How long will it take to succeed in racing?

When you’re trying to do something great, whether that’s run a race team or build a business, you have to commit. That’s not news. Most of us in racing know all about commitment.

You can’t just build a team or buy a race track and try it for a few weeks. You have to commit, up front, with time, sweat and money.

We don’t have a problem with commitment when it comes to the racing part of the business.

One of the biggest mistakes I see in racing, though, is a lack of commitment to marketing. To building an audience.

We build racing properties then try our hands at a few press releases, tweets, advertisements or another method for getting the word out. We stick with it for a few weeks, maybe a few months, and when the opportunities don’t come knocking, we quit.

It happens all the time.

Racing is a demanding sport, no matter what side of it you’re on. It’s easy to imagine that you’re wasting time building that audience, and decide to put that time and effort into the actual racing.

But if I gave up after a year of blogging, I would have missed some big opportunities. Huge ones. Some of which you know about, like the Dirt Classic, and some of which you don’t. At least not yet.

And most, if not all, of them came from my writing.

But do you know how long I wrote to no audience before that happened? A really, really long time.

For over a year, I spent hours – sometimes over multiple days – crafting a blog post to release each and every Thursday. For five subscribers at first. Then I cracked ten. Now, I’m in the hundreds.

And I’m not sure when that audience will feel large. Maybe never.

Starting out, I couldn’t have known that it would take six months, one year or even three years of blogging to attract the right type of clients. I didn’t know how long I’d have to work, write and promote to get a break.

But I do know that if I hadn’t stuck with it, I wouldn’t have a business now.

How long do you have to  before it pays off? I don’t know. You don’t know.

I only know that the longer you stick with it, the more likely it is to result in a ride, a marketing partner, a piece of amazing press, a new fan, packed pits, or any other positive metric.

If you committed to your marketing program like you commit to your racing, how many more opportunities do you think you’ll have? Infinite, if you ask me.

Xo,
Kristin