Merchants of Dirt Episode #55 Kyle introduces Event Yak podcast dedicated to talking to event industry veterans who live, eat, and breathe live events. Introducing: Event Yak As Race Promoters and Directors trying to keep your Event Business al

Build a Community

May 4th, 2020 23m 51s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #54 Kyle talks about why building a community online with membership content is a better strategy for survival than replacing lost races. Build a Community Don't replace your races with a virtual equivalent. Instead,

Race Invention is the Mother of Necessity

Apr 15th, 2020 40m 40s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #53 Kyle explores The Lockdown AR-style virtual activity challenge designed by Rootstock Racing and what you can learn from this experimental four-day event. Race Invention is the Mother of Necessity Rootstock Racing,

Does a Virtual Race in the Woods Make a Sound

Apr 8th, 2020 20m 38s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #52 Kyle explores how a virtual event can be organized and ideas for creating your own membership club to survive the shutdown. Does a Virtual Race in the Woods Make a Sound The pandemic is not going away anytime soon.

Keep Racing with Asynchronous Virtual Events

Mar 31st, 2020 22m 7s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #51 Kyle challenges race promoters to pivot quickly towards asynchronous competition and virtual events if their business is to survive this pandemic. Keep Racing with Asynchronous Virtual Events The world has been tur

50 Lessons Learned from Being a Race Director

Jun 14th, 2018 1h 45m

Merchants of Dirt Episode #50 These 50 race direction lessons learned can help you build your roadmap, refine your checklists, or just help you find a place to start. 50 Lessons Learned - The RD Roadmap Welcome to an information-packed 50th epi

Racing support services you can outsource

May 29th, 2018 1h 10m

Merchants of Dirt Episode #49 Racing Support Services is an entire industry that exists to make your racing business easier to manage, provide you professional services that you do not have to do yourself, and can free you up to build your busi

Are you a women-friendly race director?

May 21st, 2018 51m 14s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #48 If you invest your time in teaching and encouraging women to become better riders today, you can create an environment that promotes women to try racing for the first time and encourages more women to attend your e

Bad Crews have Worse Leaders

May 7th, 2018 30m 28s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #47 The reason bad crews have worse leaders has everything to do with a race director that hires their friends, allows them to say and do anything they want, and approves of their bad behavior by doing nothing to stop

Spectator Friendly Race Formats

Apr 23rd, 2018 35m 37s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #46 Consider how creating spectator friendly events could create new customers while the untapped benefits of having an excited crowd could help your bottom line. Three Formats to Consider This episode of Merchants of

Head Counts Matter

Mar 25th, 2018 35m 18s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #45 Your accountability to your customers begins when they arrive at your venue, and only ends when you are certain they have left your venue safely. Head Counts Matter This episode of Merchants of Dirt is about race d

Yesterday Is Too Late For Insurance

Mar 14th, 2018 53m 10s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #44 Insurance is the minimum financial protection a race director needs to protect themselves, their staff, their volunteers, their business, and their family from other people’s injuries. What is Insurance Insurance i

Tales from the Collegiate Sports Laboratory

Mar 2nd, 2018 57m 1s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #43 Collegiate sports clubs can give college kids a platform for racing while serving as your personal laboratory for testing your race direction ideas. The Collegiate Club Laboratory College Club Sports are their own

Outreach and the Art of Recreational Engineering

Dec 25th, 2017 27m 46s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #42 There are certain levels of outreach where the marketing of each endeavor depends on how much time you have or what kind of impact you want. Three Kings of Outreach Today I answer listener emails regarding three ve

Make event management jelly with Jennifer Crawford

Dec 18th, 2017 26m 57s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #41 Jennifer "Jelly" Crawford from The JellyVision Show walks me through the strategies and struggles of directing a conference from the ground up. Enter the Jellysode Jennifer "Jelly" Crawford from The JellyVision Sho

Oh, No! Where’s Kyle? He has all the gear!

Dec 11th, 2017 40m 4s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #40 Don’t be the single point of failure by being the only one with all the gear by building a few gear redundancy strategies into your plans. Single Point of Failure (SPOF) When someone has all the gear — all the tent

5 Things That Make a Multi-Day Slogfest Special

Dec 4th, 2017 1h 10m

Merchants of Dirt Episode #39 There are some hidden challenges that hide within the multi-day slogfest that few one-and-done race directors have experienced. Directing a Multi-Day Race The multi-day race is a special kind of challenge that requ

Turkey Day Trail Time Tips

Nov 26th, 2017 23m 43s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #38 Exploring a new trial on a holiday like Thanksgiving can be very rewarding so long as your plan includes these 7 important tips. Tips for Visiting a New Trail Do some research Bring the right gear Talk to the loca

Take Your Race Promotion on the Road

Nov 19th, 2017 1h 18m

Merchants of Dirt Episode #37 Break your race out of obscurity by announcing your event at other events using the roadshow concept to get the word out. Take Your Race Promotion on the Road Did you know your race is a product? Well, it is! Your

Everything’s Bigger in Montana

Nov 1st, 2017 44m 40s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #36 When you compare your local races to championship races you learn that it's the same plan, course design, and processes, only on a bigger scale. Merchants of Dirt Podcast Turns One! Merchants of Dirt Podcast releas

Four Horsemen of the Race Planning Apocalypse

Sep 12th, 2017 43m 43s

Merchants of Dirt Episode #35 Learn how to prepare yourself for the possibility that one or all of the four horsemen of race planning will show up and wreck your race. The Four Horsemen of the Race Planning Apocalypse Competition - You have to

Save Your Race with Measures and Metrics

Aug 27th, 2017 48m 1s

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

What You Can Learn from Race Hater Mr. Murphy

Jul 26th, 2017 1h 15m

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 prepara

Inside the Race Director’s Studio Part 2

Jul 8th, 2017 1h 3m

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 mountai

Inside the Race Director’s Studio Part 1

Jun 27th, 2017 54m 34s

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 behi