Buck Fifty Team Captain THINKTANK: Phase One!
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If you missed my announcement of the THINKTANK here at Marketing Fun With Mike check out last week’s blog post HERE!
The Buck Fifty flyer appeared in my race bag on Thanksgiving Day at the Turkey Trot in Columbus.
It was simple and to the point: 150 Miles, 10 Runners, 2 Drivers, 24 Hours.
It sounded like something that would push me out of my comfort zone and absolutely challenge my physical limits. Naturally I was ALL IN! I texted my good friend Greg and suggested we build out a team. He responded within minutes and we were, literally, off to the races.
Our Buck Fifty team is built out and our start time is on Friday April 7th at 430pm. I’ll be running leg one of thirty for our team and I will be totaling 17.5 miles in full during the race.
What I’m going to share in a bit more details over the coming weeks leading up to and after the race are what it takes to be a team captain in a road race like this and the conversations that I have had with the Race Director for how they have created this.
The whole point will be to give you a raw and exposed underbelly view of this to gain knowledge about future potential passion projects you might be interested in creating. The Passionate Marketing THINKTANK is designed to let me chase down my passions, then show you my successes and failures, and in the end give you benefit and understanding of what you want to create in your career and life.
Here are five high level thoughts and random musings on things that were required as a result of taking the leadership role as team captain in a road race:
- Understanding how some people communicate better in person, on email, or via text. Figuring out how to work the group dynamic in terms of communication will be different in every situation!
- Pace times. Have you ever tried to project out how many minutes per mile it will take someone in the middle of the night on their second leg in eight hours on a trail they have never run on before? Projecting out pace times for 10 runners over the course of 24 hours was a good exercise in the “Under promise, Over deliver!” department.
- Questions from team members. There were some very basic and logical questions: Can we have iPods? (NO), Does Van Two need to arrive at the same time as Van One? (NO), to some very complicated questions involving If there would be volunteer support on the trail run (YES) or if the hand off from each leg was then required to be carried by the next runner the whole leg (NEED TO ASK STILL!)? What I have learned from this is to treat every question seriously and understand your team gets to be curious and ask questions.
- Ownership as team captain. Van two had not reserved their van yet and I made sure I reached out and requested one specific person to reserve it that day and to let me know when they had. The reason it wasn’t being done was my lack of taking ownership on specific follow up with one person instead of just telling all five of them to figure out.
- Packing. What one person’s most important and vital item is not even on the next person’s packing list. Create a packing list!
Why is Digital Marketing important???
The Buck Fifty team have created and promoted this race in a great way via digital marketing. First off it’s entirely volunteer based, all proceeds go to benefit drug abuse support programs in Southern Ohio, and the idea was built from the ground up by a group of passionate runners. From finding and signing up teams and volunteers, to building an outstanding “What you need to know” race packet PDF, posting live videos of the race director and his friends running the practice legs, showing the routes and legs online, answering race questions, etc. You name it The Buck Fifty team has been doing it and has been able to start and build this in less than one year! Keep in mind this is a 500 person race with 50-100 volunteers that will take 24 hours across three Ohio State Parks. IF building out the whole community and event via digital marketing was done then many other passion projects can be built this way.
Overall I have organized email chains and groups, coordinated in person team meetings, navigated to find and then rented 12 person passenger vans, communicated with the race director weekly, created a working team google doc, found and reserved campsites for downtime, ranked runners in terms of strength, and even made a Van One Playlist!
It’s fun to do but definitely requires a decent amount of work, planning, communication, leadership, and accountability of both yourself and every member of the team.
If you are going to lead a group in any type of physical activity or race remember that it’s supposed to be FUN!
Fun for one person is also different for another person. Respect people’s differences and let everyone have their voice heard.
The race is coming up in just a few weeks and the next edition of this specific THINKTANK experiment will be talking with the race director about the planning and understanding of what it takes to pull off an event like this!
In closing I want you to know that if you have any questions you’d like to know about this specific projects that will help you please just comment below or email mike@MarketingFunWithMike.com.
The point of the Passionate Marketing THINKTANK is to allow you to see how you can phase out passion projects in your life through digital marketing and possibly explore turning them into side hustles or businesses.
I’m really glad I ran in that Turkey Trot and that we formed this team. The Buck Fifty flyer could have very easily gotten thrown in the trash. But it didn’t…because I said YES to adventure, exploration, and the possibility of feeling uncomfortable.
When exploring passion projects and testing them out SAY YES MORE!
Sign up for Bi Monthly Videos HERE about the Passionate Marketing Revolution and get a copy of either of my books HERE. The goal of these books is to help you realize the importance of having work that you are passionate about and then deciphering how to channel that passionate work into something IMPACTFUL in the world!
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Spread Good Vibes, Demand the Best from Yourself, Carpe Diem
Mike