Merchants of Dirt

Merchants of Dirt Episode #55

Kyle introduces Event Yak podcast dedicated to talking to event industry veterans who live, eat, and breathe live events.

Introducing: Event Yak

As Race Promoters and Directors trying to keep your Event Business alive during this unprecedented time, you need to find all the help and ideas you can get! Introducing: Event Yak -- a podcast hosted by my good friend Terri Walters from Moonfish Production. Terri's podcast features interviews from some of the top event industry veterans who live, eat and breathe live events. In this episode, Terri interviews someone who is near and dear to Mr. Murphy's heart -- ME!

Learn more about Terri Walters and Event Yak:

• Moonfish Production
• Event Yak Podcast
• Event Yak on Apple Podcasts
• Event Yak on Google
• Event Yak on Spotify

Get Lost Racing coming to Merchants of Dirt!

The Get Lost Racing Podcast, hosted by Kyle M. Bondo, is a podcast about defining off-road racing disciplines! Each episode takes a look into an off-road sport and explains what it is, how it works, and how you can experience it! Over the next week weeks, Merchants of Dirt will include Get Lost Racing (GLR) episodes that explore endurance race disciplines that could be used to create your own virtual race portfolio!

Thank You for Listening!

• Contact Us: MerchantsofDirt AT GMAIL DOT com
• Episode Show Notes: merchantsofdirt.com
• Podcast Episodes: merchantsofdirt.libsyn.com
• Race Promotion Thinking: Reckoner.com

Merchants of Dirt is a Gagglepod production. Learn more at gagglepod.com.

Merchants of Dirt Episode #54

Kyle talks about why building a community online with membership content is a better strategy for survival than replacing lost races.

Build a Community

Don't replace your races with a virtual equivalent. Instead, use this time to finally build your community. Spend time in developing online membership offerings that focus on daily, weekly, or monthly challenge content. A loyal following that is interested in your company month-after-month is far more rewarding than having them come to one race.

Ideas for Pre-Built Membership Sites:

• meetup.com
• pabbly.com
• clubmaster.org
• wildapricot.com
• memberplanet.com
• memberspace.com
• patreon.com
• facebook.com

Additional Reading

• Article: Virtual races embraced by endurance athletes during coronavirus pandemic
• Amy Porterfield - All About Membership Sites: Your Top 10 Burning Questions
• Amy Porterfield - How They Did It: 3 Inspiring Stories of Membership Site Success
• Amy Hoy - How to find your audience's online watering holes

Thank You for Listening!

• Contact Us: MerchantsofDirt AT GMAIL DOT com
• Episode Show Notes: merchantsofdirt.com
• Podcast Episodes: merchantsofdirt.libsyn.com
• Race Promotion Thinking: Reckoner.com

Merchants of Dirt is a Gagglepod production. Learn more at gagglepod.com.

Merchants of Dirt Episode #53

Kyle explores The Lockdown AR-style virtual activity challenge designed by Rootstock Racing and what you can learn from this experimental four-day event.

Race Invention is the Mother of Necessity

Rootstock Racing, based in Philadelphia, PA, is hosting The Lockdown: an AR-style virtual activity challenge designed to bring what they are calling "a little bit of normalcy" to an Adventure Racer's life between Mon April 13 - Sun May 31, 2020.

The idea behind The Lockdown is to have participants complete a personal eight-stage, four-day (96-hour) event within a 21-hour window of activity.

The Lockdown stages include:

• Stage 1: Run/Trek
• Stage 2: Bushwhack
• Stage 3: Road Ride
• Stage 4: Trail Ride
• Stage 5: Multisport
• Stage 6: Non-Bike/Run Discipline
• Stage 7: Strength Building
• Stage 8: Navigation challenge

What's the catch? The Lockdown challenge must be completed by May 31, 2020. This means you can start The Lockdown any time between April 13 to May 28, 2020. But once you start it, you have 96-hours (4-days) to complete all eight stages.

Those that sign-up (anywhere in the world - $35) and become official finishers receive a t-shirt in the mail and enter to win prizes. Rules, details, and participant information is sent by email within 24 hours of registration.

All proceeds (minus administration costs) go to charity. Learn more on Facebook Event Page or Register now of The Lockdown!

NOTE: Kyle M. Bondo, Merchants of Dirt Podcast, or Reckoneer is not connected to this event nor affiliated with Rootstock Racing in any way. I'm just a really big fan and hopefully one of the finishers. As of Tuesday, April 14th, The Lockdown had 147 registrants representing 35 states and 3 countries -- so they are off to a great start!

About Rootstock Racing Rootstock Racing, founded by Abby Perkiss and Brent Freedland, is a non-profit organization located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Rootstock seeks to add adventure into the daily lives of its racers, regardless of age or experience. Serving the greater community of Philadelphia but also reaching well beyond the city limits, Rootstock encourages individuals, friends, and families to explore the natural world around them while also challenging themselves physically and mentally.

In addition to fostering sports and adventure, Rootstock Racing seeks to give back to local environmental and conservation efforts while advocating for responsible use of the amazing outdoor spaces participants will visit. Learn more on their Facebook Page or at Rootstockracing.org.

Thank You for Listening

• Email Us: MerchantsofDirt AT GMAIL DOT com
• All our Show Notes: merchantsofdirt.com
• All our Episodes: merchantsofdirt.libsyn.com
• More Race Promotion Thinking: Reckoner.com

Merchants of Dirt is a Gagglepod production. Learn more at gagglepod.com.

Merchants of Dirt Episode #52

Kyle explores how a virtual event can be organized and ideas for creating your own membership club to survive the shutdown.

Does a Virtual Race in the Woods Make a Sound

The pandemic is not going away anytime soon. So what is a racing company to do? Virtual Events! Explore a virtual event being produced by the Central Virginia Orienteering Club (CVOC) and take a deep dive into what it might mean for your business. This includes creating your own online membership club where you can host monthly challenges, provide members with exclusive courses, and work out the details of your tracking and timing issues.

Thank You for Listening

• Email Us: MerchantsofDirt AT GMAIL DOT com
• All our Show Notes: merchantsofdirt.com
• All our Episodes: merchantsofdirt.libsyn.com
• More Race Promotion Thinking: Reckoner.com

Merchants of Dirt is a Gagglepod production. Learn more at gagglepod.com.

Merchants of Dirt Episode #51

Kyle challenges race promoters to pivot quickly towards asynchronous competition and virtual events if their business is to survive this pandemic.

Keep Racing with Asynchronous Virtual Events

The world has been turned on its head with the pandemic of COVID-19. What is a race promoter to do when every event you direct requires people to be in close proximity to each other? The hard truth is that an events business that stops having events is out of business. However, if you pivot RIGHT NOW and incorporate Asynchronous Competition Events and virtual activities into your portfolio, you have a chance to capture an audience that is looking — albeit HUNGRY — for safe and creative ways to exercise in isolation.

Thank You for Listening

• Email Us: MerchantsofDirt AT GMAIL DOT com
• All our Show Notes: merchantsofdirt.com
• All our Episodes: merchantsofdirt.libsyn.com
• More Race Promotion Thinking: Reckoner.com

Merchants of Dirt is a Gagglepod production. Learn more at gagglepod.com.

Merchants of Dirt Episode #50

These 50 race direction lessons learned can help you build your roadmap, refine your checklists, or just help you find a place to start.

50 Lessons Learned - The RD Roadmap

Welcome to an information-packed 50th episode of Merchants of Dirt and thank you for listening!

Listen along as I help you take the mystery out of outdoor race direction with 50 lessons learned from being a race director.

After it's all said and done, you'll find out that it's more like 250 lessons learned -- certainly an episode you're going to want to listen to more than once.

Follow along with this episode's handy-dandy checklist:

• 01. Vision
• 02. Ideas
• 03. Research
• 04. Market
• 05. Mission
• 06. Principles
• 07. Budget
• 08. Business Plan
• 09. Model
• 10. Strategies
• 11. Offerings
• 12. Organize
• 13. Branding
• 14. Planning
• 15. Risks
• 16. Rules
• 17. Venue
• 18. Schedule
• 19. Proposal
• 20. Presentation
• 21. Permit
• 22. Build
• 23. People
• 24. Marketing
• 25. Outreach
• 26. Pre-Registration
• 27. Timing
• 28. Courses
• 29. Promote
• 30. Sales
• 31. Trail Work
• 32. Safety
• 33. Volunteers
• 34. Race
• 35. Direct
• 36. Setup
• 37. Registration
• 38. Starts
• 39. Monitor
• 40. Results
• 41. Podium
• 42. Clean Up
• 43. Close Out
• 44. Analyze
• 45. Learn
• 46. Observe
• 47. Review
• 48. Revise
• 49. Measure
• 50. Decide

And Now You Know!

50th Episode Bonus Content

Thank you for listening and being a part of the Merchants of Dirt 50th episode!

As a special bonus just for listeners, please visit http://reckoneer.com/roadmap and receive a FREE Race Promotion Roadmap. With this roadmap, you can follow along with the episode or plot your own path to race success! 

The new roadmap is coming out this Fall, but you can still get a chance to claim the original Race Promotion Roadmap before it becomes a collector's item!  

Thank You for Listening

Thank you so much for listening to Merchants of Dirt Podcast. If you have questions or comments, please reach out to me @MerchantsofDirt on Twitter, by Email, or my Contact Form.

Join the Conversation

If there is a topic you would like me to cover, please join my Facebook group: Race Promoters' Hangout.

Support the Podcast

Become my patron at Patreon!

 

Merchants of Dirt Episode #49

Racing Support Services is an entire industry that exists to make your racing business easier to manage, provide you professional services that you do not have to do yourself, and can free you up to build your business and think up new racing experiences.

Racing Support Services

Look like a professional without any staff by hiring a crew or renting one for a race day. How do you do that? By outsourcing many of the services and processes you are currently doing yourself. I this weeks episode, I talk about seven (7) industries that you could outsource your business and race direction services to.

#1 - Marketing

• Ad Campaigns
• Websites
• Signage

#2 - Online registration

• Web-based payments
• Extra sales
• On Day Licenses

#3 - Venue Equipment

• Power and Cables
• Tents and Tables
• Start and Finish line arches

#4 - Onsite Chip Timing

• Precision Timing
• Quick Results
• Staff Run Finish Line

#5 - Onsite Media

• Photographer
• Drone Video
• Video Interviews

#6 - Event Data Collection

• Post Race Surveys
• Participation Analysis
• Accounting

#7 - Race Management

• Contract Race Planning
• Race Day Direction and Orchestration
• Outsourced Races

And Now You Know!

Thank You for Listening

Thank you so much for listening to Merchants of Dirt Podcast. If you have questions or comments, please reach out to me @MerchantsofDirt on Twitter, by Email, or my Contact Form.

Join the Conversation

If there is a topic you would like me to cover, please join my Facebook group: Race Promoters' Hangout.

Support the Podcast

Become my patron at Patreon!

 

Merchants of Dirt Episode #48

If you invest your time in teaching and encouraging women to become better riders today, you can create an environment that promotes women to try racing for the first time and encourages more women to attend your events.

#1 — Make your sport more appealing to women

This seems like a no-brainer until you sit down to do it. Then you start to struggle with what exactly does "more appealing to women" mean. Does adding something to attract one type of customer to your race ALSO attract another type of customer? Or a better way to think of this is -- if I make these changes, does it actually move the needle in respect to bring more of A to my race?

Mountain biker marketing is very male-based in that the edgy, dangerous world of single-track riding is featured at all times. This is not to say that women do not like edgy and dangerous trails, it is to say that not ALL women like it.

As a race director, you need to focus on the fun atmosphere that is created during a race as a selling point.

#2 — Develop better outreach towards women

Women riders are already focused on the fitness part of cycling. Racing is just fitness at a faster pace. Plus it can help some gauge where they are -- their fitness level -- when they compare themselves to other women with comparative fitness levels. Your job to show them that racing is just an extension of that same fitness.

This can be done with group rides of the race course or practice clinics where only women get to experience the venue with other women (i.e. No dudes).

When you remove the unknown part of a race, it can begin to show the fun side of racing. If you invest your time in teaching and encouraging women to become better riders, your races will become, over time, imbued with the same reputation. Build the future of women racing by giving your time away now.

#3 — Ride without cars

Tap into the Women Road Biking crowd with what mountain biking offers: NO CARS!

Mountain biking can be a lot safer than road biking. You could try to interest women riders by offering a bike-share program that connects your local bike shop with a demo day at your venue. The bike shop wants to sell bikes, and you want more racers. Why don't you team up with a women-only demo day for women road bikers?

Winning over roadies will be a tough sell, but if you can do it without requiring them to buy a bike right away, it could be the introduction they need to switch to mountain biking. Better oxygen from being out in nature away from cars is not a bad selling point either!

#4 — Being Outdoors is the new Indoors

Speaking of nature, nature is another selling point that can take the edge off of male-dominated race marketing. Getting out in nature on a trail has very powerful imagery. If you connect that to riding with friends, then your race marketing starts to take the shape of social riding with friends for fun and fitness.

Lose the gnarl and shred you find in most hardcore racing marketing. Change it out for the social connection of ride groups that explore different locations as a build up to your event. Sometimes, the trees and fresh air can be a stronger selling point then the copywriting on your website.

#5 — Produce women-only event

A women-only event is just like it sounds — NO DUDES!

You can have men promoters and volunteers, but there are no men allowed to participate in the actual racing. The goal is to make an event for women that removed the intimidating nature of competition created by some men. Is it not foolproof, but that's why it's an experiment.

Some women love these kinds of events. Surprisingly, other women hate these kinds of events because they see them as even more competitive then Co-Ed events. Thus, it's experimental. Your turnout will tell you if it works or not.

#6 — Bonus Strategy

For those that are not fond of women-only events, you can begin introducing better categories and classes in your existing races. This means less open classes and expanding the range of women race classes. This could include breaking up categories like Single-Speed into both a men's and women's class. It could also include adding in the same age categories. Instead of only having a Women's 35+ class, you would create both a 35+ and a 45+ class.

The risk is in dividing your small turnout even further, but marketing is a double-edged sword. By focusing your marketing efforts towards women, using expanded women's categories and classes as an incentive, you make increase turnout due directly to that expansion. It might not, but the answer cannot be known until you work out the problem.

You can make a race day decision to allow classes to become combined if there is no turnout. Or you can just make an overall decision to eat the extra cost of awards and medals for the few women riders that show up, in hopes they will tell their friends. And they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on!

So make it easy to try out racing. Reduce the cost of entry to incentives taking a chance on an experiment. Once they've had a taste of racing, then all the worry about what the experience might have been like is washed away. They get to be in the mix, with all the yelling spectators with cowbells as they cross the finish. They get to see that nobody really cares what place you come in. The social environment is why some come to race in the first place -- the race is just the shared experience that connects everyone together.

If you build it, will women race?

There is a paradox to overcome when developing strategies designed to increase the turnout of women in your races. You cannot expect large numbers of women to turn out to your race if the environment is focused mostly on men. But if you create an environment that promotes a women-friendly environment, you need to tap into your local community and find those women that may want to challenge themselves to a race, but never knew they could or would like it. Only after having women-friendly thinking built-in can you honestly market to them. Do not go into any of these strategies thinking that you can increase your women turnout with half-measures. These are long-term solutions that take multiple seasons before they start to work.

And Now You Know!

Thank You for Listening

Thank you so much for listening to Merchants of Dirt Podcast. If you have questions or comments, please reach out to me @MerchantsofDirt on Twitter, by Email, or my Contact Form.

Join the Conversation

If there is a topic you would like me to cover, please join my Facebook group: Race Promoters' Hangout.

Support the Podcast

Become my patron at Patreon!

 

Merchants of Dirt Episode #47

The reason bad crews have worse leaders has everything to do with a race director that hires their friends, allows them to say and do anything they want, and approves of their bad behavior by doing nothing to stop them from ruining their business.

Observation #1

Problem - Deserted Finish Line Your crew wants to leave early? Tough! All of your crew needs to stay until the end, even if it's all packed up. Because if your crew is not still cheering the last ones to finish, why are they your crew?

Solution - If You Stay Your Crew Stays Too  The solution is not to hire any of your friends that do not believe in your racing mission. Crew members that cannot be bothered to stick around until all racers are off the course need to go find other work. And if you as a race director cannot enforce that principle, then you should consider another type of business.

Observation #2

Problem - Mocking Last Place Racers The way your crew treats those who are last matters. Doom on the race director that joins in and does not think their last place racers are important.

Solution - Fire Your Bad Staff or Close Your Business If your crew is caught mocking the last place racers, they should be fired! If you don't, it will not be long before your reputation makes your racing company a distance memory.

Observation #3

Problem - Crew Social Hour while Volunteers Work Is your crew taking a break while your volunteers are still working? Then you don't deserve volunteers. Your crew reflects you, your company, and what you think of racers. Taking a break with your crew while volunteers continue to work speaks volumes about who you are. If you think that's ok behavior, you don't deserve volunteers.

Solution - Treat Volunteers With Respect or Don't Have Them Volunteers are special helpers that demand your gratitude and respect. And they are ALWAYS watching you and your staff! If you treat them poorly or allow your staff to treat them poorly, then you shouldn't ever run a race with volunteers. Earn the right to have volunteers help your race by treating them well.

And Now You Know!

Thank You for Listening

Thank you so much for listening to Merchants of Dirt Podcast. If you have questions or comments, please reach out to me @MerchantsofDirt on Twitter, by Email, or my Contact Form.

Join the Conversation

If there is a topic you would like me to cover, please join my Facebook group: Race Promoters' Hangout.

Support the Podcast

Become my patron at Patreon!

 

Merchants of Dirt Episode #46

Consider how creating spectator friendly events could create new customers while the untapped benefits of having an excited crowd could help your bottom line.

Three Formats to Consider

This episode of Merchants of Dirt is about spectators. Or more specifically, three types of events that make spectating fun:

• The Relay
• The Short Track
• The Intergalactic Pond Crossing

In an age where every dollar counts, race directors owe it to themselves to consider including spectator friendly onto their race calendar. These short courses, quick turnaround times, and spectator friendly formats provide all the ingredients needed for a festival-like atmosphere. Which is exactly what you're is looking for in your next event.

Spectators might only come to your race to cheer their racer, but who knows? It's possible that the speed of a shorter, easy to follow event might get them to stay to cheer on the other racers too. Additionally, think about all the spectators that DO come to your events. If you could entertain them along with your racers, could you just imagine how much more customer loyalty you could create?

Spectators could become that new revenue source that you have been overlooking all this time. Of course, the catch to spectator events is that you will need to be as dedicated to your spectators as you are to your racers. But, if you can provide enjoyment AND entertainment to both groups, you could possibly create a very new and potentially profitable experience that keeps both racers AND spectators coming back again and again.

And experience might even make the whole family want to come to your next race too.

And Now You Know!

 

Thank You for Listening

Thank you so much for listening to Merchants of Dirt Podcast. If you have questions or comments, please reach out to me @MerchantsofDirt on Twitter, by Email, or my Contact Form.

Join the Conversation

If there is a topic you would like me to cover, please join my Facebook group: Race Promoters' Hangout.

Support the Podcast

Become my patron at Patreon!