Head Start

If there’s one thing that often sets apart races that go on to do really well from others that struggle to gain traction in their community, it’s the ability of the former - and the inability of the latter - to engage with the non-race world. And nowhere is this more evident than the way in which events interact with local media. The truth of the matter is, very few people participate in races. And very few people outside of those who do care about anything race-specific a race has to say. So how can races hope to reach out to the broader public? What stories can they tell that are relevant to many more people than the ones who show up at the start line on race day? And how can you, armed with those stories, get out and pitch them to your local paper, radio or TV station?That is what we’ll be discussing today with my guest Race El Paso owner, Gabriela Gallegos. Gabriela is a triathlon race director, so it’s not totally unfair to describe her audience as a bit niche, by broad-appeal standards. Yet, Gabriela managed to make triathlon the talk of the town in El Paso, TX through a series of media engagements culminating in the live broadcast of her all-female Mighty Mujer triathlon by her local NBC affiliate, an achievement for which she was recently recognized with USA Triathlon’s annual Innovation Award. And today she’ll be helping us break down the art of engaging local media, from finding the story to pitching the people that matter.In this episode:Why developing a local media strategy mattersWhich kinds of stories get the local press excited (and which don't) Being deliberate about bringing out the stories in your eventHuman interest stories: what they are, and how to promote themWriting engaging press releases: the 5Ws + who cares?Beyond human interest stories: expert advice stories & op-edsMatching the tone and content of your story to your target press outletFinding the right press contact and pitching your story to the press Media alerts and monitoring online mediaWorking with TV stations on live race coverageThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about engaging local media or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Whether you’re putting on races through a for-profit or a nonprofit organization, having a good grasp of your race budget can often make the difference between a profitable bottom line and days of post-race head-scratching about what went wrong to land you in the red. Admittedly, building and maintaining a race budget is not a lot of fun - not to most people, anyway - but it is something that has to be done, and has to be done right. So to help us understand what “right” looks like for a race budget, I’ve got the pleasure of being joined in the podcast today by SRSE Sports’ Sean Ryan. Sean has been a veteran of the industry with almost 20 years of experience in race directing, marketing, operations and financial planning, and was once hailed as “the most overeducated race director” in the industry, holding an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. And today he’ll be helping us understand the value of good budgeting practices, how to put together a transparent and practically useful race budget, as well as sharing his thoughts on managing budget shortfalls and juggling the complexities of cost cutting while trying to maintain a quality race experience. In this episode:Why putting on races is a capital intensive exercise that requires sound budgetingWhere most race budgets fail: over-exuberance and erroneous assumptionsThe importance of keeping an updated working copy of your budget at all timesTop line revenue vs bottom line revenue vs gross profit vs operating profit vs net profitOrganizing expenses by category: administrative, operating, marketingFixed vs variable expenses, and why fixed expenses can break your budgetWhat you should aim for for a healthy bottom-line profitThe perils of underspending on marketingHow to build a budget from the ground upCalculating your budget breakeven pointManaging budget shortfallsTransparent vs non-transparent cost cuts, and why, if you have to cut costs, you need to start with the latterYou can raise prices or reduce quality, but you should not try to do bothHow to treat donations and in-kind sponsorship on your budgetThe true cost of race volunteersThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about race budgeting or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

When you want to know what’s happening and trending in the endurance events industry by the numbers, where do you turn to? Well, for me and many people I know, the definitive source of event data for the industry is, and has been for some time, RunSignup’s annual RaceTrends report. The report leverages RunSignup’s extensive registration data from tens of thousands of events to point to trends in overall event participation, event pricing, participant demographics, registration trends and a myriad other things. The most recent edition of the report was out a couple of weeks ago, and, despite a weak start to 2022, the data does seem to suggest that the post-pandemic industry recovery is picking up pace with some races recovering better than others and noticeable entry fee increases across the board on all race distances and disciplines.With me today to discuss the numbers, the trends and their implications for individual events and the industry as a whole, I’m delighted to have RunSignup’s own Bob Bickel and Johanna Goode. Bob and Johanna will be helping me make sense of some of the more interesting data points in the report and offer their own takes on what the numbers might be telling us for where the industry could be heading in 2023 and beyond.In this episode:A few words about the RunSignup Roadshow 2022 overall registrations compared to 2021 and 2019The outlook for registrations in 2023Why registrations growth for larger events underperformed smaller races in 2022Event churn (=percentage of races that haven't returned in consecutive years) since 2019 and 2021Repeat participation trends, and why they matterVirtual race participation statsIncreasing inclusivity in races and making the most of the post-pandemic running boomAge group participation trends and Gen Z runnersWhen people register and how it's changed since the pandemicAre higher entry fees having an impact on participation numbers?Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about the numbers in today’s podcast, registration trends or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

It isn’t every day that an entirely new mass participation racing concept emerges that can take the world by storm. But, that’s exactly what’s happened over the past few years with the rise of HYROX, a new racing format, combining functional fitness and endurance in an indoor mass participation race.Launched in Germany in 2017 by veteran multisport race organizer Christian Toetzke with the help of co-founder Moritz Fuerste and a select team of colleagues, HYROX has exploded in popularity to become the fastest growing mass participation fitness concept in the world. So what is HYROX? What makes it so special? How does it relate to other race formats out there like obstacle racing? And, how does the highly lucrative business of HYROX work? Well, we’re going to be going through all that and more today with the help of my guest, HYROX USA & UK Managing Director, Douglas Gremmen.In this episode:Combining fitness and endurance in coming up with the HYROX concept/formatThe history of fitness racing before HYROXBringing mass participation racing to gym goers (and giving gym goers something to train for)Rolling out HYROX in Europe, the US and the rest of the worldObstacle races vs HYROX: differences and similaritiesHYROX in the Olympics?Designing a scalable race format: making workouts accessible, safe, easy to monitor and easy to transport between venuesRace timing in a HYROX race (it's complicated!)Getting thousands of people around an indoor racing courseHow large can a HYROX race get?What it costs to enter a HYROX event (and what you get for it)Involving spectators in the HYROX race experienceGrowing HYROX internationally through franchiseesHYROX' gym partnerships driving growth and secondary revenueA look at HYROX' growing competitionThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about HYROX, the business of races or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

When races grow from scratch, particularly as passion projects, there often comes a time where growth grinds to a halt. Participation seems to gradually plateau around a few hundred participants and any progress beyond that seems impossible. So, how do you break through this resistance point to grow a race from the hundreds to the thousands? What changes should you make to your team and event to take your growth to the next level? And how do you manage this next stage of growth while avoiding the pitfalls that come with growing too fast?That’s what we’ll be discussing today with my guest, Glass City Marathon race director, Clint McCormick. When it comes to systematically scaling up races, Clint has been there, done that and got the T-shirt, having grown the Glass City Marathon from a club race of a few hundred runners to a nationally recognised event of almost 10,000 runners, while increasing revenues for the race by over 20 times in the process. In our discussion today we are going to be touching on all the key elements for success in scaling up a race, including race branding and rebranding, building processes and systems for the long run, analyzing and reinventing your product offering to make it more appealing to sponsors, and using sponsorship to fuel your future growth. All this while putting safeguards in place to make sure you don’t grow too fast and get yourself into trouble.In this episode:Moving a race from volunteer staff to professional/paid staffUnderstanding your brand and rebranding your raceNurturing local runners from 5K through to longer-distance events Examining your race distance offering and culling/adding events accordinglyFueling growth through sponsorships, and building a product that sponsors wantTips on scaling up your teamThe pitfalls of growing too fastManaging growth sustainably by capping participant numbersInvesting in race ambassadors and other grassroots marketing programsIn-house marketing vs employing a marketing agencyThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about scaling up and the business of races or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

In RunSignup’s latest RaceTrends report, registration data showed that less than 13% of race participants in 2021 races fell within the 18-30 age group - a number that used to be almost 18% as recently as 2017, and keeps on falling. So why is it that races fail to attract younger audiences? That’s what we’ll be exploring today with the help of my guest Pacers Running Marketing Director, Ryan Callahan. Ryan and the Pacers Running team recently pulled off the remarkable feat of getting more than 40% of their DC Half start line made up of 18-30 runners, and we’ll be going over a number of deliberate strategic and tactical decisions the team took to encourage participation within that younger demographic. Among other things, we’ll look at intentional branding and website design as a means of appealing to younger runners, and initiatives undertaken by the team in offline as well as online marketing to reach that target demographic. Today’s discussion probably doesn’t hold all the answers to this very complex challenge facing the industry, but there’s some very big clues in there about what races can do to improve their appeal among younger audiences.In this episode:Participation trends in the 18-30 age groupWhy the Gen Z problem is fixable, and some races are doing better than othersHow DC Half managed to attract 3 times more 18-30 runners than the US race averageThe making of the DC Half brandBeing intentional with your event choices: race name, logo, swag, website, course designWhy it's important to keep your race website clear of information clutterBeyond cliches: building a DC race from the perspective of a DC localChecking boxes vs being thoughtful about your race swag choicesOffline marketing strategies for reaching 18-30 runnersBuilding an engaging race brand on InstagramLeveraging community and grassroots efforts to reach your target audienceThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about branding, marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Today, we are going to be taking a trip down memory lane, looking at some of my favourite podcast highlights from the past year. It’s been an amazing year for Head Start - our second year on the air - and, as we head into 2023, I wanted to say how grateful we all are at Race Directors HQ for your support of the podcast and everything else we do. So thank you guys for continuing to tune in and for your kind words about the work we do here at Head Start.Of course, there’s a special thanks due to our awesome podcast sponsor RunSignup, so a big big festive year-end thank you to the amazing folks at Moorestown, NJ, helping us bring great content to the entire race directors community. This really wouldn’t have been possible with RunSignup’s support, and we’re very grateful to have such a great company on our side. If you are looking to make a fresh start with your event technology partner in 2023, there’s no better place to look than RunSignup, so make sure to check out all their awesome technology platform has to offer your race by visiting runsignup.com. You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about some of the things discussed in today’s episode or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

If you’ve been following the podcast for a while, you’ll know that what we try to do at Head Start is bring you actionable, expert advice you can learn from to grow and improve your race - hopefully, with a bit of entertainment on the side.Today marks the first episode in a new way of helping you on your race director journey. Spotlight is a new type of episode where we go inside some of the most innovative, best run races and race concepts to learn how the things we touch on in other episodes, like building a sponsorship portfolio, developing a grassroots marketing strategy or elevating the race experience, actually work in practice when executed by some of the brightest leaders in the industry. And in our first Spotlight episode, we travel to Charlotte, NC to see how race director Brian Mister has been re-imagining the urban 10K with his hugely successful Around the Crown 10K. In the short history of that event, Brian and his team have managed to build an event that is a masterclass in community engagement, practical inclusivity, sponsorship development and grassroots marketing. And I hope you’ll be as inspired by some of the initiatives undertaken by this amazing race as I have been getting to know more about it.In this episode:Putting on a race on the Charlotte inner beltwayDefining your mission statement - and staying true to it for the long runPractical inclusivity: making your start line look like your community ATC's First Timers Club, Pay What You Can, Stroller DivisionRunning a large paper-cupless road raceRethinking offline marketingEngaging a specialist marketing agency that understands runningThe importance of Public Relations (PR)Growing a diverse sponsorship portfolio Valuing in-kind sponsorshipsAuction-based marketing (made the term up, but it's an interesting concept)The future of ATC10KThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about public relations, earned media or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

It’s another bonus episode for you today, and as we were discussing reducing your race’s carbon footprint last week, this week’s episode falls quite neatly in the same area of sustainability and decarbonization. Today, I’m joined by race director, race timer and solar power enthusiast Lowell Ladd, of 2L Race Services, to talk about how you can switch your race day headquarters over to solar power, so that your entire race day operation runs on sun juice instead of diesel. We’re going to be looking at the stepping stones to building out a solar power setup, from getting started on a single solar generator to gradually building out a full-fledged mobile solar power station. And we’re going to be answering your questions on the feasibility, reliability and cost of such a setup when it comes to powering race day. In this episode:The benefits of switching to solar powerEnergy consumption by hardware, and what a solar-powered system could support, depending on sizeThe anatomy of a solar-powered setup: components, connectivity, outletsThe cost of building your DIY solar-based systemPanels: what to buy and how to scale upLi-based vs acid-based batteries: pros and consTaking care of, maintaining and upgrading your setupAdditional resources:Off-grid solar power resources: https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/DIY solar power forum: https://diysolarforum.com/Mobile Solar Power Made Easy (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Solar-Power-Made-yourself/dp/1546567119/Thanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about setting up your race day mobile solar power system or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

In a previous episode of the podcast with guest Brian Schmidt of P3R, we saw how it is possible for even a very large race like the Pittsburgh Marathon to achieve zero waste status - that is, the goal of diverting more than 90% of total race waste away from landfill. But what about carbon emissions? Is it equally feasible to aspire towards carbon neutrality, that is to say, putting on an event with net zero (or perhaps even negative) carbon footprint. Well, that’s what we’ll be discussing today with my guest Porter Bratten, owner of Washington-based Blackfish Ventures and a passionate practitioner of sustainability in all the races he puts on. We’re going to be looking at what makes up a race’s carbon footprint, how to formulate a practically achievable carbon mitigation strategy, and how carbon offsetting can help bridge the gap to carbon neutrality where further improvements in lowering carbon emissions may not always be possible. In this episode:What contributes to your race's carbon footprintDirect emissions, indirect emissions and purchased energyUnderstanding which emissions you can measure and controlEstimating your race's carbon footprintMaking participant carpooling workOffering a no-medal/no-shirt optionGreen electricity: what it is, how much it costs and how to get itInvolving your participants in your sustainability strategyHow carbon offsetting worksDoing due diligence on and selecting carbon offset projectsUsing carbon offsetting to offset participant travel and shipping emissionsAre participants wiling to pay a "sustainability premium" for greener races?Making the most of sustainability sponsorsThanks to RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about race sustainability or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Most races only come around once a year. So when you’re working to improve a race for your participants, you’ve got precious few opportunities to receive feedback from them. How do you use those opportunities right? And what feedback should you look to gather from them?Well, my guest today, Laurel Park, has the unique privilege of being both a race director and a PhD in survey design, and has helped countless organizations develop effective surveys that leverage customer feedback to inform strategic decisions. As the President of the Ann Arbor Track Club, Laurel knows running and races inside out, and today she’ll help us understand how to craft an actionable race survey, how to maximize survey response rates, and how to avoid some of the common pitfalls of survey design, like asking things you shouldn’t care to know about or asking things you do care to know about in a way that delivers poor quality or unusable results.If you do send out a race survey after your event, or have thought of doing so, this is an excellent crash course in getting the most of the one shot you get each year to gather productive feedback from your participants.In this episode:The purpose of a race surveyWorking backwards from what you need to know to what you're going to askCollecting demographic information from respondentsDo people respond truthfully to surveys?Reducing survey friction and question bloatAvoiding distractions/cognitive load with clean survey stylingTypes of questions to ask and areas to explore with your race surveyAvoiding leading respondents with biased question phrasingUsing open-ended vs close-ended questionsBest practices for sharing your race surveyIncreasing survey response rates with incentivesSurvey software options for designing your race surveyAnalyzing and presenting survey resultsMany thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about designing race surveys or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Looking into the business of putting on races from the outside, as a passionate runner and racer, you might be mistaken in thinking that putting on races is a fairly straightforward, relaxing, comfortably profitable thing to do. I can hear some of you chuckling there…Well, my guests today, brothers Jeremy and William Fermo, are exactly the type of passionate runner that would try to make a business out of directing races. Which is why in late 2021, they put aside their medical degrees and took the plunge into planning their first race, Shannon’s Run in Orange, Texas. Coming into race directing with few preconceptions, they tried everything to make their inaugural race a success - including an early round of crowdfunding for their business, 3 Bros Running, and a go at securing local business grants to support their revenue. The result? Not half bad - 366 signups from more than 40 cities across the state, and with that, a growing appetite for directing more and larger races.If you’re just starting out as a race director, there’s valuable lessons here for you on the challenges and the joys you’ve got ahead of you, and the importance of focusing your planning on the things that matter. And, if you’re well into your long-term career as a race director, there’s a couple of interesting gold nuggets here for you as well - and perhaps a little nostalgia about why you went into this really special business in the first place.In this episode:Taking the plunge into race directingThe importance of focusing on the race experienceLaunching a crowdfunding campaign to get the race off the groundGoing after local business grants Putting yourself front and center of your race brandTelling your race story through video on social mediaPromoting your race like it's a Hollywood movieReaching out and pitching to local sponsorsBig learnings from the guys' first year in race directingMany thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about starting out in race directing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

“A game changer”, “TV on steroids”, “the future of content” and “ridiculously addictive”. That’s just a few ways to describe TikTok, according to my guest today, but, chances are, if you have teenagers in the house, you already knew that.So what is so special about this app that has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years? Is TikTok really just a place for 12 year olds? And, very crucially, is it worth your time trying to market your race on the platform, and how do you go about it? Well, we are going to be going through all that and much much more with my guest today, Oli Hills. As the CEO of a dedicated TikTok marketing agency, Nonsensical, Oli is here to tell you why short-form video is the future of content, and why TikTok is the place where it’s all going to be happening. We’re going to be talking about how to produce content on TikTok, what kind of content works best, and how to scrap your preconceptions about TikTok demographics and video editing, and just take the plunge into a brave new world of marketing.In this episode:TV on steroids: how TikTok changed the social media gameTikTok's fastest growing demographics (hint: it's not teenagers!)Nailing your niche and training TikTok to recognize your target audienceHow to produce and publish videos using the TikTok appGrabbing your audience's attention with snappy video hooksWhy short form video is the future (and why TikTok is the place to do it)Boosting your video reach with Spark AdsCross-posting TikTok content to YouTube, Facebook, InstagramWhat types of content to post on TikTokPaid marketing on TikTok: creating ads, audience targeting, retargetingThe importance of getting in on TikTok earlyMany thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about race marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

If you have been putting on races for a while, it probably won’t surprise you to hear that organizing events is one of the most stressful jobs out there. How stressful? According to a 2019 survey by job searching site Careercast, it is in fact the 6th most stressful job you can do, less stressful only to careers like the military and firefighting. So what makes putting on events so stressful? What toll is it taking on people like you, working every day to make amazing races happen? And what can you do to manage your stress levels long-term and avoid mental health decline?Today we’re going to be going over all that in a really candid discussion on stress and mental health in our industry with the help of my guest, EventWell’s, Helen Moon. Helen has been working in the event industry in different capacities for decades, and as the Founder and Chief Executive of non-profit EventWell has most recently been focusing her energy on providing mental health support to event management professionals. In this episode:Why organizing events is an inherently stressful jobThe sympathetic/parasympathetic system balance The three stages of the stress response and how stress leads to burnoutThe social stigma around talking openly about stress and mental health strugglesGood stress (eustress), bad stress (distress) and mental declineStriving for excellence vs striving for perfectionStress resilience through the lens of your "stress bucket" The importance of sleep, nutrition and exercise in sustaining good long-term mental healthBreathing (really, it works wonders)Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about stress management, mental health or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Securing sponsorship is undoubtedly one of the toughest jobs on any race director’s plate. And finding and approaching sponsors, in particular, is probably the toughest bit of it. Where do you even begin looking for good sponsor prospects? How do you know which person to contact? What do sponsors really want? And how do you make that first approach to maximize your chances of success?We’ve got some awesome tips for you on all those burning questions and more from today’s guest, Teresa Stas. Teresa is the CEO of event sponsorship consultancy Green Cactus, she is also the author of “Sell Your Event!: The Easy To Follow Practical Guide To Getting Sponsors”, and she has spent her entire career helping events of all shapes and sizes land long-term sponsorship relationships, including Hood to Coast, the world’s largest relay race - now also a growing international relay race franchise. In this episode:Selling sponsorship = selling an audienceFiguring out your event's audience How your audience's interests can guide your sponsor prospecting Understanding your audience through surveys, Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, marketing personasPutting together an introduction deck (not a sponsorship proposal!) for your eventWhere to look and what to look out for when prospecting sponsorsIn-kind sponsors, sustainability sponsors, media sponsorsFinding the right contact person inside each sponsor organizationCold-calling vs cold-emailing sponsor prospectsHow to cold-call and cold-email sponsorsFollowing up on your initial cold/email to sponsorsMaking the most of sponsor rejectionsResources:Make sure to visit https://www.greencactusca.com/resources for additional free resources from Green Cactus to help you with your sponsor prospecting.Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about sponsor prospecting or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

90% - keep that number in mind -  that’s how much of your event waste you should be diverting away from landfill to be able to claim that your event is a zero waste event. Sounds tough? Easy? For most races that’s a pretty high bar to clear - particularly as, when you start adding everything up, it quickly becomes apparent that a race can generate waste in many more ways than may seem obvious at first. To see how a race might get to that zero waste goal, I’m joined today by P3R’s Director of Operations, Brain Schmidt. Brian and the P3R team have really been at the sharp end of event sustainability, having achieved a zero waste status for the very popular DICK'S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon since before “event sustainability” was even a term!With Brian’s help we’re going to be looking at a race’s more obvious - and less obvious - sources of waste, waste segmentation, recycling, composting and reusing waste materials, as well as the importance of joining forces with local agencies and businesses that share your sustainability goal.And since making sustainability sustainable in the long term has to come with a dose of financial pragmatism, and a careful balancing act between respecting the environment and delivering a fun race experience, we’ll also look at things like sustainability sponsors and other ways to take some of the burden of achieving zero waste off your shoulders.In this episode:The biggest sources of race wasteHow much waste does a typical race produce per participantWhat zero waste means and what sources of waste go into the calculation of race wasteRecoverable vs reusable vs recyclable vs compostable race wasteWaste materials you may think is recyclable but isn'tReducing cardboard packaging waste Donating leftover swag and discarded clothing Working with local sustainability organizationsManaging race purchases to reduce material leftoversPremium giveaways vs tons of giveawaysFewer water stations = less water station wasteManaging the cost of sustainability efforts through sustainability sponsorshipsMany thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about event sustainability, zero waste or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

In all walks of life, people love to stress the importance of data - knowing the hard facts and using evidence to make better, more informed decisions. So, how well do you know your participants? How well do we all in this industry understand who runners are, what they really want out of our events, and what motivates them to choose one event over another? Well, we’re going to be shedding some light into all that today as we go through the latest findings from Running USA’s 2022 Global Runner Survey with the help of my guest, Running USA COO Christine Bowen. It’s a great pleasure to have Christine join me for this discussion, as we touch on a number of very interesting data points, including how runners choose to enter events, how they perceive the value they receive from events, and how much price and other factors affect which and how many races they’ll be entering in the near future.In this episode:Runners' expected event participation in the next 12 monthsRunners' favourite racing distancesTop reasons why runners choose a raceRunners' attitudes on swag, travel to events, VIP race experiencesRunners' attitudes towards race fees and price increasesGen Z runner attitudes and what this means for the future of racingMany thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about race trends, event participation or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Last week, if you happened to join us for part one of our two-part Facebook Ads podcast special, we set the scene by looking at Facebook marketing strategy, understanding sales funnels, planning and structuring ad campaigns, and mastering audience targeting. This week, in part two of the discussion, it’s time to switch gears a bit and look at some more advanced topics around ad creatives, ad performance monitoring and optimization, and the very important, highly-converting area of ad retargeting.Joining me again this week to discuss Facebook Ads is EventGrow CEO, Andy Reilly - and what a great pleasure it is to have Andy back on the podcast. In this episode:Focusing on the desirable "after state" in your ad creativesPicking aspects of your race to highlight in your ad copyAligning your ad copy with your ad imagesCreating video adsIncorporating important race info in your adDeciding on, allocating and front-loading your ad budgetRunning price-increase ad campaignsUnderstanding your baseline target acquisition costThe perils of shutting down your campaigns too soon (in less than two weeks)Monitoring your ad KPIs: click rate, conversion rate, ROASRetargeting campaigns: spending little for high returnsExcluding registered participants from your custom audience campaignsLookalike audiences and why they often don't perform well for eventsCommon mistakes people make when running Facebook ads, and how to avoid themMany thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about paid marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

When it comes to spending money on marketing races, Facebook Ads remains the most popular choice for race directors and professional race marketers, regardless of race size or type. So how do you make the most of the opportunities Facebook Ads has to offer for marketing your race in 2022 and beyond?We’re going to be going over all that in a special two-part show on Facebook Ads with the help of my guest, EventGrow CEO, Andy Reilly. You may remember Andy from the very very popular marketing psychology episode - that was episode 25 back in February  - and he’s with us again today and for our next podcast episode to really break down every aspect of Facebook Ads as it pertains to race marketing. Today, for part one of the discussion, we’re going to set the scene by looking at Facebook marketing strategy, understanding sales funnels, planning and structuring ad campaigns, and mastering audience targeting. And in our next episode we’re going to delve into some more advanced topics around ad creatives, ad performance monitoring and optimisation, and the very important, highly-converting area of ad retargeting.In this episode:Why Facebook ads still offer the best bang for your marketing buck (even if the landscape has become more challenging for advertisers)Facebook ads vs Google ads vs Twitter ads vs Tik Tok adsUnderstanding ROAS (return on ad spend) and customer lifetime valueIntegrating Facebook ads into your sales funnelPicking the right landing page for your Facebook ad (website? registration page? Facebook event page?)Boosting posts vs using Facebook's Ad ManagerPicking a campaign objective for your ad: conversions vs traffic vs reach/awarenessStructuring and naming your campaigns, ad sets and adsChoosing between automatic and manual ad placementsPros and cons of using the dynamic creativesUsing demographics, location and interests to target the right audience for your raceAvoiding the pitfalls of over-targetingMany thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about paid marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

Are you struggling to understand how you should approach and talk to sponsors? Is seeking sponsorship a task you dread or maybe have even given up on? We’ve got an awesome episode for you today that is going to boost your confidence and reset your entire thinking around sponsorship. It’s going to help you understand what sponsorship truly is about, what sponsors really look to get out of it, and how, through some simple, disciplined steps and a change of mindset, you can transform your chances of securing sponsors for your event.My guest in today’s episode is an industry leader I’ve personally followed for years. To call Kim Skildum-Reid a sponsorship expert would be something of an understatement. Through her Power Sponsorship consultancy Kim has helped countless blue-chip rightsholders and sponsors plan and execute effective sponsorship strategies, and through her best-selling books and online courses she’s probably done more than anyone to educate sponsorship practitioners on the fundamentals of sponsorship. So it is super-exciting to have Kim on the podcast today sharing her insights into the fundamentals of sponsorship, and the mindset you, as a sponsorship seeker, need to adopt to succeed in this challenging arena.In this episode:Leveraging your audience year-roundFraming your audience reach to sponsorsHelping sponsors "get" your vision through your sponsorship proposalThe importance of understanding the sponsor's point of viewPutting a value on in-kind sponsorshipWriting a winning sponsorship proposal that "sells" your deal internally in the sponsor organizationInventory audits: putting together a list of all the benefits you could offer to sponsorsDealing with sponsors as peersOverdelivering for sponsors (and getting recognized for it)Sharing sponsorship reports with sponsorsFiring your sponsors when they're underperforming Why you should stop using gold, silver bronze sponsorship packagesFurther reading:Kim's list of must-read follow-up materials: https://bit.ly/3AFMTx2Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.You can also share your questions about sponsorship or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.