We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kyle Davis . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kyle below.

Kyle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

I hope that I can be remembered for my influence in bringing American stage rally back to the forefront of extreme sports media. In the early 2000s, the sport was on ESPN2. The WRC is planning to return to America in 2026 for the first time since 1986, marking a push into the American market that has been largely untouched since the death of colin McRae in the early 2000s.

I want to have my channel become influential inasmuch as if you know American rally, you know The District of Countersteer.

I am not so much concerned as to what happens to my personal legacy; however, I want the legacy of my videos and production company to live well beyond me.

I want to be known as the person who went and did what he truly wanted to do, despite the many obvious reasons not to.

I have met my goals thus far, and have now set my sights for making waves at the highest level of the sport, trying to get my ideas out into the world of rally in the United States.

I would love to reference a quote from Craig Breen, a personal hero of mine despite me only following him as a driver for 6-7 months before he passed away.

Everything he said in the months leading up to his death was prophetic,.. He had finished 2nd in an event before his death, after a year or so without a good result.

After the result was finalized, an emotional Breen said, “Don’t let anyone ever put you down, because only you know your true potential.”

Craig would not live to see the podium again, but his words rang true immediately with me. His subsequent death remains one of the few deaths outside of close family that has ever affected me.

I want to be known as someone who had been kicked down many times, by other people, bad luck and life itself.

The most important thing for me is to show people that believing in your own potential will take you to the places you want to go in life, will take you to the people you need to meet, and will keep you away from the people who doubt you.

The juxtaposition of extreme fun and extreme danger in rally is such that it is a great metaphor for the risks it takes to be who you want to be. It will be scary, there will be slips, jumps, and rocks pulled onto the road. There will be trees that destroy a tire, friends that burn a bridge, or a relationship that ends before you were ready.

All of these things though, are just details when you are in pursuit of a real, genuine, personal goal of being yourself.

I want people to see that despite these dangers, the pursuit of that happiness is well worth the risk, just as it is worth taking the risk in any walk of life to become who you were meant to be,

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

In the past year, I have built my following around positive human interaction and tracking my own insights.

I will reach out to creators who I think are doing a good job, and leave a comment or send a message just being honest and relaying that message.

feedback trains the algorithm to show you their followers and vice versa.

If the conversation is prolonged, likely moreso, but the key is really what that person has to say not necessarily the algorithm.

We can all learn something from everyone we meet, and this is the case with rally. I have just asked people about things, about their car, a competition they volunteer at, experiences they have, and 9/10 I will get a great response.

I hope, and think, that shows people I am genuinely into rally and not just copying and posting stuff stolen from the bowels of the internet. I want to elevate grassroots rally, no matter where, and I think that shines through and helps me gain traction with followers.

That, and obssessively engaging with all the location, hashtag, and all the other nonsense that social media algorithms want you to do.

I will not buy into the “trends” but as a political researcher in college I do trust the numbers here

Also, the biggest thing is just opening yourself up. Keeping up some kind of persona is exhausting and people don’t want social media to be scripted its supposed to be like what the first iteration of reality tv was.

If you are yourself, people will see something unique, and that alone is worth coming back more than a trending reel…this time with a different car.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think its been my fairly relentless obsession with finding out more about rally from a racing point of view.

All I want to do is learn more,, and be better and covering it. I want to race faster in the sim. I want to get in the co driver seat faster. I want to soak in as much knowledge about this as I can. And it turns out, I have done quite a bit of that in the past year or two, so when I engage on social media with other people in rally world, they can appreciate that I have taken the time to go further than getting my feet wet into the weeds, as in, hundreds and hundreds of hours of YouTube videos etc.

I think my steadfast belief in not falling for the Instagram “trending” stuff has placed me well outside the annoying sphere of social media

seeing lots of different rally videos? great
seeing the same edit style over and over. eh
hearing the same garbage music over and over because the algorithm said so…. noo

I need music to be curated properly . its often the key to unlocking a good skate video

when you come to the District of Countersteer, it should be a breath of fresh air for your eyes and ears.

take a second to see something that isn’t massively overproduced

listen to something that hasn’t been fed through a system designed to keep you agitated and engaged, but never satisfied

Sometimes that doesn’t always work. sometimes the views and engagement will be lower. but its not for the algorithm

its for you, and me

the people you interact with on social media should feel like you are bringing them inside the ropes, inside your home, your space, your world,

and if you bring them into your world and it has the same music as the boring sad world they are trying to leave behind by looking at my page, then they probably wont stay

escapism is important, and keeping my page a safe space from music that is literally designed to entice for social media, is the very least I can do

I want to be a trusted source for gnarly rally clips, that are geared towards those who know, but those who don’t understand the gravity and insanity of what they are seeing.

I have been building up my legitimacy this past year as part of a concerted effort to talk to teams at a higher level, in terms of marketing strategy etc.

These talks have led to me gaining even more vocabulary and fluidity to move and communicate within the rally world.

I am able to convey my legitimate rally knowledge now, so when they come to my page, they see rally clips that capture what they are looking for, and that is consistent

its like any branding, coca cola cant have a bad bottle of coke, just like that, I cant let a video go out that doesn’t capture the essence of rally.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.instagram.com/thedistrictofcountersteer/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedistrictofcountersteer/