by Kristin Swartzlander | Jun 13, 2014 | Mindset, Thoughts and Rants
I thought I’d do something a little bit different this week and record an audio version of the blog post. This week, we’re talking about dream shame – when the size of your dreams doesn’t match up with what others expect. In racing, we talk about pursuing our dreams with others often. And we usually get unsolicited opinions on what we should and shouldn’t pursue. Click on the video below if you’d like my unsolicited advice on the size of your dreams and how to ignore the well-meaning advice. As always, I’d love it if you’d leave a comment telling me if you liked this different format and if you’d prefer to receive more information this way. You can also tell me what else you’d like to see or hear from me, now or in the future. With love,...
by Kristin Swartzlander | May 16, 2014 | Mindset, Thoughts and Rants
Turning pro is an interesting concept. It seems straightforward at first, right? A pro football player is someone who plays football for a living. Getting drafted and entering the big leagues is considered ‘turning pro’. A professional driver is someone who pays their bills and feeds their family through racing, whether that’s from t-shirt sales or their cut of the winnings. Going pro might also be thought of as a way of carrying oneself. “That Johnny…he’s a real pro.” They dress and act professionally, have a certain type of appearance and lifestyle. They have a professional attitude; they’re careful to say and do the right things. But there’s a third way to go pro, and it has little to do with how much money you make or the label on your t-shirt. It’s a mindset. It’s a decision that everyone who wants to achieve something great has to make. Simply put, a pro is the opposite of an amateur. A pro is someone who consistently pursues success at a given level. Most of us have a job to do and a dream to pursue. The difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is often a choice: whether they show up as a pro or as an amateur. I read a book a few years ago called The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield. In it, Pressfield defines the concept of turning pro – he’s since written a whole book on it. There are complexities to his definition, but to me, turning pro means making the decision to honor your dream by showing up and honoring your dream....
by Kristin Swartzlander | May 1, 2014 | Mindset, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Thoughts and Rants
I contend that showing up is everything – you can’t win a race that you don’t show up for. But, you might argue that not everyone that shows up at the racetrack wins. There’s only one winner in each race, and some teams will never taste that victory. You’re right. But parking your ride in the pits is just one part of showing up. You can’t just show up for a job interview and win the job, right? You have to show up to creating a killer resume, show up to your shower that morning, and show up in your words and body language when answering questions. To win a race, you can’t just show up at the track. You have to show up in the garage, show up for your sponsors, show up with your parts programs and show up with the right attitude towards the people who support you. Showing up isn’t just showing up. And that’s why I’m thrilled to tell you that you’re going to win the race against your competition over the long haul because you’re showing up by reading this. I’m not just saying this because it’s my content – there are many other places to get valuable information. You’re winning the long race because the majority of your competition isn’t reading or consuming any of it. While they’re focused on getting faster, you’re investing time and effort into making yourself better off the track and out of the garage. If you think every successful driver out there got that way just by winning races, you are dead wrong. They might not be the...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Apr 25, 2014 | Mindset, Thoughts and Rants
There’s a thing that some people call the ‘comparison hangover’*. It’s when you spend lots of time looking enviously around at what your competition is doing. You think you’re being productive – trying to figure out how they created what they have – but really, you’re beating yourself up over why they’re ahead of you. As soon as you snap out of it, you feel like you’re on the wrong end of a whole pitcher of margaritas. Here’s my take on how to treat a comparison hangover in racing: Treatment #1: Get out of your (pounding) head. Instead of feeling bad about the guy next to you having more sponsors, better equipment, a better website, more Twitter followers, and a flawless paint scheme, take a step back. Ask yourself – are we at the same point in our racing careers? It’s easy to look at his race car, see nearly the same thing that you’ve built and assume that you should be on the same level. Yes, most of us are running a chassis that’s the same age as everyone else’s, with most of the same components. But you can’t assume that you know what’s going on under the hood of anyone else’s car anymore than you know what’s going on under the roof of their house. You can only compare apples to apples – race cars to race cars and drivers to drivers will never match up. Maybe you’re the same age, but he’s been racing for 10 years longer. Maybe you’ve been racing the same amount of time, but she races three times as often as you....
by Kristin Swartzlander | Mar 27, 2014 | Mindset, Thoughts and Rants
There’s something to be said for failure. Not the permanent kind, although I would argue that permanent failure exists only if you give up. But the trying-something-I-haven’t-yet-mastered kind of failure…that’s the kind I’m speaking of. We all look up to someone in racing. Many of us think that if we just achieved their level of mastery and accomplishment, we’d be satisfied. We would have success. But that person, your person, has someone that they look up to as well. And I’ll bet someone looks up to you. Me, too. (It’s hard to believe, but my dog is significantly shorter than me. *Ba-Dum-CH!*) We strive to the next far-reaching level of success. And some of us may be satisfied when we get there. It may be enough. And that’s great. It really is. But for me? That’s not in my nature. I’m a competitive, driven person. I’ll always want to be better, and to achieve more. It can be unsatisfying at times, but at the same time I’m proud of where that has taken me so far. So I’ve learned that I need to fail. And do it as quickly and often as I can. It’s these failures, these attempts that we make over and over again, that lead us to accomplishment. When I do a branding or marketing campaign for a company, I fail at creating slogans. I fail at directing the graphics. I fail at writing website copy, crafting a marketing strategy and designing social media campaigns. I fail over and over again at countless things until I get it right. I bet you failed at everything in...
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