Ep. 43 - March 2020 Rodeo Updates Part II
It’s the second edition of the 2020 March Rodeo Updates and things have DEFINITELY changed a lot. From the impacts of COVID-19 on professional rodeo and western businesses, we bring in a special guest, Ashley Alderson, from the Boutique Hub to tell you some tricks of how to turn this quarantine and pandemic into an opportunity to create content and grow your business. The team chats about a couple online courses that we have launching to help you start your own podcast, improve your media interview skills and more. There are all courses that we have talked about in the past and had scheduled to release in the upcoming months, we’ve just pushed them further forward to give you all something to chat about.
Read more at www.thatwesternlife.com/podcast.
Instagram Quiz
How many of you are concerned about COVID-19?
The level of concern by most of our followers was that they weren’t worried about themself but were worried about at-risk individuals. Rachel works at a hospital so she always has the thoughts in the back of her mind that she could bring the disease home.Katy says that she feels very lucky that she is in the age group where, if she were to contract COVID-19, that she’d be okay for the most part but there is a concern for the elderly and those back home in Canada that are at-risk.
She does point out that there is a lot of things that we need to worry about them being at-risk all the time, just not during this current pandemic.Katie talks about how she has been seeing information down the pipeline from the international music association’s that she is a part of and says, “We have three options. You get a $1,000 if you do any of these three: A thousand dollars for walking over a three foot alley with no life clip in and no railing for a hundred yards; A thousand dollars for walking across it with a railing and a clip-in; OR a thousand dollars for not doing anything.”
Why would you risk it? Why would you not just take the safe step when it costs you nothing.Has COVID-19 impacted your rodeo schedule?
A whopping 72% said that, “yes,” it has impacted their rodeo schedule.Are you still continuing to go to events?
Interestingly enough, the same number of people that said it impacted that their schedule is about the same that said that they are still going to events.
“I wonder how long that will last,” says Rachel with a laugh. “Ya, it’s gotten wild - I think the new recommendation is ten people,” adds Katie.Is this going to impact your side hustle or business?
With much of the western lifestyle relying on side hustles or family businesses, 74% said yes that it was going to impact their business and they are worried. This is a big part as to why we have brought on Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub to chat about COVID-19 and what we can do.
“My family friend is having their bull sale this week and it has to go on… these animals are ready now and they have to be sold now,” says Katy. “Luckily they have online bidding and phone bidding. They are keeping their fingers crossed that it doesn’t impact their livelihood.”Do you want to hear more podcasts during quarantine?
We found that 87% of the fans wanted additional podcasts during the quarantine, the other 13% saying that they were too busy. Here’s your duty podcast listeners - we want you to let us know, via direct message on social media or email, and let us know who you’d like to hear from!
Better yet? Reach out to the people you want as guests and let them know that you want to hear us on the show!
Rodeo Updates
Paul Eaves Wrecks
Paul Eaves’ horse slipped and fell on him at a jackpot. The rope went around both back feet but he wasn’t able to pull the slack tight. After the emergency room, he was announced to have a concussion and he’s now home and recovering.
Watch the video here.
Taylor Santos Wins Timed Events Championships
In his first year competing at the Timed Events Championships, Taylor Santos won the entire event at the Lazy E Arena in Oklahoma. Besides the Round 3 win he got to cash a $103,000 check. Tee McLeod of Canada won the Junior Timed Event Championship and he almost made the Canadian Finals Rodeo last year. It’s a legendary title so congrats to Tee and Taylor on their wins!
Z Boots; Technology Meets Splint Boots
A rodeo contestant, David Wadman, and the CEO of Zebra Equine Technologies. He said that the boots we have now aren’t doing enough. Made of multiple layers with a cooling pack and a bluetooth sensor that alerts your phone, they defer heat from outside sources like sun, and more. They are predicted to start shipping in May and are on sale RIGHT NOW. We, as a team, are very interested in seeing how this product develops.
The American Update
Kaycee Feilds won the American for the second time on C5 rodeo’s Virgil breaking the arena record.
Stevi Hillman won the barrel racing on her big bay horse Truck - a horse she had wanted to run at the American previously but knew that with their short alley she wouldn’t be able too. The American changed up that alley this year and it paid off in a big way for Stevi Hillman!
Kaycee Hollingback, a college student, won the breakaway roping in the second year that the event was at the American. Working multiple jobs she was penny pinching and it was a big moment for her!
The bull riding was a tie with one contestant being Sage Kimzey on an ankle that was 12 days out of surgery. It was evident that he wasn’t at 100% because, despite riding great, he had trouble getting out of the arena after the ride was over. The second was Joao Ricardo Vieira and it was a bit bittersweet because everyone bucked off on the Final Four but the two cowboys had split the long round with an 84.5 point ride. They were pretty excited about winning $50,000 each but, knowing how competitive they all are they were probably hoping for more.
Wyatt Casper said that rodeo almost broke him last year as he had only won a few thousand dollars but not anymore! He not only won the saddle bronc but he he also split the million as being a qualifier. We are excited to maybe get him on the show in the future as we’ve chatted with him before to come on the show.
“God is good and was looking out for him because who knows how long we’ll go without a rodeo,” says Katie.
Matt Reeves won the steer wrestling for the second time in three years with a great run.
Luke Brown and Joseph Harrison won the team roping. Cool fact? They aren’t a normal pairing and must have entered up at a jackpot at some point and qualified. It’s cool about the event of team roping is that when you combine the rodeo world and the jackpot world you get those unique pairings.
Our tie-down winner was none other than Shad Mayfield who has made it to the American for the past three years. As a 19 year-old cowboy who had a huge rookie year last year he’s well on his way to making $1,000,000 in one year of rodeo (across all sanctionings and not all of that counting towards the PRCA World Standings).
“He’s such a nice kid too,” says Katy who has interviewed him a number of times. She mentions a video that surfaced about him from his fellow competitors talking about how they see him working in 27 degree weather, tying calves from a post by himself because he was just working hard to get better. “It’s just so cool when someone like that just shows us what they can make happen.”
World Standings
All Around: Clay Smith
Bareback Riding: Tim O’Connell
Steer Wrestling: Matt Reeves
Team Roping: Luke Brown & Joseph Harrison
Saddle Bronc Riding: Wyatt Casper
Tie Down Roping: Shad Mayfield
Steer Roping: Trevor Brazile
Bull Riding; Sage Kimzey
Barrel Racing; Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi
An interesting note is that the American does not count towards the WPRA and is sanctioned by Better Barrel Races.
COVID-19 aka Coronavirus
Rodeo Impacts
We see it when we pull up the PRCA rodeo schedule that, instead of seeing “In progress” or nothing, it says “Cancelled,” “Planned,” or “Postponed” after each listing. Mainstream sports, even at the college, high school and little league levels are mandating that they shut down but rodeo hasn’t done that.
“Why has George Taylor not shut this down? We are dealing with a pandemic,” says Katie. “Rodeo is put on by independent contractors with these different rodeos that get their approvals and I think that might be the ‘why’ when we ask why we just haven’t cancelled all rodeo.”
“It’s all independent contractors,” says Katy, “rodeo is completely different and that makes the difference as why George Taylor can’t say shut it down. He’s not paying the rodeo competitors to show up or the committees to put on a show. It’s different than the NHL or NBA where the competitors are employed by the organization… They are independent contractors so how can you tell them to stop working if you aren’t the one ‘employing them?’”
“I think my rodeo friends are the least concerned overall with COVID-19 and biosecurity with everyone still going to events and mad about events getting cancelled. I get that this is the only way that a lot of cowboys make money, whether amateur or professional, how is that income going to come in and that’s scary,” says Katie.
The PBR has an interesting way of moving forward as they are competing without fans and are now replacing mainstream sports on mainstream networks and allowing their cowboys to make more money.
“I saw a post about, ‘Why isn’t ESPN making a bigger deal out of this?’ … I think that the PBR is a different scenario than our other rodeos,” says Rachel. “I can see how doing the rodeo without the fans wouldn’t make sense… I think a lot of the problems with these rodeos not putting on their rodeos is more to do with their city ordinance which is why we have seen some rodeos happen and others not.”
As we were recording on Sunday night, we got the recommendation alert from the CDC about no gatherings of more than 25 people. That’s a way that PBR can capitalize because a regular rodeo with five or more events is going to have more than that just in contestants. PBR is getting it done and they are going to make new fans as people are craving reality television and real-time sports. The only sport that is still going on besides PBR is the Iditarod in Alaska.
Business Update around COVID-19 featuring Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub
Listen to the podcast for this exclusive update!
Online Courses for YOU!
Western Insights Media Podcasting Course; From Zero to Published
“Running this course has been on my heart for a while, ever since reading a book that included a segment on President FDR’s Fireside Chats and why they were significant. Podcasting is the modern day equivalent and I want to help you reach your constituents, your association membership and your followers,” says Katie.
This course will cover:
- creating your logo and brand
- creating your podcast content strategy
- how to record
- how to produce
- how to get it published
- how to interview guests remote
- the nifty and creative tips we’ve learned along the way
- how to market it
You can join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WIMpodcasting2020/
Cowboys in the Media
Cowboys are the most amazing storytellers… until you stick a camera or a microphone in their face.
They can sit around a table or a campfire for hours and tell story after story about this amazing life they get to lead. But time after time when I’m doing interviews with competitors that I know have those spectacular stories of their own, they either refuse to tell any stories at all or have so much trouble putting the words together that they couldn’t tell them even if they wanted to.
So, with the help of Katie Schrock and Western Insights Media, I am so excited to be launching my Cowboys and The Media course.
So many competitors - rookies and veterans - are:
Unsure of what to do in an interview
Unable to spit the words out
Embarrassed when they look back at the interview after the fact
Not even getting requests for interviews
Or worse yet, turning down interviews that could help further their careers!
Other professional sports provide training to their athletes, but rodeo just doesn’t have that so I - along with help from Katie’s wonderful marketing mind, professional competitors that I believe are excellent at promoting themselves through the media, and other broadcasters - want to:
Help you more sure of yourself and comfortable accepting interviews
Happy with the results when you look back on the interview because you’re able to tell your unique story
Get you more interviews and more exposure for yourself
And help you understand the benefits of accepting that interview to your career!
Join us here: