Merchants Of Dirt Podcast

Merchants of Dirt Episode #34 You will never effectively adapt your races to unforeseen problems if you don't have any measures or metrics to base decisions on. I explore the process of deciding how to break up a race day category that had too many racers, and the advantages having (and not having) data gave me. The Decision Metric Do you have a system for collecting data about your races? Do you look at the numbers, analyze your situation, and make sure everything is going as planned? If you’ve promoted more than one race, you have plenty of data at your fingertips. But if you never sit down and turn that data into information, you may not be seeing trends that make that data useful. Worse yet, you may miss opportunities that good data analysis will give you too. In this episode, I’m going to show you why measures and metrics are important, how you can turn your data into useful information, and they how to use that information to make data driven decisions that matter when they need to matter! Or you could

Merchants of Dirt Episode #33 You need to be on your toes when it comes to combating those wannabe activists and trail extremists who are out to sabotage your race. In this episode, I teach you what you can learn about your own race day preparation process with a real-world example of a Mr. Murphy and his race day sabotage antics. The Wheel of Woe Wheel of Misfortune (aka The Wheel of Woe) is a mythical device where every time you spin it, it lands on something bad. Then Mr. Murphy does that bad thing to you! Hence the WOE part as in Woe is me! Fortunately, I’ve been around a dozen spins of the wheel of woe, and know most of Mr. Murphy’s tricks and this episode I am going to teach you what to do to survive when Mr. Murphy makes you spin the wheel of woe. Don’t think it can happen to you? Think again. Chances are if you’ve been around any kind of race promotion for at least one minute you’ve already meet your own Mr. Murphy. Mr. Murphy is not only that force of nature -- or divine intervention -- that causes w

Merchants of Dirt Episode #32 Do know what kind of thinking goes into deciding when to call the race due to rain? Join me as I continue my Inside the Race Director's Studio series with Part 2, and take you behind the scenes of the third mountain bike race in my four-race series. Behind the Scenes It might be hard to believe that the Washington DC Metro area has any quiet parks, however, Wakefield Park is one of those hidden destinations that only the locals know about. It is a must for anyone looking to mountain bike here, and if you're lucky, you can plan your recreation vacation just in time to race there too! Every Summer, the Potomac Velo Club turns four Wednesday afternoons in a row into a backyard bike fest that can only have one name: Wednesdays at Wakefield! Now in its 15th year, Wednesdays at Wakefield is one of the few mid-week mountain bike races in the country. The series just completed race #3, but not without its challenges. Mainly the arrive of rain right in the middle of the race. Learn what g

Merchants of Dirt Episode #31 Putting one race together is a challenge, but imagine putting four races together over a four-week stretch? Join me for the first in a two-part series called Inside the Race Director's Studio, where I take you behind the scenes of four race mountain bike racing series. The Moving Parts of Race Day Logistics I just directed a local mountain bike race that took place in a quiet little park just off the Washington DC Beltway. It might be hard to believe that the Washington DC Metro area has any quiet parks, however, Wakefield Park is one of those hidden destinations that only the locals know about. It is a must for anyone looking to mountain bike here, and if you're lucky, you can plan your recreation vacation just in time to race there too! Every Summer, the Potomac Velo Club turns four Wednesday afternoons in a row into a backyard bike fest that can only have one name: Wednesdays at Wakefield! Now in its 15th year, Wednesdays at Wakefield is one of the few mid-week mountain bike r

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #30, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider's guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and directing off-road races. In this episode, I illustrate how to turn a No into Yes and get into places you’ve never raced before by using an approach that will help you form better relationships with your local trail steward organizations. An Example of a Beautiful Partnership I explore an interesting example found in a recent article in Dirt Rag Mountain Bike Magazine of how to form a relationship with trail stewards The article titled ACCESS: Tomorrow Sometimes Comes - Flood Becomes the Catalyst for a Beautiful Partnership by Ben Davis (DirtRag Issue #199, Pages 54-58, July 1, 2017) talks about how a 2013 flood helped change mountain biking in Golden, Colorado forever. By understanding his story, you not only see how he helped transform the perception of mountain bikers in Golde

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #29, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and directing off-road races. In this episode, learn how race promoters use the Always Be Racing (ABR) growth model to maintain their sales volume enough to make racing a full-time gig. Always Be Racing Building volume has everything to do with the number of races you host in a season. Consider it your racing portfolio and it is an essential part of a new approach I want to teach you today called ABR -- a simple term that means “Always Be Racing”. Call to ActionThank you so much for listening to Merchants of Dirt Podcast. If you have questions or comments, please reach out to me @MerchantsofDirt on Twitter or by Email. I have a few things I want you to do right now: Action #1 -- Get my Monthly Newsletter Go to Reckoneer.com/Join and provide your email, and I will send you exclusive c

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #28, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. In this episode, you learn why waivers your first line of defense against personal injury lawsuits and remind you that it is your duty as a race promoter to avoid being negligent. Having a Solid Liability Waiver is VitalAll off-road sports are inherently dangerous and involve clear risks, but so is not having a well-written liability waiver. Not only are waivers your first line of defense against personal injury lawsuits, but they remind you that, as a race promoter, it is your duty to avoid being negligent. By making your racer’s sign a liability waiver, you require them to read and acknowledge that they assume the risk of injury that could result from a race. However, it also reminds you that a waiver only covers you to a point. You should probably know the answer to this question long before you ever hold your first race. Sponsor Spotlight - Reckoneer.comReckoneer.com is your #1 resource for the race promot

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #27, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. In this episode, you can't fix a race you never start, so stop caring about what other people might think and go define your own race direction style. Negative Thinking Reality Checks Reality Check #1 -- Everyone starts somewhere YOU HAVE VALUE and your race will have value too, but you can’t create value if you never actual build the thing. Reality Check #2 -- Anything worth doing is hard But if it was easy, everyone would be doing it and If you never start, you will never get better. Reality Check #3 -- You can only please half of your customers half of the time The few bad people will never be happy, no matter what you do. So stop letting the possibility of someone having a bad time bother you. Sponsor Spotlight - Reckoneer.comReckoneer.com is your #1 resource for the race promoter who didn't major in business. The result is over 100 free lessons, strategies, and tools that give you a better way to build of

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #26, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. In this episode, Cy Sack from adventureracehub.com walks me through the State of Adventure Racing and shows how a little data can go long ways to making big decisions. Interview with Cy SackI had the chance to interview Cy Sack from Adventureracehub.com. Cy gets into the analytics surrounding Adventure Racing and gives us a view into the State of American Adventure Racing that you will not believe. Unique sports analytics and data-driven decision making that only Cy Sack -- Adventure Racing's Big Data Scientist -- can provide! Cy dives deep into where adventure racing is thriving, where it needs help, what AR formats are most popular, why AR statistics are so hard to find, and why he things adventure racing needs to make some changes. Call to ActionThank you so much for listening to Merchants of Dirt Podcast. If you have questions or comments, please reach out to me @MerchantsofDirt on Twitter. I have a few th

About the Merchants of Dirt Podcast The Merchants of Dirt Podcast, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo, is a show dedicated to helping you build better off-road races and give you the sports management skills needed to promote successful mountain biking, trail running, orienteering, adventure racing, and endurance events. As part of the Reckoneer Media Network, Merchants of Dirt Podcast joins the Get Lost Racing Podcast in supporting Reckoneer’s education mission to teach race promoters how to build a successful race promotion business. Each episode provides subscribers with an insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering and useful race promotion education from the point-of-view of Kyle’s 20+ years of experience in the off-road racing industry. Show Notes Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #25, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and dire

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #24, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and directing off-road races. In this episode, Mark Montague and I get into what it takes to put on adventure races. Interview with Mark MontagueAre you ready to take your race promotion skills to the next level? Then let me introduce you today’s guest, Mark Montague. Mark is the Founder and Race Director of Soggy Bottom Boys (SSB) Racing based in Portsmouth, Virginia. There are a lot of reasons to want to pay attention to what Mark and SSB Racing is doing. SSB Racing currently produces three of the toughest Adventure Races in Virginia each year -- with one of them an expedition level race called Storm the Eastern Shore -- an 18- to 24-hour event. That makes SSB Racing only one of two Adventure Racing promoters to do any 24-hour events in Virginia. You can find out all about these ep

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #23, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and directing off-road races. In this episode, I talk about what strategies you can use to be more consistent when you communicate with your customers. Have a Question? Thank you so much for listening to Merchants of Dirt Podcast. If you have questions or comments, please reach out to me @MerchantsofDirt on Twitter. I have a few things I want you to do right now: Get my Monthly Newsletter Go to Reckoneer.com/Join and provide your email, and I will send you exclusive content ever month before anyone else. Subscribe to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast By subscribing to my podcast you make sure you never miss an episode and provide me the confidence to keep going! Feedback I want to know what you think about the podcast! If you would like to leave some feedback (and hopefully a 5-star rat

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #22, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and directing off-road races. In this episode, Michelle Faucher and I walk step by step through her latest adventure race launch and we learn how to Brake the Habit. Interview with Michelle Faucher Adventure racing is one of those sports that is really a bunch of sports all wrapped into one big sport. It’s like an off-road triathlon in the woods, but with canoes... and orienteering... and maps... and you get to decide the course. Wow! Adventure racing is really NOT like triathlon at all! So how would you ever go about building one of these races? I get a chance to talk a little Adventure Racing 101 with Michelle Faucher, Founder and Executive Director of Adventure Addicts Racing. There are a lot of reasons to want to pay attention to what Michelle and Adventure Addicts Racing is doin

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #21, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and directing off-road races. In this episode, I talk about how race day volunteers can be a key element in your race’s success but only if you can recruit, manage, and deal with them in an effective way.

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #20, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and directing off-road races. In this episode, I talk about why having an accurate timing process starts off being essential to deciding who won or lost your race and ends up helping you pay for future races.

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #19, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and directing off-road races. In this episode, I talk about how you fix a bad race course with a good design strategy that includes walking the course, testing your design, and getting feedback from real racers.

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #18, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and directing off-road races. In this episode, I help you explore the beginnings of your location development strategy and the 7 venue areas that reduce customer confusion, control customer flow, and show your customers how organized you really are.

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #17, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and directing off-road races. In this episode, I teach you how to obtain the legal permission to use the venue by developing a process for getting your permits approved each and every time.

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #16, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and directing off-road races. In this episode, I’ll introduce you to a few race day risk mitigation strategies that include time padding, pre-race checklists, and why you always walk a venue BEFORE race day.

Welcome to the Merchants of Dirt Podcast Episode #15, hosted by Reckoneer.com founder Kyle M. Bondo. This is your insider’s guide to practical recreational engineering where I teach you the art and science of building, promoting, and directing off-road races. In this episode, I’ll introduce you to risk, risk management, and why you need to create your own risk mitigation strategy BEFORE bad things happen. By learning how to manage what you see as risks to your race promotion business you can start to actively manage risks before they actively manage you!