Sports

Racing drivers: overcoming the fear of promoting yourself

Fear.

Fear can be a very dysfunctional and damaging thing. I have experienced it many times in my life and in my career. Fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of being mocked or even ridiculed. Fear to fail. Fear of doing something new on your own. Fear of not doing something right. Fear of rejection.

As a racing driver, you ride a very powerful machine going at high speeds against other determined drivers with powerful machines, and at any moment you can crash, roll over, catch fire and possibly injure yourself. Those who don’t understand sometimes think you’re crazy, right? But YOU can get that FEAR out of your mind each week and tackle the task at hand, why? Because you LOVE running. It is your passion. You take the fear out of your mind because you are confident in what you are doing and determined to win.

When it comes to marketing and promotion, many racing drivers tell me they don’t want to do it because potential sponsors turn them down and they give up. Or they have hired people to do this for them with little or no results. But they just don’t know how. This leads to the constant struggle financially to continue competing each week. So your passion can sometimes become stressful and frustrating.

I understand where you come from! I know what it’s like to have a passion for something and you want to keep it or take the next step, but you’re just stuck, and you’re afraid that if you try and fail, you’ll be worse off than before. That is fear. Fear is what prevents us from being successful in everything we do.

With marketing and promoting yourself as a driver to fans and sponsors in an effort to attract funding for your races, ask yourself these questions:

Who or what is holding you back?

Don’t know how to start?

Fear of failing?

Don’t understand how marketing works?

Why can’t I run and sponsors find me?

Or is it you:

I just like driving and I’m not interested in marketing.

Even when I try to promote, I don’t really get anywhere.

I’m too busy to market and promote, maybe I can find someone to do it for me.

I’m too shy and not the outgoing type. I’ll leave the marketing to other people.

I don’t like it to look like I’m begging.

I don’t like promoting myself, it makes me seem cocky.

I’m afraid to ask for help because I might seem inept.

Marketing costs money: I need to put everything I have into my race car.

I don’t have enough faith in my abilities and no one is going to want to sponsor me.

This is fear talking to you. Working against you. Preventing you from moving on. You must change your mindset. Just like when you get in that race car to go for Victory and put fear out of your mind, you should do the same with marketing. Approach him the same way you do your runs.

Open your mind to learn, change, ask for help, join the community and connect more with fans. You’ll be surprised how much it starts to come back to you!

You can’t do what you fear, and you can’t do what you don’t know how to do. You KNOW you need money to compete. You KNOW that good sponsors and memorabilia sales are needed for a large fan base. But how do you get it? How do you start and pursue?

1.) Change Your Mindset: Approach marketing like you do when preparing for a race: keep your eyes on the win and don’t give up. If it fails, fix the problem and try again. Once you get that first sponsor, you get the same excitement as when you win a race and it will push you to keep going for more.

2.) Educate yourself. Learn what you can about marketing and promotion, like building a better shock or race car setup, getting ahead of the competition, getting your marketing edge!

3.) Find Mentors – Find other drivers who have had success with their marketing and ask for advice, just as you would those who are doing well at a certain track or series.

4.) Step away from the racing toolbox a few days a week and use your marketing toolbox, like phone, email, social media, and face-to-face networking.

5.) Dispel the negativity and old ideas about marketing, promotion and getting sponsorships – Approach it with a positive attitude. Clear the old stuff out of your brain and start fresh.

6.) Just do it. Jump on two feet – cold water will eventually become comfortable! The more you do it, the more it becomes a part of you and the easier it is to do if you make it a routine.

7.) Be creative. Include things you know you enjoy as part of your marketing. Host a charity golf game with local business owners or a hunting trip. For young racers, organize a group ride with kids and parents or kid-friendly businesses in your community to go go-karting or even have a big pizza party at one of their races. For female drivers, you could do something with female business owners, like a charity fashion show.

8.) Get more help with your race car so you can have more time to market and promote yourself and your race team. Find local mechanics or high school students at mechanic or automotive vocational schools and see if they want to volunteer on a race team – give them a team t-shirt and pit pass, race tickets for your family. You’d be surprised who will be willing to help just for the experience!

9.) Have fun with your marketing and you will enjoy doing it! Get your good friends involved and make it part of your social life. You’ll be amazed how many more friends you’ll make, gain followers, and sponsors will start looking for you if they see that it’s a nice experience for their customers to be around you! Before you know it, you’ll be enjoying marketing and promotion and find it rewarding and fun!

10.) Fear? Spooky. Racing drivers are not afraid. Go for it! You can do it!

Some of my favorite quotes about fear:

“The only thing to fear is fear itself” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Fears are educated in us and can, if we wish, be educated.”
-Karl Augustus Menninger

“Fear is as deep as the mind allows.”
-Japanese proverb

“You gain strength, courage and confidence in every experience where you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do what you think you cannot do.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit at home thinking about it. Go out and get to work.”
– Dale Carnegie

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.”
– Unknown

“It is impossible to have faith and fear at the same time.” – Jackie Pegram (My mentor and Bible study teacher)

I had to face my own fears in my PR and marketing career. When I was new to the NASCAR scene in the early ’90s, I found it best to seek out mentors and learn from the best I could find who were willing to help you learn the ropes. This gave me the confidence I needed to do a good job for my drivers, sponsors and team.

I am here to tell you that I have overcome many fears. I’ve been in your shoes. I have always conquered my fears so that I can continue to grow and move towards greater success.

I will not let anything stop me from my dreams and goals. Many have tried to stop me, try to push me down. I have also experienced heartbreak, failure, sadness, and rejection many times over the years in my career. I overcome them and remove all negativity from my mind. I have learned to change my mindset. I will only look forward to my goals and not back down out of fear or insecurity. My goal is to share my knowledge, life and career lessons, my successes, my experience and passion for marketing with all of you. I am dedicated to helping runners achieve their dreams and goals by helping them overcome their fears and find success with marketing. Your success is my success. Dispel the fear, dispel the old myths, ignore any external or internal negativity, and let’s make it happen! I’m with you all the way!

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