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

Alright, Molly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

After a 12 year career in school settings, it was clear that I was as bored of sitting at a desk as my students. I kept crawling my way into non-traditional education jobs to stave off my boredom from teaching. Nothing was working. Some joy came from coaching sports teams, but sports are limiting to those predisposed with athletic ability.

While I was working in a specific high school, we were short-staffed and wore a lot of hats. I took the school camera to all the events on campus and became the official school photographer. That was my first taste of creating my own job, without someone else telling my HOW to do it. This taste of a creative path, that brought others joy, was the first step into the creative career I was about to embark on. I took a leap and left my full time job to pursue a career as a photographer. Strangely, my path only starts there.

I reconnected with a former teacher who was dreaming of opening a “DIY Community Motorcycle Garage” here in Cleveland, Ohio. Folx would come in and use the shared space, shared tools, and community of people to work on their broken motorcycles (or whatever else was broken in their life). Trouble was, he didn’t know how to get the message out. We teamed up and I became the storyteller for Skidmark Garage. My photography business morphed into a marketing business. The marketing went so well, the business blew up. Adults from all over town came in, and I knew it was time to bring this unique business back to students.

I’d gotten kinda good at inventing made-up jobs, so why not create a business? I founded Motogo, a non-profit teaching students confidence through building vintage motorcycles. We bring back shop class…and invent it as we go!

Molly, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

School never brought me joy. I graduated from John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio in 2003 with a degree in Physical Education and a double minor in Poetry and Fashion Design. At John Carroll, I wasn’t too interested in the traditional school path, and truly went to college to play Division III fastpitch softball. I was captain of the softball team, completed Southern Cross University’s Semester Outback in Australia and the National Outdoor Leadership School’s (NOLS) Wind River Wilderness Expedition in Wyoming.

My career started in Chicago as a Recruiter and Alumni Relations Manager for the High Jump Program, an academic enrichment program at the Latin School of Chicago from 2004-2007. I loved my work with students from families of modest means in under-resourced neighborhoods. I moved back home to Cleveland and joined Saint Martin de Porres High School in various non-classroom teaching educator roles including Student Success Coach.

In 2014, my friend and fellow educator Brian Schaffran dreamed of opening what he called a DIY “Community Motorcycle Garage.” I had quit my fulltime job and started a photography business, without any formal training. Over the next 4 years, I used my photography skills to build the “Skidmarketing Team” which brought Skidmark Garage into the public eye. We even had a reality TV show made about the garage called, Wrench Against the Machine. The success of the garage was great for adults…but what were we doing for kids? It was time to bring shop class to kids. I was inspired to open the non-profit educational program Motogo, and my friend Brian Schaffran was inspired to marry me.

I am the founding Executive Director of Motogo, and use this platform to fight for the voices of those who are marginalized. Motogo teaches students, especially those students historically, often purposefully, left out of the cool stuff, confidence through building vintage motorcycles. We introduce the small stress of fixing broken machines in a safe environment, so they can learn to push through any roadblocks. While we do exist to “bring back shop class,” the goal has nothing to do with the career path a student selects. We are here as educators to re-wire the brain, and learn that stress, and failure, is normal. It’s just a lot more fun to teach it while building a 1971 Honda CB 350.

There was no path for building this business, and maybe my strange background of getting my hands dirty in nature, building a photography business without any formal training, and paying attention to what is fashionable, has given me the perfectly odd mixture of skillsets to form this incredibly important, life-changing non-profit educational program for students.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I wasn’t a bad student, but I wasn’t a straight A student. Messaging in school told me that I was just average. Other than the sports field, there wasn’t a place for me to shine. When school ends, your sports career ends, too.

I had to unlearn that grades and games aren’t the only measure, or maybe aren’t actually a measure at all, of my intelligence.

Starting a business takes bravery. Some days it feels like everyone is telling you that you are doing it wrong. The beauty of creating your own thing, is that YOU in fact, know what it is YOU want to bring to the world. I had to learn that I am the expert. Trust your gut, fake confidence until you actually become confident.

There is no manual, no roadmap for making new stuff in the world. You get to write it.

I could go on and on about the people who I have learned from along the way, but I never would have been able to hear their advice, if I hadn’t first learned that I am smart.

You are smart, too.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Surround yourself with non-creatives. Yeah, that sounds crazy, but I’ve found I learn the most from the people who are drastically different that I am.

Don’t get me wrong, you need your creative friends who understand your big dreams and encourage you…but if I can implement 10% of what my insane, type A, list making, data collecting, measurement driven colleagues are driving home, I’ll be a tiny bit different in a market that is competitive.

From a sales standpoint, the more people you can appeal to, the bigger your pool of revenue, so have a coffee with that person who is your archenemies. I never bend my morals, or creep away from the mission, but I like to listen to my doubters.

Contact Info:

• Website: motogocleveland.com
• Instagram: motogocleveland
• Linkedin: Molly Vaughan

Image Credits
Mark Adams Pictures Molly Hayes Vaughan Photography Yasaki Photographic Cass Jerman