by Kristin Swartzlander | May 8, 2014 | Mindset
A few weeks ago, I offered the chance to weigh-in on what I’m providing here at DirtyMouth with a survey. (You can still fill it out here.) One of the things that you wanted were resources that deal with the finances of running a race team. Today, I’m providing a budgeting worksheet specifically designed for you – it’s one of the things that really changed our game over the last few years and I hope it’ll help you do the same. With budgeting, you can go as simple or complex as you’d like. Obviously, the deeper you dig into your expenses and earnings, the better you can make decisions about your team. You can estimate how many races you can afford to run, what tracks and series races are worth the tow, and many other things like how many people you can afford to bring to the track with you, how much sponsorship you need to close the gap, etc. You can also see whether you’re making or losing money, and the more detail you go into the more you can see what parts of your program need adjustments. One suggestion: the earlier you start keeping track of what’s coming in and going out, the more accurate your calculations will become and the better off you’ll be. This means keeping track of everything you spend (receipts are great, and necessary for your tax preparer), and everything you make. I suggest making a photocopy on 8×11 of every receipt (and check!) you receive and putting them in a binder, then stashing the originals in a box. They’ll be easier to...
by Kristin Swartzlander | May 1, 2014 | Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Thoughts and Rants
I contend that showing up is everything – you can’t win a race that you don’t show up for. But, you might argue that not everyone that shows up at the racetrack wins. There’s only one winner in each race, and some teams will never taste that victory. You’re right. But parking your ride in the pits is just one part of showing up. You can’t just show up for a job interview and win the job, right? You have to show up to creating a killer resume, show up to your shower that morning, and show up in your words and body language when answering questions. To win a race, you can’t just show up at the track. You have to show up in the garage, show up for your sponsors, show up with your parts programs and show up with the right attitude towards the people who support you. Showing up isn’t just showing up. And that’s why I’m thrilled to tell you that you’re going to win the race against your competition over the long haul because you’re showing up by reading this. I’m not just saying this because it’s my content – there are many other places to get valuable information. You’re winning the long race because the majority of your competition isn’t reading or consuming any of it. While they’re focused on getting faster, you’re investing time and effort into making yourself better off the track and out of the garage. If you think every successful driver out there got that way just by winning races, you are dead wrong. They might not be the...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Apr 25, 2014 | Mindset, Thoughts and Rants
There’s a thing that some people call the ‘comparison hangover’*. It’s when you spend lots of time looking enviously around at what your competition is doing. You think you’re being productive – trying to figure out how they created what they have – but really, you’re beating yourself up over why they’re ahead of you. As soon as you snap out of it, you feel like you’re on the wrong end of a whole pitcher of margaritas. Here’s my take on how to treat a comparison hangover in racing: Treatment #1: Get out of your (pounding) head. Instead of feeling bad about the guy next to you having more sponsors, better equipment, a better website, more Twitter followers, and a flawless paint scheme, take a step back. Ask yourself – are we at the same point in our racing careers? It’s easy to look at his race car, see nearly the same thing that you’ve built and assume that you should be on the same level. Yes, most of us are running a chassis that’s the same age as everyone else’s, with most of the same components. But you can’t assume that you know what’s going on under the hood of anyone else’s car anymore than you know what’s going on under the roof of their house. You can only compare apples to apples – race cars to race cars and drivers to drivers will never match up. Maybe you’re the same age, but he’s been racing for 10 years longer. Maybe you’ve been racing the same amount of time, but she races three times as often as you....
by Kristin Swartzlander | Apr 3, 2014 | Mindset
My husband will tell you that one of the major differences between the two of us is that I’m a planner and he’s not. While I sweat every detail, he rolls with the punches and figures things out as he goes. We try to balance each other out – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes we drive each other crazy. Planning is in my nature. I like to know when I get up in the morning what I’ll be doing that day. I like to have my schedule set, my meals mapped out, and my exercise completed by somebody else. It feels right to me (especially that last part.) But when it comes to the big stuff, sometimes you have to accept that there are too many unknowns to plan it all out. You can’t wait for everything to fall perfectly in line to pursue your goals – you’ll never get anywhere. That’s why I’m grateful that I ignored my own natural tendencies and left my last job three years ago with no plan. Even though I found a lot of success in my position, once I acknowledged that I had hit the proverbial glass ceiling I made the decision to get out pretty quickly. So that’s what I did. With no plan for the future. Did I mention that I had no plan? Because I cannot stress enough that I had no plan. I always knew I’d have a business one day, but I didn’t know what it would be. I planned on making a plan for that. I didn’t realize that, plan or no plan, when...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Mar 27, 2014 | Mindset, Thoughts and Rants
There’s something to be said for failure. Not the permanent kind, although I would argue that permanent failure exists only if you give up. But the trying-something-I-haven’t-yet-mastered kind of failure…that’s the kind I’m speaking of. We all look up to someone in racing. Many of us think that if we just achieved their level of mastery and accomplishment, we’d be satisfied. We would have success. But that person, your person, has someone that they look up to as well. And I’ll bet someone looks up to you. Me, too. (It’s hard to believe, but my dog is significantly shorter than me. *Ba-Dum-CH!*) We strive to the next far-reaching level of success. And some of us may be satisfied when we get there. It may be enough. And that’s great. It really is. But for me? That’s not in my nature. I’m a competitive, driven person. I’ll always want to be better, and to achieve more. It can be unsatisfying at times, but at the same time I’m proud of where that has taken me so far. So I’ve learned that I need to fail. And do it as quickly and often as I can. It’s these failures, these attempts that we make over and over again, that lead us to accomplishment. When I do a branding or marketing campaign for a company, I fail at creating slogans. I fail at directing the graphics. I fail at writing website copy, crafting a marketing strategy and designing social media campaigns. I fail over and over again at countless things until I get it right. I bet you failed at everything in...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Mar 6, 2014 | Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses
I had an epic day yesterday, in which I got nothing on my to-do list crossed off. The epic-ness stemmed not from what I did, but from what I learned about the process of building something you love. Something that you’re proud of. You racers ought to be able to relate. You pour your heart and soul – and all the money, time and energy you can muster – into building your race team. The first time you race, the goal is just to get that car on the track and turn left as many times as you can without screwing up. Your goals change as you gain knowledge and experience – you go from wanting to finish a race to shooting for victory lane. Racers know especially well that no matter how much you accomplish, you always want more. Successful local drivers want to go on tour. Tour drivers want to win more races. Winning drivers want to win championships. Championship-winning drivers want to grow a mustache like Fred Rahmer’s. There’s always room to improve. But sometimes, you can get so caught up in achieving the highest possible goals that you stop yourself from doing anything. I’ve personally fallen into this trap. For months, I didn’t write anything here because I wanted everything I wrote to be perfect. I didn’t see anyone else putting out the type of content I wanted to write, so I didn’t either. No one learned anything about me and my goals. And I didn’t help anybody achieve theirs, either. If we’ve ever met, you know I’m pretty quiet – I’ve got to be...
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