Sponsorship Success Academy: Cohort One - It’s A Wrap!
The Sponsorship Success Academy wrapped up on January 6th with a final online session to review how far the student cohort had come since the start of the course back in October 2021. They’ve secured sponsorship, improved their confidence, and built skills that will carry them through the rest of their careers.
Here are some of the stats and highlights:
34 hours of teaching across five modules.
10 hours of premium-level coaching.
18 hours of Homework Club (online co-working).
Two scholarships were offered in association with Racing Pride.
Drivers from the worlds of rallying, truck racing, karting, single-seaters, touring cars, sports cars, electric racing, drifting, sim racing, endurance, and NASCAR.
Students achieved three championship wins and three championship second places between them during the Academy.
Plenty of new sponsorship deals were made during the 12-week course.
Lots of drivers re-signed current sponsors for a higher financial investment.
One family team secured enough sponsorship to move from arrive and drive to owner-driver karting for 2022.
One carbon-offsetting partnership.
What a cohort of students! So many personalities and different age groups, all willing to invest in themselves, and try new things, not least because the cohort was full of determined, friendly people. From the US, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and the UK, this diverse group grew in confidence, sharing experiences, advice, and encouragement — not to mention a lot of jokes in the Zoom chat. 😄 🥞
We are big fans of the Motorsport Days Live event which takes place at Silverstone in November, so much so that we decided to invite cohort students to meet us for a coffee and the chance to network. It was an incredibly rewarding day — getting to know each other better, making new connections, and showing Academy students how to make the most of an event like this.
And it wasn’t just us organising meetups! Quite a few of our cohort arranged to meet each other at tracks and events across the UK and Europe, and plenty of race invitations have already been proffered for the 2022 season. There’s even a sim event going ahead!
A lot of sponsorship work is done alone and the hustle can often feel quite lonely. This cohort became a genuinely supportive community proving that going it alone doesn’t have to be the norm.
Sharing the small wins, asking the questions that also help others, and taking a risk because you’ve been inspired by the group is part of being in a cohort course. It was great to see it in action.
Learning about and finding sponsorship CAN be like that. It doesn’t have to be a chore or scary. Joining the course, for many, has been transformational, both personally and professionally, and honestly, we couldn't ask for more than that.
Hear from our students
Here is some of the feedback from cohort 01 students:
Drifter James Moore
“The Academy has changed my perspective completely, my whole mindset has changed. Before I had no confidence in asking for sponsorship because I felt I was just begging for money, now I have a plan, I have genuine value to offer and I feel much more confident in pitching to potential sponsors. I even feel confident to walk away from a deal if the terms are not right for me, or our values don’t align, because of the value I am bringing.”
NASCAR team manager Kimberly Cram
“Thank you! Our Zoom chat about joining the course was scheduled to happen right before I’d been invited into a proposal meeting. Your words in our conversation gave me direction, clarity, encouragement and support to take on this meeting with confidence AND IT WORKED!! I could not be happier with the people we have aligned ourselves with!!”
NASCAR Euro Series Champion Gordon Barnes
“Seeing how my skills were developing, seeing the progress I made, has boosted my confidence. Also, having that wider group meant that as I learnt and as I talked about what I was learning and doing, there was always feedback and encouragement from fellow students as well as the course leaders.”
Are you ready to take your career to the next level?
This is your invitation to join the 2022 Sponsorship Success Academy. Our second cohort begins in September. This 90-day cohort-based learning course is designed to take drivers to the next level in their careers. With six weeks of live training and six weeks of guided implementation time, students are supported the entire way.
Sign up here for more information and you’ll also get early-bird access to the pre-sale event in August.