Interview–Stefy Bau
Learning how to ride is learning how to live, says Stefy Bau, one of the all-time greats in motocross and the winner of 3 World Championships, the Loretta Lynn, and many more. We discuss her career-ending injury and the life-lessons we can learn from racing. We also discuss her time as CEO of an electric bike company, her new company, INIT (now the official AMA E-sports powerhouse for sim racing) and all the many 'firsts' Stefy has made for women in motorsports.
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Life Lessons with Stefy Bau
Andrea Hiott: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome to Forever Motoring. Today we have a special guest named Steffy Bau, maybe verte her. She's the fastest or one of the fastest women in the world, highly regarded as one of the best motocross racers ever to race. She's won three World Championships, the Loretta Lynn seven Italian Championships, at least two W M X U Ss, A championships, and on and on.
She knew she wanted to do motocross from a very young age. She was already riding when she was four. On a very cute little bike. And by the time she was six, she was telling her parents that she knew what she wanted to do, and that was to be a motocross [00:01:00] racer. By the age of 17, she'd gone pro, and around that same time became the first woman eligible to compete with Mel Racers in the field.
However, her home country of Italy, though she had qualified in the top three of all racers in that country, would not allow her to compete for them in the world championship because she was a woman. So she decided to move to the United States and make it happen another way, and she soon became eligible there and did become the first woman to compete against male racers in the field.
And that persistence and belief of Steffes really continued even when she was challenged in the most extreme way, in a terrible crash in 2005 that left her unable to walk and just suddenly changed her entire trajectory. As she tells it, it also woke her up to a larger mission and showed her that these kind of events help you understand that when a mountain appears, you don't always have to go over it.
Sometimes you can [00:02:00] go through it or around it, or even under it. The real trick or the real skill, life skill as she tells it is in finding the strength not to give up. So we talk about that a bit today and how she found her strength, and she really is strong in so many ways. Not only is she, as I said, one of the fastest women in motocross racing, and not only has she won all these championships in Supercross and motocross, she's also a business woman.
She was the c e O for an electric bike company, Fantic Bikes in the U S A or the u s A branch of it. It's an Italian company. And she's also founded her own eSports company for sim racing called Init Sports. I n I T. You've probably heard of eSports. Maybe you dismiss them, maybe you love them, but I, I suggest you check out this erac in and sim racing, which is part of what Init does.
Steffi's company, they have over 80,000 people turn up every week to [00:03:00] watch these racing events, which are all online. And it is like a powerhouse for sim racing and motorcycle events right now. And with eSports being a billion dollar industry, Steffy Bow is one of the most powerful women in the field, but she's also focusing with her company on real life events, starting numerous programs to help young women find their passions in the STEM fields and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Also helping e racers become racers in real life. Steffi herself has also been featured as a character in numerous video games. I think she was also the first woman to be, uh, featured in any motocross video game ever. Stuy has really led and mentored so many women in motor sports and she does so from so many angles, the riding, but also the business angle.
Also, just in terms of inspiration and sharing what she's been through and what she's learned. She really puts her heart and soul into everything [00:04:00] as you'll hear in this interview. And she really believes that together we can change the world. Maybe more of us will join her in that spirit and belief so we can find better ways of forever motoring.
I hope you enjoy getting to know Steffy Bow as much as I did and hope you look her up. Uh, check out her endeavors and her work. Maybe even become a sim racer. Alright, let's
Stefy Bau: go.
Andrea Hiott: Hi Steffy, thanks for being with us today on Forever Motoring. Hey,
Stefy Bau: nice to meet you, and I'm happy to be here.
Andrea Hiott: So this is a podcast about what moves us and the ways that we move. So the first question I'd like to ask you is just what's a moment in your life when you remember being moved?
Stefy Bau: Well, I am a, a, a person that was born already with a N I d A [00:05:00] mind on what I wanted to do.
At six years old, I looked at my mom and dad in the eyes and I said that one day I will become a motocross racer. So I moved myself very well. I just like to go for things and try to do things that kind of break that glass ceiling for women in male dominated industry.
Andrea Hiott: You were six years old when you told
Stefy Bau: your parents.
My mom and dad were fan of the sport, so they had the magazine to come around in the house, and then every time there was the war, the championship coming to Italy, they were bringing me with them. So I got so fascinated by the sport that they, that's what I wanted to do and I was able to win three war titles.
Andrea Hiott: It's incredible. Three women's world titles and seven in Italy, is that right? That's correct, yeah. TH 3:00 AM a, do I have it right? That
Stefy Bau: is all correct. I was the first woman to race competitively with the men on the top of the sport. So I do have a few firsts in my
Andrea Hiott: career. You definitely do. And I know you started really young.
I think [00:06:00] your father took you somewhere near your house when you're just a really little kid. And I'm wondering, was that boys and girls racing, did you think about being a woman?
Stefy Bau: No, I think until like the 13, 14 years old of of age, there is nothing different. So you are just a kiddo. So you go out there and you play and then you ride, you race, but it's all the same.
But then when you start to be a teenager, hormones comes into place. So it becomes a different story. And then you start thinking, oh yes, I'm, I'm growing up to be a young woman. And now those are young boys. So it becomes a little bit more competitive in a way. And because the classical, the boys does, doesn't wanna be beaten by the girl.
And for me, I was like, well, if I'm as fast as you, I deserve to be there. So at a teenage year, it kind of like started to change and being a little bit more difficult. But I had two wonderful parents that taught me that anything you want to do in life, [00:07:00] you just have to work hard and go for it. I grew up with that mentality, so I was behind the gate with everybody else.
I have the helmet on everybody else and I would just go in and do the best I could.
Andrea Hiott: So those are really like your earliest memories would be, a lot of them would be connected to, to the motocross
Stefy Bau: or, or would they Yes, absolutely. At some point I remember I had all entourage like uncle aunts, they were coming me into cheer, my grandma and whatnot.
So yes, it was a, a totally family affair and I've been super lucky to have, my parents did so many sacrifice for me to be able to achieve what I did in, in this sport. And I guess it becomes a little easier when you win because not only me, I wanted to go to the next race and win again, but also becomes like something for the family too.
And did
Andrea Hiott: you feel that early on, did you get sort of addicted to the trophies and the. Excitement in the winning for your family. Oh, that healing, that must have been something very
Stefy Bau: special. Oh yes, [00:08:00] absolutely. I mean, it changes with time. Like at the very beginning when you're very young, you just like to bring on the trophy.
So you know you are waiting for the weekend to go race. When I started to to to grow into the professional ranking, then it becomes more like a job. And therefore you've started to appreciate even more the fact that your parents, your family did so many sacrifice for you to be able to achieve what, what your goals are.
So the mentality changed there. Now really, you're not doing it just for yourself, now you're doing it for the family. So we were all together to go and pursue this.
Andrea Hiott: Yeah. It's interesting when, what that moment, when you start to realize it's not just about you, it's about your family. And then it sounds like you also had some further realizations that it was also about women and.
Charting a kind of new path for women. I guess it
Stefy Bau: started out not so much for others, like at the beginning was more like, Hey, I'm good at this. And now having the opportunity to, to be [00:09:00] professional and therefore I wanted to demonstrate with everybody, but to myself too, that I'm a woman, so what, like I can do a male, do industry.
And with that automatically comes the effect of inspiring others. I will say that I did have a, a important moment in my career, which is when I got hurt, I had a career ending injury. And, uh, in
Andrea Hiott: 2005, is that,
Stefy Bau: is that right? 2005. Correct. So I was already, toward the end of my career, I was 28 years old. And motocross is a, is a young sport and you are never prepared, especially in the way that happened to me.
Meaning that all of a sudden, sudden anything that I knew up to the point in life stopped completely. But I was able, again, through family and support to turn the negative into positive. And at the moment is when I realized, hey, now I can do stuff for others, right? And continue to help the community, help other women.
So they want to [00:10:00] pursue a career such as the one that I had and help them avoid some mistake and be there for them. So that was a critical moment when I finally realized that there is a lot that can be done for other women in the
Andrea Hiott: sport. And it wasn't even just in motocross. You've actually opened many different paths in many different fields.
But first, that kind of time between, I guess it was mostly like the late nineties, that you were really winning all these races, right? In early two thousands. That is correct, yes. How did you end up going pro and then how did you end up in this international scene? You started racing, you were really good at it, you were natural at it.
You, how did it become your
Stefy Bau: job? I, um, turned officially professional at 17 years old. When basically when you become professional, when you start getting paid for what you do, right, that's the, the right, how you classify somebody is professional what they do. So it's a combination of both sponsor, they pay your way, they want to be associated with you.
And then also there are prices on when races [00:11:00] is a combination of both things. So with that, it started to feel very good because sort of like a hobby turned into something that, hey, I can do this for a living.
Andrea Hiott: And I guess you were getting a lot of attention then too, probably.
Stefy Bau: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But also come with a stupid age, meaning it happened during the time that you are in your stupid ages because 17, it's a difficult time in everyone's life,
Andrea Hiott: that's for sure.
So much changing. But it sounds like you were confident, which you must have had to be, to be winning these races. That can be a time when people are very, you not confident. So you obviously were, you had some confidence.
Stefy Bau: Yes. A lot of con confidence there. A lot of time it got interpreted as cockiness, but it comes with a
Andrea Hiott: territory.
Many good athletes, yeah, have this,
Stefy Bau: I guess. Yeah, you have to believe that you are the best in in the world to be able to do what you do, so it just comes [00:12:00] with it. But then eventually, luckily you grow out of that face when you become a normal human being again. Yeah. But
Andrea Hiott: you actually did become the best in the world.
Not everyone does that, but in any case, okay, so you're 17, you're a little bit cocky or confident and you're winning races and you're starting to go
Stefy Bau: pro. Yes. I started to race in Europe, so I put myself in front of like a, a bigger competition and I started to have success, success in Europe as well. And then my goal was to become the first woman to race a round of the men world, the championship.
So back then, we are talking 1998. How the sport used to work was that you needed to do qualification in your own countries and through a time trial. So if during that time trial you were in the top five, then technically you could have been selected to go to represent your own country, your own country, into the [00:13:00] world championship round or the entire series.
So I did this time trial in Italy and I added the third fastest lap time. So I was on cloud nine. I'm like, I've made it. I'm like, with the cockiness and the confidence, I appreciate that you call it confidence. I was, I was like, oh my God, I just made history. I was gonna be the only female in the of the sport to do this.
I'm gonna make history. This is what I dreamted since I was little. Uh, and so on and so forth. And then a few days later, I received a phone call from the federation saying, We decided not to send you because you are a female. And
Andrea Hiott: that was hard. That was the message we decided not to send you because you are a female.
Oh
Stefy Bau: yeah. That was insane. And that was still early ages, I guess, in Italy. Discrimination was overlooked at time. So that was actually the turning [00:14:00] point for me to, wanted to come to the United States. So that's what made the change. And I'm like, gentlemen, you're not gonna let me do it here. I'll show you.
I'll make it happen. So then I packed up my luggage. I went to the United States. I did not speak a word of English then. And I started racing. Like I had the support from Kawasaki when I first arrived in the us. So I had the sponsor because I was professional over in Europe, I was able to receive support in the United States right away.
And then I came in and I start winning races. And then I asked to have the professional license with the men here in the United States. And because I had the points to be able to do it, I was not declined it. So I had it. And that point I finally achieve what I wanted to achieve in the United States and stand for my own country.
But, but it comes full circle because [00:15:00] in 2005, which was a bittersweet year for me, I did receive that phone call where they asked me to become the first woman to race in the world championship. Ah,
Andrea Hiott: so they want you back now. Yeah.
Stefy Bau: They wanted you back. Exactly. They wanted me back. And then it was a, like I said, a good reward because at that point I was like, yep, I would be super happy to do this, but this is how much it's gonna cost you now.
So I came full self at the end in 90. It's amazing
Andrea Hiott: You made that happen though. Yeah. Is that, is that normal for you that you decide to make something happen and you do make it happen?
Stefy Bau: Yeah, that kind of person. If I like something because I, I'm fueled by passion, right? So if I like something and I love it, then I'm like, okay, I'm gonna make it happen.
I'll figure it out a way. And when I do a lot of keynote speech or like inspirational speech to people, I always say, picture a mountain in front of you. There is [00:16:00] so many way to go around it. You can go on top underneath, through it, around it. You just have to find a way. It's not because there is a mountain that that is gonna stop you.
So just keep going for what you love.
Andrea Hiott: I love that because I was expecting you to say you can always get over it. Yeah, you just opened up a whole other space to think you can go around it. You can go on the side of it, you can go. That's like a whole other way of thinking, right? There's many, many ways to deal with that.
Mm-hmm. Thing that's ahead of you. Indeed. And you've had a few of those mountains, the actual races themselves, but also what we've been talking about, the limits that you broke through in terms of women, but then also this accident that came in 2005, which I wanna talk about next. But first I wanna go to that moment when you got that letter in Italy, did that shock you?
Oh, were you expecting that at all? Okay, now I see how it is that because I'm a woman, I can't compete.
Stefy Bau: Well, it was, I would say a combination of emotion. I was not expecting it. I was enraged. I was like, why [00:17:00] this? Why, why that? It has to be a difference. I'm just behind the gate with the helmet like everybody else.
It doesn't matter if I'm a woman and I'm not a man, why this? So exactly. I guess it fueled even more my desire to be the best. So that's why I say what I said, like, okay, this is just a bump in the road. I'm gonna come full circle around and I'm gonna do it somewhere else. In a
Andrea Hiott: way, it gave you more energy to achieve something and do something that from a different way that ended up actually bringing even more things into your life.
Positive things.
Stefy Bau: Absolutely. Absolutely. Everything that happens in life happens for a re a reason, and if you can really try to always find the positive out of it, then you're gonna always win. So for me, that was like, Hey, I can go to the United States, which is a country that a lot of people aspire to, to go and live there and do.
My sport mama was not super happy, [00:18:00] I have to tell you that. But my parents always knew that if I wanted something, I was gonna go and and get it no matter what. So that was my turning point to come to a different country and with the good and the bad. So, because it's not easy, especially if you're by yourself.
Oh
Andrea Hiott: no. And the language that can be so hard.
Stefy Bau: Yeah, the language, a totally different culture was not easy. But again, I have that goal in my mind, so nothing was gonna stop me and I went for
Andrea Hiott: it. It's amazing that determination, but when you were actually racing these times, when you're winning so much and there's so many races, what was your schedule like during, were you training all the time?
Were you going to school still?
Stefy Bau: Yeah. Yes. Just training all the time. When I was in my professional years, my typical day was something like this, getting up at seven in the morning, go for a four or five miles run, then come back home breakfast, and then go to the track. And at the track you're [00:19:00] spending like the majority of the day doing what we call in the industry mods, which is 40 minutes on the track, like to mimic a race.
So you are gonna do that two or three times. And then come home and go for a 20 mile bicycle ride or swim. Swim, right. That was every day. It's a lot of physical activities, but you have to be in the top shape possible to be able to be at the top of the sport. It's very demanding. It's also very demanding mentally.
So be able to have a body that can sustain in you, you know what you wanna do. It helps the mental side as well.
Andrea Hiott: I've never been on a dirt track, and I just wonder, could you describe the feeling of it? How does it, how does it feel and Yeah, especially in terms of needing to be in
Stefy Bau: shape. I mean, to me, what the sport of Mo Supercross taught me is everything that I needed to.[00:20:00]
So let me explain them more like this. The track changes every lap, so you need to be sharp as a, a sharpshooter, meaning like you have to be completely focused all the time because if you mess up, you can get on the ground. If you don't pick your line correctly, another opponent can come up and pass you, right?
So you have to, to look all the time, scanning that ground in, in super fast and make a decision like it right there on the spot. Then the physical side, you have aerobic and strength all at once. So to be able to do the sport is like a soccer player that runs for the entire time of a match in addition to a bodybuilder together.
So it's, it's a lot. And then comes the strategy. Even more regards to how to manage your strength and your abilities. [00:21:00] That for a length of time, like each race is about 40 minutes. So for 40 minutes, like you need to be able to pace your capabilities and win against your opponent. So there is a ton of components that go into this sport and I feel very lucky I choose this sport again.
Those are similar things that you do in life. Another thing, once you win, you are in front of 80,000 people, you have to make a speech. So that is, to me is very similar to like when somebody goes for a job interview, you might not be in front of 80,000 people, but the feeling is the same because you have to perform and say the right things to be able to have your audience cheering you on or liking you or hiring you.
Right. That's also another thing that I learned through the sport. So yeah, and the never give up attitude again in life like, In, in, in [00:22:00] motorcycle racing, we used to say you crash 10 times and you get up 11, you never stay on the ground. And the same thing with, with life. If there are stuff that happens to you, it doesn't matter.
You keep going, you get up, you keep going. I just said a talk, um, at the Full Sail University last week, and it was fun because I titled the talk Do Not let go of the End bar. And that is because in the last thing that you do, like the last thing you do when you are about to crash and like it's, it's almost unsavable the crash.
You still hold on to the endo bar and then sometimes you have to let go because you know it happens. And that is a lesson in life. You have so many things coming to you and happen to you during your life, but if you stay strong and motivating and what you have the passion for and what you like, You are definitely not gonna let go of that endo bar.[00:23:00]
It's
Andrea Hiott: a good image too, to carry around. You had this long life history, even though you're only 28 by the time you had this crash in 2005, but you'd really developed a whole kind of way of being in the world that was about those things you just described, being in the present moment, in a sense, because you don't know exactly what's coming next.
Being able to balance, being able to be seen and talk in front of people, all these qualities. I also imagine you had to learn some business instinct about how to take care of yourself in terms of money and all of that. Mm-hmm. That's a whole other lesson. So it really was like a school of, I don't know,
Stefy Bau: I can call it like a school of life, because again, for me, the sport that really gave me all the tools necessarily to then continue to do what I, I had a passion for in life after racing, again, they never give up aptitude.
They. Respecting others because you have to respect your competitors too. Like they're there to, to try to win as well. So you need to be able to stay in [00:24:00] front of them without creating a crash or endanger others. Right. So that's a form of respect. You, you are you, and you be the best you can by competing against other people and work hard.
So you can be the best. And if you are not the best, it's okay. It's okay to fail. Like the crash motorcycling racing represent also that in my opinion, like you can fail, you can crash, but you have to get up and do it again.
Andrea Hiott: You can learn a lot from that, I guess sometimes even more than
Stefy Bau: just winning all the time.
Exactly. Because you learn not to do that again the next time. Mm-hmm.
Andrea Hiott: Life can really give us some big challenges and some really difficult things and. Even with this whole skillset you had, I have to imagine that the last thing you really expected was what happened when you were 28 and in 2005 and you had this crash and it was during a practice or Yes.
Set it up for
Stefy Bau: us a little bit. Yeah. We were getting ready to, to prepare for the 2006 season. So we were testing in Thomasville, Georgia. I [00:25:00] was with the Honda team at the time and I messed up this jump and in the two, three second I was in the air that I knew that the accident was gonna happen. The first thing I thought about it was, dang, I'm going to miss next week race.
And the second thought was like, hot, this is my, my hurt quite a bit. But again, the first thing in my mind was like, not be scared, not be upset or whatever. I can race next week. So again, it shows the character or like a condition with this sport. Mm-hmm. But then again, you grow up by, with the sport to make all of this kind of decision in a split of a second.
And sometimes that's good. Mm-hmm. Sometimes I'm not, and you leave it with the consequences of it. In this case, I don't know what happened. I can't tell if it was my error, a motorcycle error, but it did happen. And on the line of what we are saying, after two hours since the accident, I was already [00:26:00] on the operating room and the surgeon was saying, you might lose your legs.
We have 1% chance that you have your legs coming outta the surgery. And still on that bed. I was talking to the surgeon, say, yes, okay, but when can I go back racing? You
Andrea Hiott: were just pushing forward. Even that moment you were
Stefy Bau: persisting. Even the moment looking forward, forget what happened. Okay. That happened.
All right, so how can I go past that and continue to, to go forward?
Andrea Hiott: That's a lot of change. In three hours. You're practicing. Yes. Everything's, you have this regimen of waking up at seven and all this, this whole life is built on this. You probably have a team, your family's probably still working with you.
It's a whole moving machine. And then this thing happens and in two hours you're on an operating table and everything has changed.
Stefy Bau: Yes, that is correct. And the way that you put it is exactly how I felt. Meaning that now what? Now what's gonna happen? Yeah. And I have to say I went in a [00:27:00] dark place at first because you know how your life, all of a sudden, the life that you knew and the life that you lived like for basically 28 years, it just stopped.
Like you're never prepared for that. And it's just you are getting into this spiral, this, what am I doing? What, what is next? Yeah. It's
Andrea Hiott: almost must be like a state of shock too. It's almost too much to handle because everything is so linked. Mm-hmm. And even just the routine of your life. Changing the routine of your life in a little way is hard.
But with that kind of change where it's, of course it's also your passion and what you wanna do. So it's mental, it's emotional, it's physical, and it's also just the routine of your day. Yeah. I,
Stefy Bau: it wasn't easy, as I said, I was in a dark place for a little while. I probably also fueled by the medicine I needed to take, not to feel pain and all of that.
But little by little thanks to the team, meaning like the people around me, especially my family, I needed to, to get that change and start [00:28:00] looking at the positive right. And turn this negative into a positive and was stuck with me was this concept. It was that I start telling myself that, Hey, At 20 years old, I concluded an incredible career and now I have the opportunity to start the brand new one and be as successful.
So that's how I turn it around and that's was worth it for me because justifying the fact that that maybe a lot of people in the world, the 28, they still don't know what they wanna do when they grow up and
Andrea Hiott: Absolutely. You've already changed history. Right,
Stefy Bau: exactly. So I'm like, I'm just gonna take this as a chapter and now I'm gonna open a new one and I'm gonna be as successful at that.
Andrea Hiott: That really says something about you being able to dance or be a bit flexible too. You're on this path and really loyal to it and persistent, but then when the mountain suddenly appeared in that path, you were able to move and [00:29:00] and get around it. Do you think that also comes somehow from your training and
Stefy Bau: Absolutely.
Absolutely. 100%. Because in motocross racing, you have to make decision in a split of a second. Right. So it didn't take a split of a second to get outta my dark spot. Right. Of course not. Yeah. But you know, like I was conditioned to thinking that way, meaning, okay, so this happened, now we know we need to do something to keep going.
Again, it was not easy at the beginning. My mental health was not pretty at that time.
Andrea Hiott: But yeah, and it's good you say that 'cause I think we have to let ourselves acknowledge that things are hard and the dark times do come and you can let them pass. The
Stefy Bau: thing that I wanted to share with everybody listening is that the dark time, they do not last forever.
So stick with it, go through it. It's something that, it's important for individual to learn from it. It's part of growing and they don't stick [00:30:00] around forever. You might think that, and I was guilty of it in the moment, but yeah, just try to find some ways to. To grab something and fail forward, like looking forward?
Mm-hmm. Like what? What's happening in that moment?
Andrea Hiott: How did you do that? Was it mostly just thinking, what could I do next? Or was it talking to people or was it, it could be reading something
Stefy Bau: or, I guess it was a combination because at first it took me some time to realize that were never gonna be a motorcycle racer again.
I thought that I could continue racing, even though it was this scariness of having my legs amputated, my mind was still going there and say, Hey, I can become an ex games adaptive. So continue to go to that, to that direction and say, nothing can stop me. This is just a bump in the road, and so on and so forth.
However, like my injury took 10 year to fix, [00:31:00] so it was a long and strenuous journey.
Andrea Hiott: It was your ankles mostly in
Stefy Bau: the end. The problem was that on my left ankle I developed a hole, and this hole was, this might be a little bit ome for some listeners, so if you don't wanna listen, just cover your hair for a second.
The this hole open. And they couldn't figure it out how to close it, and they couldn't figure it out why that was happening. And I still decide to live my life. So I was going around, I went to Africa, I went to other countries and I was going into doctor offices walking in, and they said, it's impossible that you are walking.
And I'm like, okay, so you're not a doctor for me, because clearly I just walked in here. So even the mentality, if you're telling me that's impossible, I'm walking and I'm walking. So either I'm, I'm crazy or you are crazy. All of this thing that. It's all related to my [00:32:00] life as an athlete to wanted to keep going and, and keep doing things in the way that I need to think, yes, this is the right way or not.
So it did take a long time
Andrea Hiott: when you were traveling around it. Was this the time when you were starting to do some mentorship? I'm trying to figure out how you eventually found your way into being a mentor to many other women in the sport. I guess it was in those 10 years that it started.
Stefy Bau: Yes, indeed. So like my accident was in 2005, the end of 2005.
So for the entire 2006 I was in bed then in a wheelchair and then they trying to learn to walk again. Let's put it like that. And then in 2007 is when I finally got the switch saying, Hey, I need to start a new career here. Actually, I had the sport, so I was able to become the general manager of then newly burned.
F a m, women Motocross World [00:33:00] Championship. So before I used to race with the girls, and now they asked me to be the general manager of the championship. So for me, that was an incredible, proud moment because I had the opportunity to now be the mama to all the other girls. I was the mentor to everyone. I loved it because I put it down on the table right away.
Hey, there is no competition with me anymore here, so let me help you. I'm not your competition anymore, so let me help you become the best you can be. So that was a magic in that happening. I, I loved that time of my life, like we were able to create a super strong community. So now, yes, when the gate dropped, everybody was an enemy.
But when, uh, when we were done with racing, we actually really work all together, almost like a team where we were figuring out whether we could do better [00:34:00] to grow the sport as a whole. So I kind like felt into a positional leadership and be the person that everybody was coming to for advice and figure it out how they can be better and get more responses.
And that was very rewarding because now it is when my life changed and on the giving back and not only be about me and my racing, but start giving back. That must have
Andrea Hiott: felt good to be able to give so much. It can be very healing to be able to give, I guess.
Stefy Bau: Absolutely. Yeah. It, it comes a certain point in life, I guess, but the power of giving back to others, it fulfills you in so many different ways.
It's like one of the best thing that an individual can experience, in my opinion, even better
Andrea Hiott: than winning a world championship.
Stefy Bau: Yes, yes. In a way it is [00:35:00] because now you just see other people doing what you did. Right? So it reinforced to you as an individual the way you did was meaningful because now there is others that wanted to do it too, and be part of their life.
It's so powerful that it creates this whole feel good situation, which I think if more and more people will do it in the world, we'll have probably a word that with less craziness that, that we do. You know?
Andrea Hiott: Definitely. If people understood that, that can be so fulfilling.
Stefy Bau: Yes, absolutely. But I, I do think that comes with age.
We are being so that we continue to grow and it would be, We are to see a kid all day is just like that, or that doesn't think about true herself and, and think about others. Right? So you have, it is a rite of passage in life. You need to do what that moves you, what makes you passionate, and that there is [00:36:00] a time in your life that you'll say, well, this is bigger than just me.
So you wanted to stay helping others to, to experience the same. So at least this is what happened to me in my life. Yeah, that's a good point. It's
Andrea Hiott: not either or. You can do both. You can excel and go with what moves you.
Stefy Bau: For sure. So we were talking a a little bit about the trajectory after the racing. So first I did that.
Then from there I was able to be part of the women commission inside the F I M. So the f I M is the International Federation Motorcycling, which is a base in Geneva, Switzerland. And that was another step toward like helping more women getting involved as a whole and come up with the strategies and plans to how to continue to increase that a little bit political for what I used to be doing up to that point.
Mm-hmm. But you [00:37:00] know, it was another great experience in my life and I learned a lot like on how sometimes you have to, to be, to make things happen. I'm always like, yeah, drop the gate sometimes. Instead, you just have to hurry up and wait. Well,
Andrea Hiott: another first of yours was being the first woman in a video game, motocross video game.
Is that right? Yes.
Stefy Bau: And that's cool. That's super cool because it also ties back in with what I'm doing now and who knew there was gonna come full circle like that. This was the year 2000, the first video game I was part of. EA sport decided to create a game and have a a motorcycle racer be part of it.
And I got asked to be one of them. We're talking 23 years ago. It's like mind blowing to think about
Andrea Hiott: it. You must have just gone pro more or
Stefy Bau: less or Yeah. Yeah. That was when I went to pro. That is correct.
Andrea Hiott: So you were the first woman in the video game too. The other people were men I guess, in that game.
Yes. Yes. It's kind of cool you did in the virtual world too.
Stefy Bau: [00:38:00] Yes, indeed. And I think that's why it kind of like came together because of that. And it was super cool. Again, it was my second year in the United States here come, you know, with this bleach blonde air from Italy, barely speaking any English and having the chance to be in a video game.
I was like, oh my God, this is crazy. This just happens in the movies.
Andrea Hiott: You were living it. Okay, so you were in video games but you didn't play 'em that much 'cause you were living it in real life, but. Somehow the eSports has just exploded in the past five or 10 years, or even the past four years. I wanna talk a little bit about that for people who don't know much about it yet, but how did you get into it?
This idea of sim racing and eSports? When did that come into your
Stefy Bau: life? Yes, so it happened because I went to, just before the pandemic hit, right, I went to Italy visiting my family, and I saw my little niece that she was spending two to three years a [00:39:00] day watching people play
Andrea Hiott: two to three hours a day watching, just watching, not playing, but watching.
Stefy Bau: Watching, yes, watching. So like consuming entertainment in a way of watching video games. So I'm like, Hmm, this is very interesting. Like the kids nowadays, they're spending their time watching gamers. A light bulb came up and I'm like, maybe I can use this. To be able to bring more women and minority into Motorsport by lower the barrier of entries.
With gaming, it's much easier because even a console sets you off maybe $300, right? But a go-kart or a motorcycle is $5,000. Only a certain category of people is able to do that. So therefore, using and utilizing gaming will be an opportunity to open up way more doors and therefore [00:40:00] expand the base of Motorsport as a whole.
So I went to learn and then the pandemic hit and Formula One, I was teaching everyone how it is to be done. Meaning like in seeing racing, the head Charles LeClaire Max Vest stop and playing in the games with the public. So I'm like, incredible. This is so cool. It's amazing. That got me into, into opening my company.
It's called Init. First I fall back into the, the part of motorcycling because that's what I have the passion. So I connected with the A m A and explain how good that would be to get involved with the gaming community, to be able to bring new people into motocross and Supercross and motorcycle in general.
And so we make the, the agreement, they say, this is brilliant. We like this. You are now the promoter for anything eSport for the [00:41:00] a m a. So now we started to create the championships and it's insane. A couple data here to just put things in perspective. So one third of the world population identifies as a game, and F of them are women.
So for me, half Did you say half? Half. Half of people that play games in the world are women. I did not know that. So for me, I'm like, oh my God, there it is. That's the talent pool. Like we need to go into this industry to be able to expose more women into something that I love, which is
Andrea Hiott: Motorsport. Right.
No one was doing that in Motorcross. Mm-hmm. It was Formula One. They were starting to do it, but nobody was doing it in off-Road and Motorcross before
Stefy Bau: you had this idea. Mm-hmm. Yes. That is correct.
Andrea Hiott: So you saw and you went for it.
Stefy Bau: Yep. Exactly. And now the, the kids that they play in our championship, by the way, we have 80,000 [00:42:00] people that tune in watching the races every Wednesday night.
Just to give you some context. Right. It's in insane.
Andrea Hiott: 80,000. I mean, that's. It's so wonderful. I like video games and things like this, and I like eSports. I'm still new to it, but Do you have any idea why so many people like to watch
Stefy Bau: it? I dunno. I think it's a generational thing. I think people like to consume entertainment now by one or to be part of something.
And we gaming now, like Twitch for instance, which is the platform where you tend to go and watch games, you can chat with other people right there. So it becomes a community. Mm-hmm. Right? You can chat with who you are watching, but also with the other people. So now it's not more like a two D television, it's becoming like three D, meaning like you can really create this community with the younger demographic.
What I have experienced is that everybody wants to do something. [00:43:00] They're not just there and receiving information. They wanna do things. If you make them do something, then that's when you get the attention, and that's why I think a gaming. It's exploding in so many different ways.
Andrea Hiott: So now you're doing it yourself.
You've started your own company in its sports, and that's another first, right? The first or the only sim racing company that's led by a
Stefy Bau: woman in IT sport. Is that the only sim racing company led by a woman in the world and helps a ton. Because with that, we are able to create a lot of different opportunities.
Like two main thing that we have going on right now is from the sim racing stuff. So from the car part, we just created and concluded screen to speed. So screen to speed as the goal to being bring female and non-binary people, minorities from the digital world, [00:44:00] from the gaming world into the in life world.
So the qualifying online and everybody around the world were able to qualify for it. And then the top 15, we got them to come to Las Vegas and participate into the competition, the team racing competition. We were in Las Vegas at the racetrack and around us NASCAR was happening. So we were racing digitally the same track that we were at while NASCAR was happening around us.
So it was so empowering and the winner got to even walk on the NASCAR stage with 80,000 people cheering her on, which is like insane. Coming from the gaming world. We were able to change lives to this gamers so that they, some of them, they didn't even been on an airplane before, let alone come to Las Vegas, the winner.
Now she's gonna come back in June in Las Vegas at the same racetrack, and now she's [00:45:00] gonna test on a real Porsche race car. So from screen to speed. So from the digital world to the in real life world. We got more than 1 million impression on this show as the first going out. So we are gonna continue to do them.
There is a lot of talks in the industry because we came at it, four women by women, so in a very authentic way and the response of support for it. Mm-hmm. One other thing I wanted to to share is that we also have SIM for STEM now, and that's why I'm in Indianapolis right now because we are deciding to create a bigger base.
So with SIM for stem, we are going after schools. So this event in Indianapolis is in conjunction with the Indy 500. So we have 200 girls from high school. Mm-hmm. Where 50 at the time. They're gonna come in four events and we'll [00:46:00] teach them STEM curriculums. So they will be doing STEM activities, motor sport related.
And then what they learn that they apply in the simulators. And then the uh, five, six of them that they're gonna be the most engaged throughout all of this will bring them to the racetrack to meet female driver, female mechanics, female engineer, female broadcaster, because we believe that if you can see her, you can be her.
Andrea Hiott: Oh, I love that so much. And also that it's not just the drivers who are super wonderful and important, but so are the engineers and the mechanics, and these are such fascinating careers and yes, just fascinating things to do in life. I really love this connection that you're making between traditional racing and virtual racing.
How do you see that kind of evolving? You've been in the real crowds and you've been in the virtual crowds. Is there a difference in the feeling of it? [00:47:00]
Stefy Bau: I mean, it's all connected at the end. It's all connected, it's all together. Like people they play, especially in same racing, has been demonstrated that you can race in the same and those skill transferring real, real life and like there has been more and more teams now that they are looking at gamers to be able to bring them into a seat of the real fire.
So it's incredibly connected. It's super cool. Like I love the transferability and I believe it's the only digital sport that has that capability. To go from digital to to
Andrea Hiott: in real life. What we didn't talk about was the kind of electric little aspect of your journey. 'cause you did work for electric bikes for a little while, right?
Yes.
Stefy Bau: The journey into the electric transportation for me was during my time the, I was the c e O of F bicycle, u s a. So Fantech is a company that is from Italy and they decided to [00:48:00] open a branch into the United States. And because I'm Italian, but also I have all of the links. And the bridges between Europe and the US in the motorcycle industry.
It was like a natural involvement there. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So by, in the us, Pantech is a motorcycle company, but also that's E-bikes. And with them, we decided to open the branch in the United States focusing on that because as you might might know, electric transportation is starting to take on more and more here in the us.
It's been like a very big field, a very big industry. Definitely. Uh, it was a fantastic journey and we were able to be from an unknown name into the United States to one of the, the companies that sits at the table while deciding for rules in, in the United States in regards to. Electric transportation, so Oh wow.
Very proud of the work that was done there. [00:49:00] Again, I was one of the maybe couple female around the table. 'cause I find myself often to that position,
Andrea Hiott: I guess you're getting used to that, but you bring more women to the
Stefy Bau: table. I like to say it's not about replacing the guys, it's about building a bigger table.
Let's be a bigger table and bring women in it. So diversity and inclusion is so important, like in any, in any, having different mindset and different people that come up with different cultures. For me it's not about substituting, but it's just about building a bigger table so more women can be involved and, and minorities.
The journey was very cool. It, it was just exploding in the United States in 2016 when I took on this disposition. And it was just a time that, that they were doing the three class systems in the us There's been adopted by many of the states, and I worked a little [00:50:00] bit on that as well with a core group of people.
For me, I'm an e-bike rider. I, I ride e mountain bikes because of course I need to stay in the dirt No, on the, on the road. But yes, my wife and I, we ride as much as we can and, and we love it. And yes, it was, it was very good to see the transformation in regards to. Approach of a e-bike and, and the community, like the regular bicycle community as a whole, like in Europe, it's been way ahead of time compared to the United States.
So there were lots of pain points that we needed to go through because a lot of people didn't understand, oh, they are motorcycles and no, they're not motorcycle. Mm-hmm. You pedal, you don't twist the throttle. Mm-hmm.
Education, it's, it's always at a base on everything in reality, and it takes time to make [00:51:00] everybody understand. So the people for Bike Group, they developed the three class system, did an amazing job there to kind of like make a little bit more standardized and understanding of how E-bike X and therefore what each state can do about it.
That was a very big thing that was, was done. And then after that, we continue to see more and more companies coming into the United States with the, with their products. And from road and transportation, especially in the big cities. It's a big deal because with the younger demographic tuning a lot into the environment and try therefore to do better for the World Electric transportation is able to provide that.
So with having cities like Big City, like San Francisco is one of them, they try to create more and more bike path. So instead of going to work with a car, you go to work with a bicycle, an electric bicycle. [00:52:00]
Andrea Hiott: And now you can in San Francisco with an electric bike, you can actually do it on the hills.
Stefy Bau: Yes, indeed.
We were based at, the branch was based there in San Francisco, so we completely saw the entire evolution of it. And now in the morning, like on the Golden Gate Bridge, you see so many electric bikes. So people that choose that to go to work in sending cars, which little by little is making a change, less car on the road, the world can breathe a little
Andrea Hiott: easier.
What do you think about electric motorcycles?
Stefy Bau: I personally love them because I'm always looking ahead, looking forward of what we can do to continue to grow, right? So whereas I grow up as a part of the gas cycle, my entire career was on that. And there is some magic around it. Like the smell. Like even right now when I smell gas mean for me, it reminds me of my childhood, right?
Mm-hmm. Yeah. But we need to become a more and more. Responsible for, [00:53:00] for this, this planet that we live on. Right? Therefore, electric gives an opportunity to continue to have the sport in areas that now they've been outgrown by buildings. Right? Before we had, especially motocross, we had those hills and and tracks on hills around fairly close to towns and cities.
Right now, guess what? The towns are expend the city are expending, so they're eating up the tracks. Mm-hmm. And one of the reasons is we don't need that because they're loud, they're noisy, they smell bad, they're not good for the environment. Well now if you move, we all move to electric. That old argument collapse.
Like we can potentially have a motorcycle track in the middle of a city, in a park. And therefore grow the sport in that way because again, it connects all into the education. Putting thinking in this way, if you put a kid right [00:54:00] off the bat at four years old on a regular bicycle, and then you move them on an electric motorcycle right away, they will not know the difference growing up because that's the only thing they experience.
Mm-hmm. But you know, if you put them then into a gas motorcycle, then we are gonna continue to feed the same system that we are trying to change, be able to get in at an early age. Then that kid is gonna grow up and say, oh, I don't want a noisy motorcycle. I want one that I can actually hear what's going on when I, when I race, or I have fun.
Andrea Hiott: Then they'll have memories of that, of the hearing, the atmosphere or, or different memories than the sensory ones we have of like gasoline and all those things. Correct?
Stefy Bau: Correct. Which again, it's. That was the way that I grew up and I love it. But between me and you, if you go to watch a motorcycle race, you cannot even speak with somebody next to you because it's so loud.
So yeah, you are there with [00:55:00] some other people enjoying something, but in reality it's almost like you're there by yourself. So we wanted to create a continuous sense of community. Maybe we should look into lowering the sound decibel. Right. And electric gets you that. So now you can be there, enjoy the show, but at the same time having a word with the person sitting next to you without going home at night and not having any voice in you anymore.
Andrea Hiott: Exactly. Same with race car racing. Do you think they're as fun? For racing.
Stefy Bau: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I do because I do, because I also try a few of them. Oh, you did? And I mean, they are just so good. Like with time and more investment, they're gonna continue to become better and better. But they are so good. It's all about the torque there.
So it's a little bit less skills on how to manage the clutch, I would say, because it's more like torque. Mm-hmm. But at the same time it's, it's a lot of power. Like, and let's do whatever you need to [00:56:00] do. Just like in a regular motorcycle, the only issue still is the battery length. Right. So people want to go for long or want to be able to stop if they are trail riding and the gas station and re refill and keep going.
Yeah. So we are still chasing that dream, but have to work, work that out. It. It will happen. There is no stopping evolution. Oh no,
Andrea Hiott: we're going that way. So you think you can still learn those same lessons that you told us about earlier in terms of Absolutely. Kinda life lessons from electric
Stefy Bau: too?
Absolutely. Because the sport is the sport. So where you experience the gasoline and sound is still the same track, right? So mm-hmm. The, what I experienced in my life, it can be transferred again. And even with electric motorcycles. So I look forward to that. It's gonna take time because of course like the world runs on gasoline and there is politics involved and all of that, but even like on the [00:57:00] consumer side, on the car world, it's nice to finally see more and more company like starting to develop an electric vehicle.
So it's It's gonna happen. Yeah. It's gonna happen. And we have to, it's, it's not, oh, it would be nice. It is more, it's more like we have to, because. We know what's happening. Climate change is real and we, we need
Andrea Hiott: to do better. It's urgent. Yeah. If we wanna keep enjoying all these things we've been talking about, we have to find better ways to do them.
Last question relates to all this we've been talking about, and you were talking about it a little while ago, but I just wonder to tie it in about motoring and how this has been an important part of your life. I do also wanna say that you did get back on a motorcycle. We talked a lot about your Yes.
Accident in 2008. You did it right. You got back on, which I have to say, like I am, I did respect, like deep respect for that. I need to at least acknowledge that because you were just talking about riding the electric one. Yeah. It's,
Stefy Bau: it's about, I guess for me it was about closing the [00:58:00] circle. Mm-hmm. Because I feel like the, I didn't get.
The chance to close my racing career. Mm-hmm. Because it just happened for me. Yeah. So be able to, to go back on and do a few, few more laps. It was incredibly emotional. It was more like, okay, so now, now I'm ready to. Really close that chapter, right? Mm-hmm. And, but I was born a motorcycle, so I don't own one.
And that is a reason for it. Mm-hmm. Because I know that I would be going back and wanted to be like a get back on once I used to be. Right. So I, I don't have a motorcycle, but every once in a while, like when friends comes and say, Hey, you wanna go ride? We have an extra bike. More often than not to say, yeah, I come and do a couple laps.
Oh wow. But I need to be, I need to be very careful of course, because I was lucky to keep my legs. Mm-hmm. But you know, like a big impact can destroy what's been done and [00:59:00] maybe I would not be as lucky again. My Yeah, definitely Be careful
Andrea Hiott: because we want you to stay around
Stefy Bau: you. Thank you. But like, my next best things is riding mountain bike, so I don't jump 'em, I don't jump 'em.
But,
Andrea Hiott: but riding, that's, that's a thrilling thing. And especially if you can do it with your wife where it's a joint Yes. Experience. It makes it really special. There's that For sure. For sure.
Stefy Bau: We love it. And we go with electric ones, like I said, and we do the E mountain bikes and it's so good. And even that we were talking about electric, it's important.
Like people like myself, they have an a permanent disability basically, you know, in my ankles. Mm-hmm. I mean, if it wouldn't be for electric mountain bikes, I couldn't, I couldn't enjoy being out in the dirt. I hope, you know, the more and more people started to give it a try because for the purists that they said, oh, it's like cheating.
I'm like, try to turn it off. Yeah. And pedal, and then tell me if it's cheating
Andrea Hiott: or not. Yeah. [01:00:00] It's just different. It's like what you were saying about the table being larger. It's like we don't have to choose, but it's better that there's more options and technology can help us in ways that, like you just described, it's opening more possibilities.
We can be more responsible. Okay. So you've persisted and you've found a way to keep motoring. I, you've gone all directions around every mountain that you've seen in front of you and your life is still about motoring, even virtual motoring, electric motoring. So I guess just to end it, I'd like to hear what you think about this idea of forever motoring and.
All these forms that it takes and
Stefy Bau: what it means to you? Well, for me, I started when I was very young, so therefore, that's my passion. I, I can never see my life without motoring. It's, it's just not possible. It's part of me. So whatever that is, two wheel, four wheel on skis or whatever has to have a moral in it.
And I think in general, if I, I should say some takeaways after this, [01:01:00] this call, anybody and everybody in life, they should just follow their passion and whatever moves you, just go for it.
Andrea Hiott: Thank you so much for being with us today, and thanks for all that you do and all these paths you've opened for so many people.
For women. It's definitely something special and I wanna express my gratitude for it.
Stefy Bau: Well, thank you so much. It means a lot to me. Little by little, we're gonna change the world.