds and almost died but yeah you know no one’s really had like this true adventure experience so it’s pretty cool
Jason Elkins (23:01.915)
Nice.
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (23:18.149)
I think this ties back to misfits because here’s another thing I’ve noticed about motorcycles is we talk about this kind of a demographic, but there’s kind of not too, because there’s kind of like some misfits. And I use that term very, like, don’t know, lovingly because in my life and in my travels,
Matt Hoffman-Beals (23:38.028)
Sure.
Jason Elkins (23:41.373)
I’ve seen some really interesting looking people on motorcycles doing interesting things. I remember when I lived in Vermont, there was this guy in this small town, Vermont, and he would ride his motorcycle around all the time in the summer, like no shirt with some sort of silk scarf thing around his neck. And he would always stand up. It was like a gold wing or something, and he would always stand up. You never saw him sitting on his motorcycle.
You know, and then in the end he’d be out in the winter sometimes too. He’d have a jacket on, but he was just one of those guys like, kinda think I wanna talk to that guy, but I’m kind of afraid because something’s not right. And I remember this place, I remember seeing a guy wearing a scuba mask, driving a motorcycle with a scuba mask, because I guess he wanted to keep the bugs out of his eyes or something. I’ve seen so many interesting characters on motors. I suspect you’ve seen more than that.
you
Matt Hoffman-Beals (24:38.464)
You know, it’s so funny is like, know exactly that guy you’re talking about. And I’ve, I’ve really come to believe that that guy hasn’t figured out or that gal hasn’t figured out, you know, they’ve come to a point where they don’t need to be part of the, the, you know, black shirt, tough guy, brother, biker.
Jason Elkins (24:42.227)
Yeah
Jason Elkins (24:48.029)
Yeah, right?
Jason Elkins (24:56.751)
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (24:58.004)
and they just found out what works for them and what makes them happy and that’s what they do and they don’t care who else judges them or what they think about them and that’s, that’s, that is Zen. That is Zen.
Jason Elkins (25:03.603)
Yeah!
Jason Elkins (25:07.475)
I love it. Whether it’s on a bike or not, anytime I see somebody that clearly doesn’t care what anybody thinks, I admire them. It’s probably the opposite. He says, I don’t care what people think. And I’m looking at him thinking, that guy’s really cool. So I’m sitting here thinking about that ability to do things like that. And yeah, but anyway, we’re going to come back to this. I know we’re going to get back to this, but I want to kind of figure out how the heck did you get into this? mentioned.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (25:24.352)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (25:36.283)
a little bit already, but let’s go even further back. I love talking about childhood because there’s always something that’s like, this explains it all. So what were you doing as a kid? Where’d you grow up and what was going on?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (25:45.419)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (25:50.157)
How much time do we have? Four hours, five hours here? You know what’s great is I really can trace it back to two distinct times in my life. My dad was that guy on a 73 Honda CB350 when I was about six or seven years old and my folks were divorced. were living in…
Jason Elkins (25:51.507)
We’ll come back to a few more episodes if we need to.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (26:16.182)
Pacific Northwest at the time. And my dad lived kind of near the San Juan Islands. Like we’d have to take ferries to get to school in the morning. We’d take the bike. If he was going to go see a girlfriend, we’d take the bike. But it’s also Pacific Northwest where it’s raining all the time. And so maybe not the best memory, but I do have lot of memories of crying, freezing on the back of…
Jason Elkins (26:31.848)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (26:40.234)
this bike, seven years old, going to see one of his girlfriends. like, what did I do to deserve this? I mean, we can talk about that later, but sure. I mean, was definitely a defining moment that, you know, I looked at my dad, he was kind of like this big, burly, hippie guy that was on a motorcycle. I’m like, wow.
Jason Elkins (26:48.317)
Well, he was being responsible. He didn’t just leave you at home by yourself. He was being responsible.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (27:04.99)
He’s the coolest dude ever seen. But I think what really drove it home for me that really stuck in my head, it took many, many years to come back to was when I was younger than that, probably five years old, my mom’s brother lived in West Texas. And we went out to visit him in a tiny town called Seminole, right on the border near New Mexico. And it’s just nothing but desert land.
fields and anybody that lives out there is working in the Permian Basin. It’s a very blue collar type area and most people either have an ATV or they got a 250 or 450 dirt bike. Those are CCs by the way if you don’t know. He had been always trying to get my mom to agree to letting me go on a ride with him and so one day and I still have the picture he put me down I was wearing my jam shorts. Remember those jams?
Jason Elkins (27:59.1)
Yeah, yeah,
Matt Hoffman-Beals (28:00.556)
and a Superman t-shirt and he put me in the front of him on his dirt bike and he took me way out just into this desert and with white sands and just a single track and everywhere we went you could see these lizards just darting out of the way and I definitely fried my calf on the exhaust that day, still have the scar so maybe that was also indelible but you know I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of myself smiling more.
Jason Elkins (28:22.343)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (28:29.74)
And I’ve written about that ride and that experience and have so many memories from that time that I think whatever I was doing in life, which had nothing to do with motor sports, nothing to do with camping or adventure, until I got to my late 20s and rediscovered riding, it all just came flooding back. And when I saw my first adventure bike, something in my head just clicked. It was like, okay, yeah.
to have a kid. I’m not meant to go to the army. I’m not meant to go buy this SUV. I’m meant to do this. whether I’m meant to do it or not, it’s been one hell of a ride. And I really do thank my uncle for that. Rest in peace.
Jason Elkins (29:02.855)
Yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (29:12.595)
did and you mentioned that, you know, you finally talked or he talked your mom into letting you go for a ride with him. But presumably this was after you’d already spent time riding with your dad up in the Pacific Northwest, getting rained on and all that stuff. And I understand family dynamics. My parents were divorced as well. And my dad did stuff with us that my mom horrified my mother. And
Matt Hoffman-Beals (29:28.726)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (29:40.16)
Yes.
Jason Elkins (29:42.755)
So like she knew you were riding on your dad’s motorcycle. Do you remember tension around that? Was she OK with that or was that a fight? No. Yeah, yeah, I’m sure.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (29:52.095)
no.
I mean, she was okay with her brother taking me out in the desert where, you the worst I’m gonna get is a burn on my leg from the exhaust. no, she wasn’t exactly a huge fan of her ex-husband and nor a fan of me riding on the back. I mean, this is the 80s, right? Like, what are you gonna do?
Jason Elkins (30:00.935)
And it was her brother, not her ex-husband. There’s differences.
Jason Elkins (30:12.595)
Well, we used to you mentioned being cold on the back of the motorcycle or being on the motorcycle cold and to go see his girlfriend or whatever. Yeah, my dad was kind of same thing. I grew up in the 80s type of thing. But what we did, we traveled a lot. He was a balloon pilot, so we would travel across the country to balloon festivals. Every summer we were with him and every weekend we were in a different town. It was kind of like growing up in the circus a little bit. So every weekend we’re in a different town.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (30:39.403)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (30:41.735)
But as we were transiting to these places or at the festivals, we, guess what I’m trying to say is my brother and I spent an awful lot of time in the back of the pickup, you know, back in the day when you could do that. And sometimes we’d be up on top of the balloon basket sleeping. There was a cattle guard, you know, remember those stock racks that the farmers in, you know, New Mexico probably still have. So there was one of those, but still, I mean, the top of the basket was about the same height. And if there’s an accident, we’re all screwed. And
Matt Hoffman-Beals (30:51.307)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (31:05.163)
Yes.
Jason Elkins (31:11.379)
I remember one time we had somebody else was traveling with us and it was really cold and he bundled my brother and I up when we were, you know, probably 10, 11, something like that, put us in the back of the truck so that there would be space in the front of the truck for the dog because the dog couldn’t bundle up. it was him and his friend and the dog in the cab of the truck and my brother and I in the back of the truck.
truck wrapped in blankets and coats and all just freezing our butts off and I remember kind of that’s what came to mind when you it sounds like my dad and your dad would probably get along really well so anyway so but you mentioned you were turned on by that that was a really powerful memory and then you kind of had a norm a normal life we’re gonna discuss what that means to you and then you kind of got back into the motorcycles again but
Matt Hoffman-Beals (31:45.548)
Yeah, that’s some dad logic right there. Oh yes.
Jason Elkins (32:09.457)
What was your normal life like as a teenager? What were you interested in? What did you think you were going to do with your life? That type of thing.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (32:16.982)
man, I wanted to be a firefighter, but I never pursued it. And I part of which, I didn’t do great in school and had hard time in high school. I think diagnosing things like ADHD or other learning disabilities was like non-existent back then. They said ADD, but no one knew what it meant and most of your parents were just kind of slapping around if you said you had a problem. So I finished.
Jason Elkins (32:19.644)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (32:42.471)
my God, having this conversation is like having conversation with myself. I could relate to this so well. Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (32:47.436)
Oh my god, right? So I did make it through high school and then immediately started working in restaurants and found out I had a knack for certain things. Got into management and I don’t know if that was a great idea.
Jason Elkins (33:02.035)
What things tell me what what things you had a knack for certain things. Tell me what those were.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (33:07.728)
sure, so I actually started working as a line cook at Hooters in Seattle. It was my first restaurant job at the age of 19. So I didn’t need to go to college to have a college life. We can leave it at that. But it was a great experience, lots of fun. And the things I was good at was kind of organizing the team to be able to work a shift well and learn how to do all the ordering and receiving.
stuff and of course every restaurant if you ever worked for one they always want some sucker to go into a management position and you know like we need somebody you’d be great at it I’ll give you another 50 cents an hour or whatever it may be but
Jason Elkins (33:48.083)
When I was when I was 16, I was a dining room shift supervisor at Perkins Same thing and they would they would let me run the whole night shift on Fridays and Saturday nights So I’m like a 15 year old kid Asking the drunk people to leave and trying to get them off the tables and trying to keep the waitresses from quitting their job because somebody you know was an asshole or whatever Yeah
Matt Hoffman-Beals (34:12.368)
yeah, well by the time I was 29, I moved to Boston and was working for a big sports bar group chain out there that was just growing like just like fire, sweating like fire. And during the time there we opened six locations. I ended up being a part owner of a location. I was a director of operations where I oversaw hundreds of employees, built training programs, know,
financials, did rebranding, did all the marketing, did all the sales. I I was good at it, but you know, 70, 80 hour weeks with a laughable amount of vacation time, I had not been camping or really anything fun, done anything fun for years. And so I just, reached a point in my early thirties where I was becoming very unsatisfied with a lot of money that I was making and realizing that I wasn’t built.
Jason Elkins (34:46.131)
Very cool.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (35:10.88)
just to make money and buy things and sit around and drink and party with restaurant people. And it just, it had its time. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (35:17.171)
It’s not a, it’s a hard lifestyle. mean, it can be fun and, but just the schedules of people work, the amount of hours that you’re putting in and then how do they blow off steam? It’s at the end of the shift, they go blow off steam. Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (35:31.433)
Absolutely. And you always put your life last. You work every weekend, your schedule changes every week, but if you do go out with her dates or Mary is in the industry, and so it’s crazy on crazy. you know, similar to the motorcycle industry, you do meet a lot of great people and lifelong friends. And I would never trade that experience because I think it made me really resilient and able to think outside the box and have that entrepreneurial.
Jason Elkins (35:44.595)
you
Matt Hoffman-Beals (36:01.42)
set and really kind of set me up for jumping into this owning a business thing which now six years in I still don’t know what I’m doing.
Jason Elkins (36:14.451)
How did you do it? Because there is when you’re making good money and it’s kind of what you know and you know you’re good at it. Some people just keep doing it because they don’t know they don’t have faith in their ability to figure things out or whatever so they just kind of stick with it. Maybe they like it whatever but how did you make the break?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (36:35.222)
That’s a great question. So I really was at the top of my game with this company in Boston in 2015. I just had a sense that it was time for something new, time to do something else. I wanted to get back to the West Coast. I didn’t want to wear a shirt and tie to work anymore. I didn’t want to do all the management. Didn’t want to be stuck between four walls anymore.
So I moved to Ventura, California. I started sleeping on my aunt’s couch for I think four to six months. She might say it was longer, but don’t believe her. And what I did was I started researching motorcycle tour companies. I don’t know how I got on the idea of it, but I just started emailing them and I said I have a lot of operations skills and yada, yada, yada.
Jason Elkins (37:11.432)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (37:29.836)
I must have emailed.
30, 40 different companies across the world. There’s some amazing tour companies out in Europe that are impossible to get on board with unless you’ve had 15, 20 years of EMT experience or training experience on bikes. And so I got all of one response. I got one response from a guy in Southern California who was looking to revamp his hospitality program. And this was kind of an all-inclusive company that you could come in, learn how
Jason Elkins (37:44.23)
well.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (38:04.191)
camp with them, we feed them, you know, I have a fully commercial kitchen. But they had a lot of problems as some of these, I guess, campground, off the beaten path type places have, trying to find the right people. And so I worked a season with them, I learned a ton about what I wanted to do, what I didn’t want to do.
But I couldn’t stay that long because like a lot of these companies, they don’t pay a lot. And it just wasn’t conducive to actually getting off of my aunt’s couch. at the time, I think it was 35, 36, and nobody wants to date a… Right, like, hey, you wanna go watch a movie? And they’re like, oh, don’t worry about my aunt. She’ll leave eventually.
Jason Elkins (38:39.443)
It’s hard to beat women when you’re staying at your aunt’s house on the couch. Yeah, I get it.
Jason Elkins (38:50.611)
She’ll watch it with us. She can chaperone and sit in the middle and eat popcorn with you guys.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (38:57.9)
Exactly, exactly. But what I did, what I was able to do after that was stay out of restaurants and I got more into a marketing job that had a little bit of a better hours and it wasn’t so stuck behind four walls at the time.
And then from there in 2019, I guess it just all came together and I decided to one, emotionally and mentally proved to my father that I could do it. And that all has to do internally, right? Like I don’t ever think I told him that, right? I don’t think I told him that he was a giant impetus for me starting this thing, but he was kind of like, well, fuck you, dad. I can do this and I’m going to do it. And
Jason Elkins (39:38.055)
Yeah, yeah. All right, cool.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (39:41.069)
And I wanted to bring something that I hadn’t seen. The company that I was working for had a lot. was a very amazing environment. They had a lot of infrastructure, brand new motorcycles, and it was very, very expensive. And one of the people, one of the people I met owned a giant business that McDonald’s couldn’t operate without and lots of retired dentists, lots of retired doctors, a very militant feel, a lot of men. You’d have a
you might have one woman per group of 25 people. And it wasn’t what I liked. It wasn’t what I was into. I grew up in Seattle. I grew up in, in San Francisco, lived in a lot of more, I guess liberal or open-minded spaces. And I wanted my…
people to be able to do this like myself just basically middle class or have some kind of connection to get into it and so but I gotta say it’s a little embarrassing after all this time but when I when I first started probably 50 % of my goals was to do motorcycle tours to baseball games and baseball tour trips
And that’s another weird childhood passion. I’m like, well, it’d be kind of fun to go to a game. But then the more I planned, I realized it was such of a niche into a niche into a niche. It was just too much. And I kind of switched over to just doing camping trips and adventure riding and small groups. Not a lot of buy in financially.
Jason Elkins (40:46.316)
okay.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (41:11.116)
something that I could run really by myself. So that’s kind of the long and short of it.
Jason Elkins (41:15.955)
Very cool. was, what was your first step? What was the, oftentimes when we make a leap like that, there’s the leap. What was the leap? It’s some people that might be borrowing a bunch of money to buy a motorcycle or, or, or a website or just making some kind of big decision. Do you remember, was there a, a big decision that once you made that, everything else was kind of just a foregone conclusion.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (41:41.313)
Yes, yes. A friend of mine at the time had shared a business plan with me that she was starting to open a, what is now actually a very successful cider company. And I’d never seen a business plan before. And I looked it over and I started thinking about the things that I wanted to do. And this is before AI, I wasn’t able to say, give me a business plan.
Jason Elkins (42:01.991)
Yeah. Give me a business plan. Yep.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (42:05.15)
Yeah, was just literally Microsoft Word, cut and paste, take brain away, insert, remove the cider can, put a motorcycle image that I, you know, it’s all blurry that I downloaded. But once I had the business plan written out and you know, the important steps of like, how does this benefit the community? How can I do this? I found a way to do it without a lot of buy-in. I never took out loans. I never had to borrow any money.
Jason Elkins (42:08.787)
Remove both. I get it.
Jason Elkins (42:18.344)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (42:34.688)
but it was a very slow step-by-step process. I think once the business plan was in place, Next was really coming up with the name. That was very difficult to think of. I actually think I woke up in the middle of the night with breaking away. Like, wow, no, that’s just it. I think the best one I had before that was like Mad Cow.
motorcycle tours or something totally stupid and And then I of course need to find out if there’s any competing companies that have that name and there was a bicycle company for breaking away obviously because the movie is about bicycle riding but I took it more as kind of a spirit of being out on two wheels and Once I had the business plan once I had the name it did start to steamroll after that
Jason Elkins (42:55.667)
you
Matt Hoffman-Beals (43:20.712)
Squarespace account that kind of help you build out a website and I found out I was pretty good at doing that and started a Facebook group and just reached out to small groups that looked like they might be interested and it was a lot of just kind of banging my head against the wall and every once in a while you’ll make a little bit of progress but it was very much two steps forward 18 steps back and a lot
assistance to just keep plugging away to get people interested.
Jason Elkins (43:54.771)
curious because when you said found groups that might be interested, here’s where my head went. If I was, you know, doing something like what you did, and I’m curious if this was the route you took is yeah, I go to motorcycle shops, motorcycle clubs, pretty much anywhere where groups of motorcycle people get together and offer to put together a trip for them and give, give their group leader a free spot or something. If they recruit some of their friends, is that kind of what you
Matt, when you said look for groups that might be interested or was it something different?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (44:25.768)
It was. Well, you know, there was a lot of Facebook groups that I went to first that were not so associated with the shops. My first idea of what a shop was was like a Harley shop. they, are not the friendliest when you go in. you can pay me and I can take on a ride. We’re like, can ride ourselves.
Jason Elkins (44:30.587)
Mm, okay.
Jason Elkins (44:46.109)
Hey, yeah, hey, I’m Matt and I’ve got this company, we go on dirt bike trips and you should help me promote it in your shop. And yeah, I could see that wouldn’t probably go over too well,
Matt Hoffman-Beals (44:55.272)
Yeah, but I guess the breakthrough…
that I found was a community garage that operates on Sundays in Santa Cruz, California called Recycle Garage. And it’s just R-E-cycle, you know, regarding cycle. And you can bring your bike in, they still go every Sunday. You can bring your bike in, you’ll get help working on it, there’s no money involved. You can donate money, and then after the shop hours, they do a podcast every week called Motorcycles and Misfits. So this was, this started off
Jason Elkins (45:07.219)
Mmm.
Jason Elkins (45:25.779)
Ah-ha.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (45:30.794)
a multi-year relationship with many people from that group. Probably the most eclectic group of riders that I’ve ever met. All walks of life, all colors of life, all sexual orientations of life, all different pronouns. And it was just beautiful. Everybody, no one cared what you looked like, no one cared what kind of bike you were on. It was that you had a passion for riding. And that really matched my passion for riding.
Jason Elkins (45:46.877)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (45:54.407)
Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (45:59.664)
and I started taking a few people out and we’re talking like 50 bucks a ride, 50 bucks for like a four day weekend. And at one point I had a group say, Matt, you have to charge more money. I’m a lawyer. I get a pay like 10 times that amount and would have and I’m like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. I should do that. So there was a lot of…
Jason Elkins (46:05.256)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, well.
Jason Elkins (46:13.651)
You
Jason Elkins (46:23.219)
Did you skip that part of the business plan?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (46:27.66)
One thing I do have going for me, or maybe it’s a bad side, is I’m super humble, maybe to a fault, where I just, you know, when you’re starting off in something like this, it’s hard to find value in it yourself. You almost want to get out there and prove yourself before that value comes back. Or I think I remember my first camping trip, we’re sitting there and somebody has kind of emotional breakthrough just through a conversation, and it felt like, wow, there is really something here.
So yeah, I absolutely skipped that part and didn’t know what that meant.
Jason Elkins (46:58.515)
But it’s hard when we grow up with parents that sometimes tell us things, they say things, and I’m not saying anything about my parents or your parents, but I remember working with a coach at one point and they said, you know, pricing is all about self-esteem. When you can manage your self-esteem situation or kind of how you value yourself, then your pricing tends to go in the right direction to where you can actually make money. I’m not saying that about you, but I’ve been through that.
You
Matt Hoffman-Beals (47:28.748)
Oh man, I’ve never heard it stated so perfectly. It really is. You really do need a lot of self-confidence in this job because when the phone’s not ringing, when you’re not getting signups, you question a lot of what you’re doing. I mean, my breakout year was gonna be 2021, but there was something else happening at that time where nobody could do anything. And I had to cancel everything between the latter half of 2020, all of 21.
Jason Elkins (47:31.783)
Yeah, it’s a…
Jason Elkins (47:49.393)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (47:57.909)
It didn’t really get going again until later 2022.
Jason Elkins (48:01.211)
It’s too bad because it’s such a perfect activity for that type of, you know, what was going on in the world. Go outdoors on motorcycles. You can maintain your distances kind of sort of, but yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (48:11.584)
Well, what was great is I took about eight months during my nice little COVID layoff period and I got out of my lease, I packed up my bike and I went all across the country. I think I only skipped four states, went to 27 national parks, went all around.
learned a lot about who I was and the type of things I wanted to do. And I think maybe I needed that, you know, I’m not the type of person that does the most research before diving into something as big as owning a business. And, you know, I learned a lot about my strengths, a lot about my weaknesses and what might really work going forward. So then when I when I kind of restarted in later 2022, 23, 24 and 25 got
Jason Elkins (48:42.995)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (48:58.95)
better, much easier, much more fluid.
Jason Elkins (49:01.777)
Yeah, it’s surprising how many guests I’ve had here on the show that the topic of that, you know, that period with COVID, they look back at it as, wow, it was a great opportunity for me. I was able to really figure out what I wanted to do with the business going forward. Because when we’re in business and things are going busy or well, we tend to not make changes. We just kind of keep, we’re just trying to keep up. And I’ve heard a lot of people say that that was.
break they needed to really evaluate what it was they’re doing. Some of them spend a lot of time developing new products so that that was more profitable or better a better fit more manageable for their life and their families and all that. It’s like I’m just surprised. Now the ones that just completely went out of business and went back into the restaurant business I haven’t had them on my podcast so I recognize that I’m you know
little biased in the people that I’ve had conversations with, but I love that you did that. That’s very cool.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (50:01.004)
It really, well, think it was really also eye opening to realize how fortunate I was to be able to do that. I I, you know, I wouldn’t say I’ve sacrificed having a family because I’ve never really been interested in being married with kids. And I know a lot of my friends went through a lot of hard times during the pandemic, either divorces or just.
Jason Elkins (50:14.706)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (50:20.618)
way too much time with their significant others or not being able to do all these fun things. I I had message after message after message, just friends reaching out saying, well, fuck you, dude. How are you doing this? You know.
Jason Elkins (50:33.907)
Yeah, I started my full-time traveling journey right at the end of COVID. So it had an impact on me as well. you know, yeah, it was, I think COVID was the thing. It’s like, okay, I need to go live my life. I need to go do the things I want to do. Quit sitting around waiting for the right time, the right person to come along. Cause I wanted somebody to go travel with me. So I was in this head space of…
Matt Hoffman-Beals (50:39.745)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (50:57.991)
I’m going to wait until I meet somebody who wants to go with me. And then, and COVID was like, it was hard to meet people for one. It’s like, so I kind of forced me to slow down a little bit in my dating and kind of my thought processes and say, there’s really nothing, no reason. can’t just go off, find somebody as I’m going, whatever. So yeah, it’s, it’s interesting how those things, I mean, there was a lot of bad things, a lot of painful experiences for a lot of people, but, I admire the people that had the opportunity to.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (51:03.966)
Exactly. Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (51:15.136)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (51:28.859)
Use it in a positive way to impact their lives. sounds like you did. So, yeah, very cool.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (51:33.181)
I think I look at it like when people still ask me this, how do you do this type of thing, you have to do it. You have to put the energy towards it. You have to take a risk. You have to seek out your passion because you’re always going to have times where family is sick or dying. You have heartaches. You have injuries. You have job losses. have…
wars you have house losses all these things that can happen but in between if you’re sitting around in your hands afraid or I mean I’m afraid every day in this business but you have to do it you have to go out to face that fear to realize what that fear actually means and fears not that bad when you’re in it when you’re doing it you’re like man you know I’m right now I have two events coming up in the next three weeks and I don’t see much right now because my mind is just going going going
Jason Elkins (52:08.883)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (52:17.03)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (52:25.684)
that I have to get done, but I feel so alive.
Jason Elkins (52:26.055)
Yeah. But isn’t that is cause you meant you mentioned ADD earlier ADHD. Yeah, me too. And so it’s, I would rather have that than the repetition of going into an office job or doing the same thing every day. mean, I almost need that stimulation. And I think for maybe you and I and others that
Matt Hoffman-Beals (52:33.1)
Yeah, yep.
Jason Elkins (52:55.059)
actually a lot of the people that have been on this podcast, I’m not diagnosing anybody, but I’m guessing there’s a few, but it’s, it’s that, um, it’s that taking action. It’s actually kind of a superpower for people at ADHD or whatever label. don’t want, you know, we don’t need to use labels, but there’s that superpower of, I want this and I’m just going to start. So I’m going to do something because I don’t want it. Cause the alternative is sitting there being bored. So if I feel bored, I’m like, I’m going to go online and search domain names.
You know, I’ve started a few businesses from buying a domain name. It’s like that was the first step. It’s like I hadn’t thought about anything else. just, I had an idea. I sat down like, this domain name’s available. That would be really cool for a business like this or whatever. And you know, so I’ve started things just on buying a domain name and then maybe building a quick website. This podcast started the same way. I was in Southeast Asia and I’m like.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (53:25.002)
Right.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (53:29.461)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (53:49.875)
kind of lonely. I want to talk to people that I like to talk to and maybe, but, but, but I can’t just reach out to these tour operators and say, Hey, will you talk to me? I’ve got to have a reason. So I’m like, Oh, I’ll do a podcast because then they’ll get something out of it and we can just have these conversations. And now I’ve got these connections once a week. have a fascinating conversation.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (53:53.441)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (54:02.568)
One.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (54:10.7)
And that’s an incredible way to do it. I I myself am more of an introvert than an extrovert, but nobody believes me because I love to talk to people. I love to communicate and to share these passions. at the end of it, I’m done. I need to go to bed. need to…
charge and then get back to it the next day. But so much of, you know, my nieces, my nephews, other people, I’m not going to do labels or say different generations, but a lot of people are just kind of waiting for permission. They’re waiting for somebody to say, you need to do this or you need to do that. And my dad was kind of, he was always saying, you got to do this, you got to do that. And I was kind of like frozen. Like, I don’t know what to do. I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
And sometimes you know at 10 years old, 16 years old, it took me till 30, know, essentially 35. But once I got to the point where I stopped asking permission, sometimes I ask for forgiveness, but I stopped asking for permission. I just went with what I knew. And after a while, what I knew became more knowledgeable, I guess, or I figured it out.
Jason Elkins (55:12.775)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, also I, I’m curious if you have the same experience, but like I can be good at something like you were great in the restaurant business, right? You were at the top of your game. You can be really good at something, but it can be a grind unless it’s something you’re really interested in. If you’re like me, it’s like, if I’m interested in it, I’m going to do really, really, really well at it because I’m just going to keep doing it. Even if, even when it doesn’t make sense, even when it feels like I should quit.
I’m like, but I like it. So I’m not going to quit. So I just keep doing it where if I’m doing something I don’t like and it gets tough, it’s too easy to quit. It’s ah, it’s not working anyway. I don’t even enjoy it. it’s, um, you know, so, and that’s, I think really helpful in tourism and a lot of places, but in tourism is it can be tough. It’s, it’s an up and down thing. Like people have to eat restaurant. I’m not saying the restaurant industry is easy, but people literally have to eat.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (55:50.227)
Absolutely.
Jason Elkins (56:09.753)
So figuring out how to put in front of them what they want to eat and get them to give you money is one thing, but tourism is it can be, you know, there’s a lot of different variables and yeah, so.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (56:20.524)
I would never recommend anybody get into tourism. essentially, but mainly I guess, let me tailor that a little bit. I would say never get into it if you want to look at it as a business. Because I mean, I do run a business, but I don’t think about it that way. I don’t look at a tour and say I have to have X to be able to make this, well I do in some events, right? I have to money on my, or food on my table. But it’s really about connections first. If you make the right connections, you put yourself out there the right
Jason Elkins (56:23.399)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (56:30.994)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (56:48.48)
you market yourself in a way that is literally yourself. Like you have to be front-facing. mean, what’s a big tour company out there that doesn’t have to be? Maybe they’ve spent 40, 50 years getting to that point where they can just say, hey, this is our name. You don’t have to worry about who’s actually working. We have history of developing or providing this, but you you have to really like people and like to see their transition into whatever it is you’re offering, I guess.
Jason Elkins (57:17.639)
Well, it is because it’s an experience. You’re offering an experience and it’s really hard to separate experience from connection on some level, right? mean, people go on your trips or pretty much anybody I’ve interviewed is the people do business with them because they’re trying to create a feeling and an emotional experience. And I mean, I guess somebody could have an emotional experience by themselves completely by themselves, not anybody around.
but it’s much easier to put yourself around people. And if I want to, you know, if I want to go have experience, I want to, I want to book it. You know, if it’s just a hotel room, it’s a hotel room. I don’t need to book it with a person. But if I want to go camping in the desert for four days, five days, six days with strangers, I want to kind of feel some sort of connection before I put my money down to do that.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (57:51.115)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (58:10.316)
Yeah, and that’s a great point. Just real quick, would say that really kind of is the crux of how I do things. I do take a lot of solo travels myself. And it’s something I can’t describe, but that feeling I have when I’m going down a new trail and I’m curious about what’s around the corner or I see a really funky looking rock formation. What’s that? What’s going on there? Or even better, like a historical spot. Maybe it’s Charles Manson’s cabin in Death Valley.
Jason Elkins (58:20.381)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (58:40.17)
where he used to hide out for a number of years in the 60s. It’s just an old cabin, but the history around it makes it fascinating. And so I’ll do that by myself. And then I’m like, man, I gotta show this to people. And I want them to feel what I feel. That’s kind of the thing.
Jason Elkins (58:43.57)
Wow.
Jason Elkins (58:52.86)
see that’s that’s yes yeah and that is so like in a and some weird sense because I’ve had the similar experience where it’s like okay I’m by myself having this experience and I feel the connection through my desire to share it with the next person so for example
I mentioned fly fishing as a fly fishing guide. You know what I, you know what I would do when I didn’t have clients, I’d go fishing. Cause I was, I was looking for a new spot and knew this and knew that learned something. And when I’d catch a fish, I’d be like, my gosh, I’m going to bring somebody. I’ve got a client tomorrow. I’m going to bring him back here. We’re going to catch the same fish, you know, or whatever. It was just, it was, and there were also times I found myself out fishing by myself where honestly I was kind of starting to question myself. I was like,
Matt Hoffman-Beals (59:24.609)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (59:42.801)
What am I doing? Do I have a problem here? Because I’m going fishing even when I don’t want to go fishing, which sounds a lot like somebody saying, I don’t want to have a drink, but I’m doing it anyway. So there were, you know, there, yeah, yeah, I don’t know. So there was maybe maybe some addiction issues attached to fishing. I don’t know the dopamine, you know, that type of thing. And maybe it’s the same with writing. I don’t know. But anyway.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (59:55.775)
Yeah, no comment on that one.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:00:08.268)
Oh, it totally is. I’ve had negative experiences solo and with other people where you really do question what you’re doing. I’ve had a solo crash a couple of months ago when I was scouting out an area and I kind of landed on my shoulder in a funky way. And it was just one of those days where like, just nothing’s hitting right. Nothing’s working right. And you’re just like, what am I doing out here in the middle of nowhere on the Texas border? You know, I’m basically in a…
Jason Elkins (01:00:24.467)
Mmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:00:36.586)
in an ocean environment that was here thousands and thousands of years ago or millions of years ago. I’m by myself, my dog hates me, I’m almost out of gas, I just broke my steering, my handlebars, so it’s ebbs and flows. And when you have those great days, it really, I think it brings that passion out of you even more.
Jason Elkins (01:00:42.045)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:00:58.545)
Yeah. Do you find yourself, let’s say, I remember for me when I was with clients, didn’t fish when I was with client. mean, I was fishing. was fishing through them. Maybe they didn’t always understand it, but it was kind of that vicarious thing. But I definitely felt like I was always so much more excited to watch somebody else catch a fish. Then I caught the same fish.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:01:13.131)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:01:25.105)
You know, and sometimes we like, doesn’t it? it hard to watch people fish all day? They get to fish. They get to catch these fish. I’m like, you have no idea. I, I would rather be here with you helping you. They say watching, but I’m helping, helping you catch that fish is way more enjoyable for me than if I was out here by myself and caught the same fish and they don’t always get it. But I find that the really good guides get it.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:01:40.652)
Sure.
Jason Elkins (01:01:52.805)
or they resonate. So does that resonate with you with the biking as well?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:01:53.514)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:01:57.731)
absolutely and I think a big piece of that is knowing how you got to that point as well like how many days you went out there and caught no fish or how many times I went out to a certain trail and crashed or took a turn the wrong way or didn’t take the right line.
and seeing them do the same things gives me little bit more self-confidence. Like, okay, I’m not that bad. They do the same thing and they elevate their game the same way. And another big piece to it is coming back to the humility is that I’m not the best adventure rider or dirt rider or motorcycle rider that there is. I’m not the best camper. I’m not the best, you know, campfire maker, but.
I try and I put a ton of effort towards it and I think there’s a relate about right relatability factor that has to be present because I mean I think we’ve all been around people whether it’s motorcycle or fishing whatever passion you might have there’s there’s kind of a lot of
There’s the dickhead component, let’s just say. you know, that’s non-binary, it can be anybody. And there’s just that person that has been in it too long, they’re too good at it, and they’re unrelatable, and they don’t exactly look like they’re having a great time doing it.
Jason Elkins (01:03:00.701)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:03:14.407)
Well, and, I, I don’t know, I’m not speaking for everybody, but I’ve met some people like that, that you’re talking about, especially in the fly fishing world and probably a lot of worlds, but it’s all in ballooning. had a balloon ride business, so there’s balloon pilots like that as well. But, but what it is is, you know, you might ask them, well, why do you do this? And they might say they’re like fishing. I was not me when I was, I mean, it’s not that I didn’t like fishing, but being a guide is different.
Because it’s more I like watching other people catch fish I love feeling like I’m a part of creating this memory and maybe it’s a father and son mother daughter Whatever whatever makes you know You’ve got two people with you for the day and they’re creating this experience and this thing and and I’m working I’m like I’m we’re doing everything I can to make sure they have the best possible experience without it looking like I’m working and then at the end of the day when they you know I drop them off and they get in their car and they drive away is when I actually feel
the best. It’s like, it happened. I did it. I created this experience for them. I remember my very first fishing clients. It was a last minute thing. A guy didn’t show up. I got grabbed. went and took them fishing. I’d never been with a guide. I’d never been with a guide, much less been a guide, you know, with guide clients. And at end of the day, they’re like, well, we’ve never been with a guide, but you really set the bar high. We had a great time.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:04:32.202)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:04:39.769)
And I still to this day regret not having the co-honest to say, I’ve never been out with a guide either. I’ve never been, you guys are my first clients and you set the bar really high and it was so much fun.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:04:51.382)
You probably did the right thing there. Yeah, they might have questioned you. But honestly, I did the same thing. I had never really been on more than a couple of rides with quote unquote guys and I wasn’t super impressed with what I saw and I thought maybe hubristically that I could do better. And just like what you were saying about…
Jason Elkins (01:05:01.075)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:05:11.882)
you what it came down to for you for me it’s always come down to I love to show people cool shit and that’s it and there’s more obviously more to it but it’s not just writing it can be traveling it could be hiking it could be history book it be anything like I know a lot of really weird shit and I’ve seen a lot of weird shit I’ve been through a lot of weird shit and life’s kind of boring when you’re sitting behind a computer or a TV all the time or just doing your nine to five
Jason Elkins (01:05:17.757)
Yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:05:34.675)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:05:41.073)
Yeah, yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:05:41.806)
There’s so much more to this world and when people see that passion that you get out of it they’re gonna be like that guy’s an idiot I want nothing to do with him or wow that guy might have something I want a little piece of that I want to maybe see what he’s doing or what they’re doing
Jason Elkins (01:05:53.597)
Yeah.
Cause you even, you mentioned earlier, you know, these, some of these campfire conversations that, that go deeper than you would ever imagine. It was the same thing when I was guiding. Sometimes I’d get a guy like one guy, it’s just me and him in the boat, in the drift boat all day fishing. And wow, it’s amazing when you provide a space for somebody to open up that hasn’t been able to open up in a while.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:06:00.843)
Mmm.
Jason Elkins (01:06:18.265)
It’s just, it’s so much comes out and like, I don’t remember. I don’t even know if they caught any fish. I just remember the conversation and I, and the connection that comes from it and him at the end of the day, you know, gives you a big hug and say, man, that was awesome fishing day. And I’m like.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:06:25.173)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:06:32.807)
Did we catch fish? I don’t remember. know, because it didn’t matter because it’s that, it’s that, you know, I went through some work at some point where figuring out like what my personal values are. And it was not a surprise when I realized, my highest value is shared experiences. Wow. Go figure. You know, and I suspect you have some of that as well. That’s very cool.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:06:34.457)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:06:49.206)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:06:55.484)
for sure. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Jason Elkins (01:06:59.025)
What’s, what is a piece of advice you might give? Maybe we’ve already kind of done this in a way, but I know that we have people listening to this that want to quit their jobs and go be guides or start businesses or do something. We talked a little bit about the business plan and kind of what your process was, but I think you kind of already given quite a bit of advice. I don’t know. Is there something that pops in your mind right now? I say, what advice would you give to somebody thinking about starting a tour company?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:07:27.18)
You have to know that you are full of shit. To an extent. You have to know that…
Jason Elkins (01:07:32.083)
Mm-hmm
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:07:36.023)
that you are not perfect, that you are extremely fallible, and that you will make a ton of mistakes. And I guess knowing that too much might discourage you from taking those first really important steps to doing it. But if you have the idea, talk to your closest people because your friends and your family know you the best. They know you more than you know yourself. And if you say to them, you know, wanna start this, I’m really passionate about it, what do you think?
Jason Elkins (01:07:49.959)
it’s part of no.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:08:03.326)
If they’re really truly friends or loved ones, then they’ll give you the honest truth. And they might give you an answer that you don’t want to hear. And I definitely had some friends tell me that I was crazy and that I should try to do something a little bit more.
predictable and responsible and work on that all 401k. But I knew myself enough and I knew that I had the right advice from the right people and that I had just enough confidence and I mean just enough confidence to really get that ball rolling. But I would say, mean, how man we’re in 2026. Look what’s happening in the world around us. Like why not take a chance? Why not take that risk?
Jason Elkins (01:08:44.893)
Do you think though, I’m curious, do you think maybe finding people that have taken similar risks and befriending them or hopefully you already have some friends in your network that have taken similar risks and maybe their feedback might be a little bit more.
better feedback, constructive, because here’s the thing that I heard when I heard you say that was like, if I tell my mom, I’m gonna sell all my stuff and start traveling and I’m gonna start a podcast and I’m gonna do digital marketing for tour operators and all this stuff and she didn’t say, yeah, Jason, that’s a great idea. I’ll just put it that way.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:09:04.3)
constructive. Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:09:27.072)
Well, yeah, so my mom’s gonna hate it when she hears this, but she’s the worst person for me to go to vice for. Like whenever I have a blog on my site, and it’s really just for myself, but I put it out there too, and sometimes I’ll send her finished pieces, and she’ll, she’ll, she’ll, apps, she’ll rip it apart, she’ll, this is terrible, or this is wrong, or the grammar’s wrong.
Jason Elkins (01:09:42.498)
huh. Ooh, wow. You’re brave.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:09:49.569)
She takes a very analytical approach to it. also moms, they want to protect their young. They want you to be a doctor and a lawyer for a reason. They don’t want you to have to deal with all these risks in life. But yeah, so I would not go to mom first. You may not get a lot of encouragement there because of how much she loves you and wants to protect you. I tell you what, no one is more proud of what I’ve done than her.
Jason Elkins (01:09:56.211)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:10:13.706)
because of how happy it’s made me and something that it took me a long time to discover like a true passion in life and once I did it’s an amazing feeling.
Jason Elkins (01:10:16.709)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:10:24.019)
Yeah, it is. And we all have different thresholds for what we need to feel that way. And I think you and I kind of have a lot in common. I can just tell from this conversation. yeah, yeah, it’s fun. The ballooning is even more fun, though. Have you been in a hot air balloon? You’re in New Mexico.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:10:33.364)
Yeah, I want to go fly fishing with you now.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:10:40.98)
Yeah. No, so I, well, yeah, I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico two years ago from San Francisco. I switched one to SF for another SF. And I mean, half the time I’m driving it down south, there’s, you know, hundreds of balloons over the Rio Grande, especially in the morning. So, but no, I still have yet to do it.
Jason Elkins (01:10:48.221)
Huh?
Jason Elkins (01:10:56.251)
Yeah, yeah, Albuquerque. Albuquerque is the spot.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:11:01.91)
do it but now I have an in because I can ask you who to go to right it’s always about having that connection
Jason Elkins (01:11:07.13)
I know a few people and I think what’s cool about tying back to the biking, ballooning in a way is very similar because you can fly a balloon through those areas that you’re on a bike. You can fly a balloon a foot off the ground. It’s not as fast. If you’re going as fast as a motorcycle, you got a problem in a balloon. But you can fly through these places that you don’t drive to in a car. You can go down
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:11:27.339)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:11:32.637)
dip the basket in the water. It’s a very, you can be very, very connected to nature and you’re not, you’re not in a bubble, you’re under a bubble, but you’re in an open air basket, just like the motorcycle. So you feel that same connection. You can feel and smell things that you just don’t normally do like in like a helicopter. mean, that’s a totally different animal. That’d be it. Helicopters are cool. But anyway, so, so I can appreciate just from the blending and the biking. I think anybody likes
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:11:38.625)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:12:02.003)
The biking like you do would enjoy a balloon. I’m sure and probably the other way around. So anyway, Matt, we’ve discussed a bunch of things. I’m not sure. There’s no way we could have covered all of them, but I want to make sure I want to be respectful of your time. But I also want to ask you, what do you wish I would have asked you or what? What do you feel like? I forgot to ask you. What do you want our listeners to know about you breaking away adventures or just life in general?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:12:05.6)
Yeah, yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:12:26.444)
Sure. Well, I think the one thing that I’d like to really talk about is partially this Motorcycles with Misfits podcast that dozens and dozens of my friends are part of. And we actually have our fourth annual Misfits Adventure Rally coming up, April 16th through 19th in Hollister Hills.
Jason Elkins (01:12:33.617)
Yes, yes, thank you. Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:12:47.188)
very close to selling out for our first year, which is very exciting being four years in. It’s a really, it’s an all-inclusive boutique rally and by boutique we don’t really go into huge numbers, we don’t bring a lot of vendors, it’s not sturgis, it is not something where you’re just walking around with a slushie in one hand.
with the other. We do adventure rides on big bikes. We do adventure training on big bikes. We do dirt training on small bikes. We do dirt guided rides all through Hollister Hills SVRA. We take street rides. We do a big food tour all around the Monterey Santa Cruz area where we’ll stop at five or six different quaint little special stops for like
tacos or a piece of pie over at Gizditch. And this has been a true collaboration with my friends at the Recycle Garage and the podcast. And I think that’s been one of the most exciting things to grow.
four years because you know doing solo tours is fun but collaborating with like-minded folks and really trying to bring something to misfits and misfits really is anybody if you call yourself a misfit hey you’re a misfit if you’re like I’m not a misfit that ain’t me well then don’t come dude
Jason Elkins (01:14:02.194)
Mm-hmm.
There’s, yeah, yeah. Who wants to be around people? I literally do not want to be around people that say, have no problems, I have no trauma, I have no weirdness, I’m just perfectly normal. If you say that to me, I’m like, if I’m on a date and a woman says that, I’m like, I’m done. It’s not that you’re boring, it’s not that she’s gonna be boring, it’s that she just has no self-awareness whatsoever.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:14:17.714)
Exactly. Exactly.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:14:25.749)
Right.
Jason Elkins (01:14:33.444)
In my opinion. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Who wants to… Life is too short to do that.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:14:34.4)
Well, I just don’t really want to be a normie, I guess. And I like hanging out with people that have things to offer that are more. And I think what’s really been amazing for this rally as it’s growing is that we do get probably 40 to 50 % return people to the event, but we always get 10 % people who will hear about the event and know nothing about it.
Jason Elkins (01:14:53.939)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:15:01.438)
and will show up. We had a couple of guys from Texas one year that were big time Christian nationalists and really they would never purposely go to an event like this. And they wrote just the most beautiful letter to us afterwards feeling changed in a way just that they found a community of people that they didn’t think they would be welcomed into and were absolutely ingrained into. And it changed their outlook a little bit on other people.
Jason Elkins (01:15:11.155)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:15:29.573)
and shit, if that’s all we’re doing, fantastic. What a great experience to share.
Jason Elkins (01:15:32.893)
That’s so cool. And you know, as you said that, I reflected, I’d forgotten about this, but I remember when I still had my bike and I was in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Tennessee, and there was some sort of bike festival something motorcycle thing. And I’m like, I got a motorcycle. I should go. And I invited one of my buddies, you know, and one of my army buddies. So he got on the back of my motorcycle.
two of us drove to this little motorcycle festival and quickly felt out of place. Very quickly. It was like, I’m not sure this is, and you know, he’s, he, he’s in an interracial relationship. His wife was a black woman. go there and it has nothing to do with it other than we walked it. neither one of us felt at home there. Let’s just put it that way. This was kind of a redneck event and
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:16:07.904)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:16:25.655)
Sure.
Jason Elkins (01:16:28.825)
And the vendors were selling, were talking about Confederate belt buckles and flags and things that were a lot more offensive to even me. And I’m super open-minded, but there’s certain things that are just offensive to me. But so, so when I heard you describe that, I’m like, yeah, anybody that’s been to an event like I went to, it’s think motorcycle festival. Yeah, no thanks. So I’m really, really happy that you described it the way it did, cause it feels very inviting to anybody really.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:16:41.421)
Sure.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:16:56.495)
it’s so inviting. And I mean, you have to be so sure of your convictions to go to this and have a terrible time. I mean, we have so much fun. We have an amazing on-site caterer that cooks every meal for everybody. We have showers. It’s all camping. We do campfires every night. We have prizes. We have raffles. Like I said, training, guided rides.
Jason Elkins (01:17:05.243)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:17:21.297)
Is this something somebody could go to that doesn’t have a motorcycle but just wants to kind of see what that environment is like? It sounds like it. All right.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:17:25.441)
Thousand percent. Absolutely, absolutely. It’s almost like the motorcycles have taken a few notches down the list of.
what makes this thing great. And it really is just the people. And it’s not just the same people, it’s not specific people, it’s not me. I I might be part of the people, but that’s the best part is that we’re all just part of a group that, you we’re not chanting in robes or sacrificing babies, we’re just having a great time.
Jason Elkins (01:17:46.258)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:17:56.987)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You said, think you said Hollister Hills. I have no idea where you’re talking about. So maybe our listeners are a little lost as well. Where is this?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:18:03.437)
Sure. So Hollister, California, kind of in the middle coast, probably about 90 minutes from Santa Cruz, two and a half hours from San Francisco, 90 minutes from San Jose, five and a half hours from Los Angeles. So you can just pull up a map and type in Hollister. But Hollister Hills Svra, which is an entirely enclosed state owned OHV park, which is off highway vehicles. So you can take.
Jason Elkins (01:18:08.083)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (01:18:31.143)
Okay.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:18:32.493)
You can take ATVs, but mainly dirt bikes. It’s actually the oldest OHV in the United States. It has, I think, maybe top tier number of miles or number of trails you can take there. But we take over an entire private campsite just for us. It is family friendly, but it’s mainly a 16 or 18 year old type event.
Jason Elkins (01:18:59.923)
So it’s not Burning Man and it’s not Sturgis. Very cool. Sounds like a heck of a lot of fun. Let’s touch on the podcast as well because anybody that’s listening to this that likes podcasts, they need to know about the podcast. So share with our listeners what is the podcast about and what should they know about that?
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:19:02.665)
It is not Burning Man. It is not Sturgis. It’s somewhere in between.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:19:11.467)
Yeah, it’s fantastic.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:19:25.623)
Sure. So the Motorcycles and Misfits podcast, it’s very eclectic and it’s just people passionate about all bikes. If you’re just getting into riding, it’s a great podcast to listen to because it covers good starter bikes or how to train, important safety information, where to ride. It’s funny, it’s vulgar, it’s obscene at times. They say a lot of stupid stuff and get away with it.
Jason Elkins (01:19:52.977)
I love it.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:19:54.369)
But you’ll have Emma, who is possibly the best mechanic I’ve ever met in the state of California and knows everything about motorcycling, will get on these history holes and you’ll learn about the entire history of the Dunlop tire or where rubber came from or some of the earliest bikes like Vincents and Harleys and Indians and…
Jason Elkins (01:20:11.475)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:20:17.715)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:20:20.766)
It’s not dirt and adventure, it’s everything. It’s all types of riding, all types of bike. And they’re all my best friends, I love them to death. And we’re coming up on our fourth year this year for the event and no plans on stopping. The only reason we would ever leave Hollister is if we outgrew it.
Jason Elkins (01:20:37.651)
Do you do, because of the nature of this podcast, people might not be listening to this. You mentioned the dates in April, it’s March right now, so some people are gonna be listening to this late in the game. Do you do it roughly the same week each year? Is it kind of an Easter thing? It sounds like it’s around, I don’t even know when Easter is, but.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:20:47.222)
Sure.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:20:51.104)
Yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:20:59.628)
We try to be one of the first spring events. Our first year we did it in March, which was in the rainy season, so that didn’t work. I can actually tell you our dates for 2027 for those that missed this year. We’ll be back April. Go ahead.
Jason Elkins (01:21:06.803)
Jason Elkins (01:21:14.739)
Well, was, I was going to, I, I want to make it real easy for listeners too. So they don’t have to feel like they got to take a note here. I suspect that if, if, because we’re to have a link to your website and the show notes, will they be able to connect the dots and figure out the event details and maybe even find the podcast and stuff like that through your website? Or should I add some more? Okay. All right. Cool. So, yep. Anybody listening to this? Yep. So go down the show notes, click on the link.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:21:19.123)
yeah.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:21:25.014)
Yes.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:21:34.496)
Yes, absolutely. Yeah, just breakingawayadventures.com.
Jason Elkins (01:21:42.429)
Go take a look at Matt’s website. It’s pretty cool. It’s cool stuff on there. And I hope we’ve inspired. I trust we have. I’m not going to say hope. Hope is a weak word. I trust that we’ve inspired some people today to go do something new and break out of their comfort zone. And if that’s on a bike, that’s awesome. If it’s in a balloon, that’s cool. Just do something. Go out there and do something. So Matt, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Fun conversation. And I look forward to meeting you in person someday.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:22:09.51)
Jason, this was awesome. I love talking about myself. Thank you.
Jason Elkins (01:22:14.577)
Well, you know, when I when I started the podcast, someone asked me like, you’re going to interview tour operators? said, Mom, they love talking about themselves. Trust. Trust me. was I’ve.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:22:23.116)
No, and no one lets me do it as much as you have, so I really appreciate it. It sets me up good for our first date I have coming up where I can just tailor back a little bit. Just listen to the podcast if you want to know about me.
Jason Elkins (01:22:33.223)
Yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:22:37.213)
You know what? I went on a date with somebody that told, it was like first date and they, guess I shared enough with them. They figured it out and they had listened to an episode and they were, you know, just a lot of the conversation was, you mentioned this, you know, tell me more. Like I felt like it was an icebreaker. It was great. So it sounds like you’ll, I trust you’ll have the same experience. So Matt, thank you so much. Let’s do it again soon, All right. Bye bye.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:22:57.344)
Right.
Matt Hoffman-Beals (01:23:01.418)
Hahaha
Absolutely, thanks Jason. Bye.
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