Check Out Jeff Crutcher’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Crutcher.

Hi Jeff, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’m a transitioning professional motorcycle racer. I’ve never made a salary worth reporting on ESPN, but I’ve been paid to race off-road motorcycles since the age of 14. The money comes from many different directions but is mostly split between event promoters putting up a cash purse to attract talent and paid out by finish position, and secondly through brand endorsement and representation deals.

Last year in March, I quit a 9-year career at FedEx to pursue my final years as a pro racer while managing my (then) part-time graphic arts business. Doing custom commissioned motorcycle decal kits and working with the brands I’ve represented for years on their social and promo graphic needs is what has been paying my bills. However, the free time unlocked a thousand doors I didn’t realize I was unable to open while I was at FedEx.

In the winter months, we race inside hockey, equestrian, and even some motorsports purpose-built arenas across the middle of the lower 48. While outdoor racing is called motocross (Moto meaning 2, as in 2 wheels), our indoor discipline goes by Arenacross. A championship promoter based out of Springfield, Mo hosts a series that usually sees 8-10 venues in the season, and knowing that my time racing professionally was waining, I signed up to do the series last year. I also brought a racing buddy with me and used my connections in the industry to allot products and some cash sponsorship, and form a racing team in the process.

Though motocross is an individual sport in action, a race team hedges the financial commitment from sponsors on multiple riders. Like having two horses in a race. The way I set out to do the Hoosier Tire Arenacross series last year was different than how any other team has gone racing before: the emphasis is on content creation and brand representation OVER race results. This new paradigm that I’ve set as the benchmark of my operation has made massive waves in the industry.

Arenacross is the little brother to Supercross, where the multi-million dollar athletes are the tip of the competition and performance spear. However, the way I am conducting this team now in its second year has changed every brand I work with’s way of seeing value in actual representation over strictly performance.

This is my transition, from being a race-winning athlete to a content creator that owns a race team. The platform I’ve built for my two racers to succeed is minuscule to other race teams, but we’re far more valuable and within five years will be the gold standard in how athlete representatives are marketed.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No. If it was easy, everyone would do it. I am paving a new road that motorsports have not seen before and it’s fucking shit up for everyone. I say good. In due time, as this race team grows, I’ll have screwed up so many things that I can’t count them on all my fingers and toes.

Again, I say good. Error is the only way to get better, and not only can I learn from my own mistakes, but I also watch others make them and use their problems as lessons for myself.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I studied fashion in design, textiles, color theory, and digital design while I was enrolled at Penn Valley. What I learned in college above all was that I cannot be instructed on what to do. I have to go out and do it for myself, and if I don’t absolutely love it- I refuse to do it (in a professional sense, I still wash dishes at home).

I’ve spoken of my race team several times. By trade, I’m a digital creator. Being a creative type that has the administration capabilities to run an outfit like I am is what sets me apart from others. I know what our partners want and need to tap into the demographic’s attention span, I know how to create the content to deliver their message, and I can…are you ready for this… report back the KPIs.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Do not stop other people from making mistakes. Watch them do it, repeatedly, and use their professional follies as your “what not to do” playbook.

Also, if you are in a relationship/have a spouse, forewarn them that you are quitting your 9 to 5 job in order to work 24 hours a day. Yes, you will have freedom, eventually. But whatever your project is, it’s like a Tamagotchi and it will get in the way of literally everything.

Contact Info:

• Email: Jeff@racersartist.com
• Instagram: @rippinruts

Image Credits
Michael Antonovich, Brandon Roland, Jason Friberg, Garrett Bottorff, and Jessica Hare