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Don’t Wait Until You’re Winning to Build a Brand
In Ready to make your racing your business? Treat it that way., I talked about how easy it is to chalk up a lack of action on your part to saying, ‘when you get to X turning point, you’ll do Y.’
One of the challenges I get often from racers who want to be successful in the sponsorship arena but aren’t winning on the track is this:
“I can’t sell sponsorship (or t-shirts) until I start winning races.”
And if that mindset isn’t enough to stop you in your tracks, there’s always the:
“I can’t win races until I have the money (i.e. sponsorship) to compete!”
Seems like a catch-22. You can’t win until you’re getting paid, but you can’t get paid unless you win.
Sounds like only rich kids with parents willing to dump money into racing are going to make it. And they’re the ones that don’t even need sponsorship! (<- How many times have you heard that one float around the pits?!)
Bollocks! (<- I’d say if I was British.)
There is a huge misconception in the racing industry that they only ways you can get sponsorship funds are: a) cry poor and b) win races.
Oh, and you can c) know somebody, which in negative rhetoric implies that only rich people know business owners, but I believe you can/must achieve the same effect by working hard to build relationships (no matter what your income level).
The misconceptions all feed off of one concept: sponsors aren’t driven by business results. They’re motivated by emotions – pulling on the heart strings or the pride of seeing their sponsored car in victory lane.
But wait, you say, doesn’t the car who reaches victory lane get more exposure in front of the fans? Yes, it does. But how measurable is a few thousand eyeballs on it when you can’t qualify who those people are, if they’re listening to the interview or talking to their friends, and watching victory lane or checking their Snapchat?
Smart businesses partner with BRANDS. And great news! You don’t have to win on the track to be a brand.
You just have to win at connecting with an audience that your future marketing partners want to reach and engage with.
Sounds great, right? But how do you do it? That’s the real question.
When I worked in an advertising agency coming off of my time in the NFL where the brands are pretty well-established, I was really surprised at how many different considerations companies and personalities need to take into account when building their brands. From the right foundations to the best platforms and tactics to use, I realize that it’s not easy to know where to start or what to do to really build your brand presence.
And in racing, it can be especially difficult when your face is hidden by a helmet much of the time and there’s a distinct lack of media and television coverage at most levels.
That’s why I put together a FREE 30-Day Build Your Racing Brand Challenge for the month of July that I’d love to invite you to take part in. If you’re interested, you can sign-up here.
Whether you’re struggling with where to start or just want some extra inspiration for how to build your brand, I’ve put together some of my top tips, tricks, tactics, foundational building blocks and resources for you to use each day in the month of July to take your brand from scattered to on-point.
We’ll even talk about how to measure your impact and give you a chance to submit your starting and ending statistics for a chance to win prizes!
It’s really easy to blame your lack of sponsorship success on your on-the-track results, and blame your on-the-track results on a lack of marketing capital.
But the real winners are out here building brands and engaging fans, partners, industry influencers and media members off the track, where you actually can control your results.
You in?
Kristin
P.S. I’ve been told by those who have already reviewed the materials that this should be a paid course or workbook. I’m also considering creating case studies out of those who crush this challenge and submit their results, with permission of course. If you want to guarantee that you can get this material for free, and potentially want the exposure of a case study for your team (<-hello, branding!), make sure you sign up for the 30-Day Build Your Racing Brand Challenge here.
Ready to make your racing your business? Treat it that way.
One of the questions that Carl and I both get asked frequently is: how do you make racing your full-time living?
Right now, I’m putting together a post on how teams make money (hint: hired drivers with 401(k)’s are the exception, not the rule, and those race track checks don’t exactly pay the bills), and today, I want to address just one aspect of that answer:
We treated it like a business even before it was one.
And when I say ‘it’, I’m referring not just our race team. We took everything that aligns with making racing our full-time job seriously before we were required to by our commitments, including this blog, our personal finances, our health, and much more.
It’s very easy to say: ‘when you get to X turning point, you’ll do Y.’
When my only job is racing, I’ll have the time and energy to:
work out every day,- have multiple cars built and lettered,
- take opportunities for rides outside of my own team,
- travel to races outside of my region,
- have a professional crew and appearance,
- structure my team financially as a business,
- create apparel and promotional materials,
- promote myself online and in the community, and,
- find and activate sponsorships.
Your mind needs that assurance that it’s okay for you not to be doing those things until X happens.
You’re already tapped out. You’re already putting in too many hours. You’re already spending too much money. You won’t have the time and energy to do any of the ‘extras’ until you go full-time.
Except, I’ve found that doing those things before your team is a business is what propels it to that level.
Of course, I know that you know that it’s never going to magically happen without extra work. Unless you’re unfurling lottery tickets like they’re shop towels, you’re not likely to wake up one day and be able to decide you’re going racing full-time.
But, beyond the logistics of making it work for you, there’s an important mindset shift that comes with doing the extra work of being a business before you’re a business that’s critical.
Running a race team as a business requires you to make decisions differently than if it’s a hobby or passion. It requires hard decisions.
For us, some of those hard decisions are equally scary and exciting – that’s the brilliance of going full-time with your passion. It’s terrifying to make leaps that you know might trip you up in the short term but buy you the dream long-term.
It’s also exhilarating.
Over the past few months, one of the hard and exciting decisions we made for our racing business was to sell our four bedroom, 2.5 acre home to move into a teeny, two bedroom apartment. Full disclosure to come as the dust settles, but suffice it to say it was not an easy decision or process.
But we want to do more racing. We want to do more traveling. We want to have more time and energy and money to invest in our team.
So, we could have said that: ‘when we’re ready to do more traveling and an opportunity comes up to invest in our team, we’ll sell the house.’
Instead, we said, ‘let’s sell the house and be ready for when that opportunity comes.’
Now, three months after a few conversations during Florida’s speed weeks and a phone call to our favorite realtor, we have no mortgage payment. We’re not paying anyone to mow 2.5 acres because we already didn’t have time to do that. We’re not worrying about maintaining a home designed to entertain family and friends when we spend most of our time at the track or in the garage with them anyway.
But what about paying rent, you ask? Good question. We’ve owned our apartment for over a year. We didn’t know we’d end up living here when we bought it. But it was part of our bigger ‘treat it as a business plan’ for generating income when we were on the road, focusing on racing.
See how that works?
I’m not saying we have it all figured out. What I am saying is if you want to know how some people are doing it, I’m here to show you.
How we’re doing it? Treat it like a business before you have to, because that mindset, and those decisions, are what helps take it to that level.
You might not know how, at this moment, it’ll happen. But the harder you work on making it into what you want, the more it starts to become… exactly what you want.
xo.
Kristin
P.S. I’ll be putting a special focus on how people make racing businesses work going forward because it’s what I get asked about most commonly by those who are serious about going to the next level. Have questions? Want to share how you do it? Feel free to kick me an email at Kristin@DirtyMouthCommunications.com – I’d love hear what you have to say and see how we can make that content available to go-getters like yourselves.
Build Relationships If You Want to Win
You can have one night stands, or you can have relationships. You likely can’t have both. At least not for long – just look at celebrities, politicians and athletes paying the big bucks in alimony and child support for trying to make that third setup work.
In racing, and probably in life, ‘one night stands’ might produce wins. But they might cost you more in the long-term:
On the track, if you can only control your win-producing -peed every once in a while, you’re likely crashing more than you’re winning. And that’s more expensive than just getting consistently faster until you’re a dominant car each and every race.
If you got the lead by taking out a competitor, you earned a short term win and, likely, an instant deduction to your fan base.
The same goes for the off the track end of your racing business.
You might be easily able to charm the proverbial pants off of a potential sponsor. But if you’re not setup to actually deliver and activate long-term, that relationship won’t last.
And, just like on the track, you might not just lose one fan. That marketing partner that you left out in the cold is likely to tell his business buddies, or the whole world (hello, internet!) about exactly how you do business.
Deep, long-term relationships based with marketing partners on mutual respect, however, do exactly the opposite: they grow over time, and sometimes even multiple with referrals to more potential marketing partners and other valuable opportunities.
I get asked a lot of questions about sponsorship-seeking tactics:
- What is the title of the person making sponsorship decisions?
- How do I get past the gate keeper?
- How do I get my proposal seen?
- Should I use an online contact form?
- What do I do to close the deal?
But the question that doesn’t get asked often enough is this one:
How do I build relationships that will make a difference in my racing career?
Yes, tactics are easy to grasp. The fairy tales of one amazing race clinching The Big Sponsor and All the Fans are fun to think about.
But if you want to be successful in any area of life, forget about the one-night-stands.
Focus on building relationships if you want to win.
xo.
Kristin
What’s Missing From (Most) Motorsports Marketing
In my line of work, I get to see a lot of marketing. From flyers on windshields to social media updates – yep, that’s marketing even if you’re only selling your own image – we come across thousands of marketing messages each and every day.
And we all know that there are people or companies who get it right, and people who’s marketing falls flat.
It’s not wrong. It’s just there. And we aren’t buying what there is(n’t) selling.
Good marketing determines quite a bit of success in racing.
They might post gate times and ticket prices, or results on race night, just like everyone else. And, even though you might not be sure why, something is missing.
It’s the story.
We racing people are practical. We talk prices. We talk times. We talk weights and pressures and RPMs.
And sometimes we forget that we do it all for a reason that has nothing to do with making a shiny thing go faster.
We are too close to the details to see the bigger picture. And that bigger picture is how we market ourselves, as drivers, and teams, and tracks, and event promoters.
Yes, it’s important to know how to tweet, and to actually do that.
But to think you’re going to build a fan base just by putting up results, gate times and ticket prices is a big mistake. And it’s where I see many racing businesses – frankly, businesses in many markets – fall flat.
Want to nurture a new fan relationship? Want to create a new customer?
Tell me why you race. Tell me what you love about the racing business. Tell me why I should care about you and your product, service or team.
I have a list of tracks, events, drivers and businesses that I want to work with. I didn’t add them to that list because they won a race or sold a lot of tickets to an event.
That may have been how I found out about them, but it’s not why I’ve followed them over the days, months and years.
It’s not just because of the way they do business – although that’s important. It’s not just because of the work they’re doing and the heart they’re putting into it – although that’s crucial.
It’s because I know about it. I know – at least to some degree – their story.
By the way, you’re one of those people.
Think I’m full of it? Maybe. But if you’re reading this, you’re telling me: I want to make my racing business better. I want to be more successful in racing. I care about my racing future.
That’s a part of your story. And that’s why I’m writing this.
So there.
And, by they other way, how do you do it?
Stop thinking about the practical, and start thinking about the personal.
Your fans are human beings, and so are you.
Fans come to race tracks to see their favorite drivers. They come to enjoy a night out with their significant other or friends. They come to spend time with their family members or entertain their kids. They come to work on a piece of art – ahem – race car. And they also do that, most likely, with their friends and family members.
Fans determine their favorite drivers for a variety of reasons. It might be because of their paint scheme, the way they drive, or, they way they conduct themselves off the track.
And, I’ll give you a hint, in today’s interconnected human-to-human world, that has become almost more important than anything else.
Because we can see what you’re doing. Or at least what you show us you’re doing.
If you want to connect with your customers, connect them with you and your business. Show us photos of people like us in the stands or at your facility. Tell us the story of how you got into racing or who your favorite driver was as a kid. Give us a tour of your race shop. Snap a photo of your adorable kid or supportive boyfriend scraping mud.
All of those things help us add up who you are. And that’s what we’re buying.
We’re buying you. And we can only do that if you fill in the blanks for us.
xo.
Kristin
P.S. Want more on this topic? Grab another post on why stories matter so much in racing here.
Building an audience? Here’s where to find your fans, marketing partners and media members.
If you’re building a racing business – a team, a track, an event or even a store – you know that you need customers.
Customers come in different forms – fans, purchasers, media members, marketing partners or sponsors – and you need to get in front of them to be successful, whether you’re selling a piece of merchandise, a ticket or a story.
While making a connection in person is always best, there are only so many opportunities to do so.
And that’s why I think social media is the most powerful tool in any businesses’ arsenal today – we can be reaching new fans and building our audience 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no matter where you are.
So, if you’re taking building your racing career seriously, and you’re approaching it as a business, you need to be looking to social media to build your audience.
Agreed? Agreed.
Now that we’re – ahem – agreed, let’s talk about where to find your audience. In the same way that you’re won’t be successful selling life insurance to a kid in the candy aisle, you don’t want to be hammering tweens on Snapchat with, well, life insurance pitches.
(No insult meant to the insurance industry – I happily have plenty of it. But, as my friends and family will quickly remind me, I am no longer a tween.)
There are a few ways to approach finding the right platforms to build your audience. These two questions should determine how you read the rest of this post:
- Are you going full-bore in the direction of your dreams and willing to dive into whatever will serve you? Or,
- Do you want to make the best of what you’ll actually do, instead of trying to sacrifice your natural behavior for the good of the business?
There’s no right or wrong answer to those questions. Everyone’s at a different stage in their journey, and imperfect action is so. much. better. than starting something you won’t stick with.
That being said, let’s move on to where I recommend finding the people that a) align with your brand and who you and your business are and b) are most likely to become customers.
Media and Industry Professionals: Twitter. While most will have a LinkedIn profile, they are both hanging out and finding their news on Twitter. They’re scouring our quick little headlines for something that they can pick up and feature, or to network with other industry pros.
Potential Marketing Partners: LinkedIn. If you want to be able to connect with them professionally, most marketing pros are have a profile on LinkedIn. This may not be where they’ll initially become aware of you and your brand, but this is most likely where you want to connect when you’re doing your research and warming up your prospects.
Your Fan Base: Oh boy. This one can be kind of a doozy. Because most people have multiple social media accounts and hang out in multiple places.
Here’s my breakdown of what’s important, because you kind find anyone of any age, race, religion or creed on any given platform at any given time:
- Want to create an audience of raving fans? Ask yourself what demographics your brand appeals to, and you’ll find the right platform:
- Want to reach people under 24 specifically? Look to Snapchat. Yes you can find them everywhere – there are specifically high numbers on Tumblr and Vine – but brands (and that’s who you are!!) find the most success reaching potential customers in this age group on Snapchat and Instagram, which teens cite as their most important network.
- Want to reach as many people in any age group as possible? Facebook, my friend. This well-worn platform goes through significant, regular changes but if you can build, or already have, a passionate group of fans, you’ll reach most of them through Facebook. While Facebook crosses the age divide, you will find the most fans age 65+ on Facebook first and LinkedIn second. (That might be your target and it might not, but think about this: is it a potential marketing partner’s target? We’ll get more into that in a second.)
- Want to reach women in particular? Pinterest. You need good, no, great, lifestyle images to make an impact on Pinterest, but hot dog is it a way to sell to women.
- Want to sell merchandise and apparel? Make sure it’s rad (or whatever word is currently tolerable) and in the lifestyle vein, and put it on Instagram or Snapchat, like I already mentioned. If it’s traditional-style racing apparel, you’ll do perfectly well with it on any platform that you have a fan base. Race fans, thank goodness, are everywhere!
- Want to show off your professional image and marketability to potential partners? Setup shop on LinkedIn. Your presence will be particularly valuable if you’re providing updates on the platform, not just creating a resume, and interacting in appropriate groups.
Your (Potential) Sponsors’ Fan Base: This is where that set of questions really comes into play. If you’re putting finding potential marketing partners above what’s natural and comfortable for you, you might be looking at using different platforms than you normally would in order to build a fan base in their target audience demographics. If not, that’s fine. If so, that’s fine, too. But you’ll want to do your research on who your prospects are trying to reach and where they’re hanging out, and then hang out there, too. For sponsors in the digital age, this is one of the most important and valuable, if not the most valuable asset you can bring to the table – the ability to help them reach and connect them with the audience they’re selling to.
Once you find the direction that you want to head, then it’s time to dive into a) how to best use the platform and b) how to best build your tribe. Whether you’re a reader or a scroller, two books that I highly recommend for digging a bit deeper into those two tactics are Gary Vaynerchuk’s Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World and Seth Godin’s Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us.
xo.
Kristin
When did ‘trying’ become a swear word?
There’s always that one guy in the bar. The one who’s wearing too much cologne, too much hair gel, pants that are way too tight and a look in his eyes that’s way too lecherous.
The one who is – shudder – trying too hard.
We all fear being seen as that person, right? Especially when it comes to racing.
Racing, to many of us, is a bubble, where everyone watches what everyone else is doing, saying, wearing and tweeting. And, instead of feeling safe in our little bubble, we live in constant fear of looking like we’re trying too hard.
Because even though we have an amazing racing family, we still compete with each other on at least one level, week-in and week-out.
We want to look good, but not like we put any thought into what we’re wearing or how our hair looks. We want the car to be fast, but not like we bought our speed. We want to share on social media, but not so much or so often that it looks like we care what others think. We want to have a really nice hauler, but not like we have so much money that we don’t need sponsors. (Don’t even get me started on this.)
Basically, we want it to appear like we woke up like this.
We didn’t have to try. Success, and a cleverly-crafted Instagram bio, is our natural state.
When did trying become a swear word?
The same culture that wears YOLO shirts is also shaming us into caring immensely about what others think. But not looking like it.
‘You only live once.’ Definitely don’t care about what others think. (But make sure you look, effortlessly good on Periscope.) Be in great shape. (But talk about how all you eat is pizza. Unless you cross-fit. Then definitely tell us all about that.)
Win. (But make it look like you didn’t have to try by humble-bragging about how you just had to hang on while you navigated squirrels in your used-up car to get a paycheck that’s so small it won’t even make a difference anyway.)
NO.
You do you, my friend.
(Well, maybe. If that’s really you then – by all means – you do you. Who am I to tell you, no? But, if you’re the rest of us then I say, no.)
Do not let the fear of looking like you’re trying (or caring) stop you from doing the things you want to do, and saying the things you want to say. And wearing the things you want to wear, even if it is a bright yellow baby tiger t-shirt.
It’s tempting to just stick with what you know works about you and your brand. I see this every day from clients who want to try to do something different from the norm. They could get a standing ovation, but they let the fear of being ridiculed for ‘trying too hard’ stop them.
Don’t get me wrong, I can get behind the ‘don’t try too hard, just be yourself’ line of advice. Heck, I’ve given it before. But there’s a difference between trying too hard and trying. It’s the same difference between caring about what others think and just plain caring.
I’m sorry, but I want people to know that I care. Because that’s who I am.
I care about racing. I care about seeing racers successfully pursue their dreams. I care about tracks not closing down and events being successful enough that they happen over and over again.
I don’t just care about my clients’ businesses. I care about my business, too.
I care about how I look, which is a really hard thing to admit, because my appearance (and my website’s appearance, and that of my social media channels) communicates to others who I am, what I do, what I stand for and what I’m capable of, whether we like to believe that or not. I care about being successful, because I can only get there by helping other people be successful.
And that means putting myself out there in ways that I’m not always comfortable with. Putting my hand up in ways that other people might perceive as trying too hard.
I care about a lot of things, it seems. And when I read through that list of things that I care about, I actually become not-at-all-sorry about caring. And wanting people to know that I care.
There’s no shame in my trying-game.
Because in racing, there’s no reward without risk. You don’t make a pass without potentially giving up a spot. There is no trophy given for just playing it safe and waiting it out.
We take risks, often big ones, and sometimes we win. And sometimes we fall flat on our faces.
And all of that requires trying.
It’s okay to stop worrying about people seeing you do it. It’s okay to let them see that you care. In fact, you might be surprised by how many people love you for exactly that reason.
You’ll never know until you – ahem – try.
xo.
Kristin
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