{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdriven-to-ride.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fthalassa-van-beek-FaI_ldiq","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"Thalassa Van Beek","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/3587b692-4073-433a-9e08-bb1208a331fe/0f6cc9db-3546-4f86-bfa5-6143511a1ce6/copy-of-driven-to-ride-final-podcast-logo-090723.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"Thalassa Van Beek fell in love with motorcycling as a teenager working as a hostess and model in her native Netherlands. She was handing out brochures at a trade show when a blue Yamaha YZF-R6 caught her eye. “Right then and there,” she recounts to “Driven to Ride” host Mark Long, “I decided to get my license because I needed to ride that bike.”\n\nVan Beek earned her license at age 19, and she has been riding pretty much ever since. She bought a Honda VTR250, which was followed by a CBR600F and then her dream R6. Today, living in motorcycle-crazy Spain, she owns a handful of machines—all Yamahas. “Every time I’m on the bike, it just makes me happy and excited, like I can conquer the world.”\n\nVan Beek eventually formed her own agency, “Motorcycle Marketing.” She surrounded herself with experts specializing in copywriting, graphic design, SEO, and social media. She has one hard-and-fast rule: Everyone has to ride motorcycles. “It’s a specific language,” she says. “You can just tell when a campaign is written by someone who isn’t a biker. It shows.” Indeed, it does.\n"}