Jennifer Sheppard has been combining her love of motorsport with her passion for writing since the age of four. With such a long time in the industry, both reporting and competing, it’s easy to see how she can be extremely knowledgeable and a great voice of advice for a new generation of motorsport journalists.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever ridden a motorcycle before, but I fell in love instantly,” Sheppard said. “As a girl there wasn’t a lot of opportunities to compete and I had to figure out how I was gonna make money and I still wanted to be around motorcycles so I decided to start writing about the races”

Since those early days at the dirtbike track, Sheppard's career has changed and expanded in so many different ways. Throughout all her years in different places though, one thing stayed the same: her love for motorsport and storytelling.

Sheppard currently works as a marketing manager for KLIM, a motorsport apparel brand out of Rigby, ID. There she handles external/internal communications for the company. She also has a side business as a researcher and social media manager for smaller clients in and out of the industry. Her day to day work hasn’t always looked like this though.

Sheppard's sports writing career started all the way back in highschool when she was hired to write for the Florida Motocross Magazine in Tampa. The ensuing experience is what inspired her to get her masters in  journalism in hopes of becoming a moto-journalist. 

“I think I didn’t really know what journalism was per se, but I liked writing… I wrote articles in highschool… I was always creative, I always had a camera in my hand shooting photos with my dad at the races, so yeah it all came together.”

When I first asked Sheppard how different studying journalism was back then compared to today, she was quick to come up with a few differences. According to Sheppard, one of the biggest changes came with transcribing software like Otter,

which cut hours of transcribing out of the interview process. She also talked about how easy it is to get into contact with people now by just getting their email or looking up an address online. Another huge change she mentioned was that now people are easily able to start their own platforms and do everything themselves as opposed to how it was in her day when you would have to go through a company.

After her time working at the Florida Motocross Magazine and studying journalism Sheppard went into photojournalism while taking photos for motorcycle races. From there she went to work for Monster Energy Supercross in public relations until she landed a job at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a sports media professor.

 Sheppard recalled her time at Lincoln and recounted what it was like working in that environment. 

“I was the only female in the sports media department and I felt like that was a challenge but also an opportunity because there aren’t a lot of females in Nebraska that work in sports. I felt like a shining light or a beacon for those young women to see what they could do with their life”

Sheppard went on to talk about all they accomplished in her time at UNL when they first started the sports journalism program. She also talked with pride about the investigative journalism projects they did that changed the game for journalism at Lincoln. Sheppard was responsible for classes like sportswriting and the sports media capstone. She also took on teaching as many classes in journalism and ADPR as she could as she enjoyed getting to teach her skills to new students.

Sheppard was also admired by her co-workers at UNL. Advisor Anne McConkey was the first to point out her name when talking about past motorsport journalists at the school. “Oh yeah, she left a little bit before you got here, but she was awesome, just a super interesting story.”

After working at UNL, Sheppard ultimately landed herself where she currently is today, working with KLIM. With so much time working in so many different parts of the journalism industry, she also has a wealth of advice to share to a new generation of motorsport journalists.

“Compile a list of dream brands that you’d want to work for and watch them closely because they might have internships or freelance jobs, start networking on Twitter, and don’t give up,” Sheppard went on. 

She stressed this need for passion and persistence and went on to talk about one of the most important parts of a job in journalism: not quitting. Sheppard repeated the importance of passion in this line of work and just how much it helps you push

through hard times like it did for her. “There were freelance jobs where I never even got paid,” she said, “and most people would quit after that, but keep going”

“It’s gonna be so hard, but if you really have a passion for it that’ll help a lot.”

She never quit and once again mentioned how important it is to be persistent and have that passion to keep going, just like she taught her students and co-workers everywhere she went.