by Kristin Swartzlander | Dec 10, 2015 | Mindset
Invest in yourself. It might sound oversimplified, but I think it’s true. When you invest in yourself you’ll reap dividends in many areas of your racing program. At first you might not see a clear result for your action or investment, but over time the benefits will compound exponentially. Think it’s all about investing money? Think again. I believe pretty strongly that we will get better results when we have skin in the game and that’s why I spend a healthy five figures each year on education and training that I pass along to you, but time and effort are often just as valuable an investment as cold, hard cash. Would you run a car with dirty fuel and expect it to perform at its best over the long run? It’s the same as running your body and mind with junk food. How about running a chassis 200 races, day after day – will it flex out in the way that your body and brain do after months, or years, with no time off? I say, probably yes. When you invest in yourself, your racing program will improve – sometimes immediately, and sometimes over the long run. I believe, with the ‘investments’ I’m detailing below, your racing program can benefit on the track with better performance from you as a driver and better performing equipment, and off the track with better funding, Here are a few ways that you might consider investing in yourself in 2016 and beyond: Learn new things. Read a book on any area of your program you want to improve, whether that’s on improving your own mindset, building a fan base, understanding shock...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Nov 13, 2015 | Media and Public Relations, Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Sponsorship, Thoughts and Rants
At the end of the race, at the end of the day, what are you left with? ‘Trophies,’ according to Kenny Wallace. This morning, I had the pleasure of listening to Kenny Wallace keynote the RPM Promoter’s Workshops in Las Vegas. He made quite a few interesting points, but one that jumped out to me for racers was this (and, forgive me, but I’m paraphrasing): “For racers, the money goes into the accounts, and the money goes out of the accounts. All we have left at the end of the day are the trophies.” Kenny talked a lot about where we are as a sport, both fiscally and emotionally.He made sure to emphasize that as racing businesses, we need to be profitable. But what I took away from it was this: if you’re only paying attention to the financial side of things, you’re forgetting about why we’re here. Because at the end of the day – and this is according to Kenny – we’re all trying to get to that same moment where we’re cracking open a Bud Light after the hauler’s closed up and the lights are shut off. The money that came in has already gone out, and all we have left are the trophies. Kenny was talking about actual, physical trophies because we’re at a race track conference, but I think it goes beyond that. Our trophies are not just trophies. In your relationships, whether that’s with a fan, sponsor, racer or track, I think we need to ask ourselves: what trophy are we leaving them with? Are we giving them the trophy that they can...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Oct 22, 2015 | Media and Public Relations, Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Social Media
As I write this, the offseason is barreling towards us like a train about to derail. Not that I don’t love the offseason…mind you, it’s become the most productive time of the year for me. In fact, last year’s offseason brought about a lot of changes for me in my business and in our personal life. I was able to do my annual Charlotte and PRI trips, along with adding the Florida RPM workshops and outlining the marketing and PR plan for the Dirt Classic months in advance. Personally, we also took a huge leap when Carl left the job he’d held for over 10 years at his family company to pursue racing as a more full-time profession. I talk more about how that came about in another blog on positioning yourself for opportunities. This year, the offseason looks similarly up-leveled. I have speaking engagements at the Las Vegas, Indy and Florida RPM workshops, along with the Western Auto Racing Promoters Association workshops in Portland, in addition to our annual PRI and Charlotte trips. And that doesn’t include the racing opportunities that have come our way in Carl’s career. While the offseason is fun, busy and relaxing all at the same time, I have to admit that life is just not the same without racing. And it doesn’t offer you the same type of opportunities to promote yourself, whether you have a race car or a race track, as racing season does. With a little bit of preparation, though, before the season ends, you can set yourself up for promoting success in the offseason, when there are no race cars on the track and fans in...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Oct 15, 2015 | Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses
‘Put yourself in a position to win.’ I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve seen or heard that phrase. When you’re new or a beginner, the first step in positioning to win can be as simple and straightforward as working as hard as you can and/or investing as much as you can into what matters. As you get more advanced, this brings to mind the tougher decisions you might have to make in the garage or at the track – put on a new tire for time trials when the used one will do? – that will hone in your program and literally put you into a position on the race track to win. Then, there’s the dimension that you know I love talking about: the mindset, and what happens off the track. To me, positioning to win isn’t where you start out. You don’t expect to win your first race, just like you don’t expect to be CEO on your first day of a new job. You first need an opportunity to, for example, get on the track. Or submit a resume for an interview. I believe ‘positioning to win’ in racing is the same. Wins start with opportunities. This is just my long way of saying that, to win, you have to first position yourself for opportunities. You can’t pass for the win if you aren’t near the front. You don’t have the opportunity. That’s not just on the track – it applies to the rest of your program, too, whether you’re a racer, promoter or business. So, how do you do that? The first step is setting your...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Oct 2, 2015 | Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Social Media, Racing Sponsorship
There are times when I am optimistic. I have high hopes for what we can do for this sport and with this sport, as racers, promoters and fans. Some might say my hopes are too high, too optimistic. Some might even call me naive. And this weekend at the Dirt Classic, I had my eyes opened to how, in a way, those people would be right. See, when I’m writing, I often imagine that when I push ‘publish’ on a blog post, it disappears from my computer and flies out into the universe, never to return. And, while I truly hope that it helps someone in their quest to improve their team or track, I don’t imagine them reading it and thinking about where it came from. I imagine that you like the words. You appreciate the words. You take the words and make great things with them. Like race cars. And race tracks. And racing businesses. For me, promoting a blog post is all about putting my work in front of people and what that can do to help people. It’s not about putting my face in front of people. On Saturday, I walked up to many people that I expected to introduce myself to, only to find that they were introducing themselves to me. Or, once I said my name, they talked to me at length about my writing. Or my clients. It was mildly terrifying, in the best possible way. If that makes sense. The thing is – I know the numbers. I know how many people subscribe to my email list, like my Facebook page or hop onto...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Jul 24, 2015 | Media and Public Relations, Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses
Last night, I was fortunate to get an invitation to a Cornell University alumni event through my Columbia alumni club. The gathering centered around a talk from alumnus Jeff Broadhurst, who is the CEO of Eat ‘n Park, an iconic chain of Pittsburgh-based restaurants, as well as other gourmet establishments and a catering venture. At the end, the group was invited to ask questions and an attendee asked about how blurry the lines were now for businesses in terms of fitting into a certain category. Broadhurst joked that now, more than ever, when asked who his competition was he could honestly respond: everyone. Gas stations are now serving fast food. Fast food restaurants are venturing into gourmet ingredients. Grocery stores now have gourmet coffee and high-end establishments have food trucks. It’s difficult to be unique, and communicate your uniqueness, in a crowded market. What I liked about Broadhurst was his positive spin on the ever-changing business landscape. Instead of focusing on the difficulty, he spoke to the opportunity. With so much competition and differentiation, you no longer have to fit in the proverbial box. There has never been a better time to do things differently than your competition. There has never been a better time to carve out your own niche, with your own audience. Race tracks are not alone in competing with everyone for race fans time, attention and money. We can complain about how we’re competing against the movie theaters, restaurants, theme parks and house parties, or we can look at the opportunity to be the grocery store with a gourmet coffee shop. Does every race track serve...
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