#157 - "Goldy" - Voice of the Beehive Bandwagon

The voice you hear at the steepest start lines has a story—and a system. We sit down with Goldy, the announcer behind the Cirque Series and the force behind the Beehive Bandwagon, to unpack how a kid who DJed camp dances became the guy who turns finish lines into goosebumps. From a fateful Red Bull gig to years across X Games, Dew Tour, and trail races, he shares how preparation, empathy, and restraint shape the sound of an unforgettable race day.

We explore the craft that most people never see: studying start lists and past results so callouts are accurate and earned; reading the course so updates actually help families track their runners; pacing energy to protect the voice while still lighting up the key moments. Goldie explains why he treats the winner and the final finisher with equal weight, and why the “last 100 yards” is where brands are built, communities grow, and athletes decide to come back next season. He also gets candid about budgets, live-tracking tradeoffs, and how clear timelines plus a good radio beat fancy tech for keeping crowds engaged.

Short-course mountain racing sits at the heart of this conversation. We talk about the visibility, the shared stoke, and the way these events invite elites and first-timers into the same narrative arc. You’ll hear how the Cirque Series balances game-day decisions with tight production, why guest experience matters as much as athlete flow, and how a great MC can connect all the dots without getting in the way of the moment. If you care about trail running, event production, or the secret ingredients that make a finish line unforgettable, this one delivers.

If this resonated, follow Goldie at beehiveproductions.com and on Instagram at The Beehive Bandwagon. Enjoying the show? Subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—your support helps more runners find us.

Follow the BeeHive BandWagon on IG - @thebeehivebandwagon

Reach out to Goldy for Booking's & Questions - @thebeehivebandwagon.com

Follow James on IG - @jameslauriello

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Transcript

Setting The Stage: Meet Goldie

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast. I'm your host to James L'Oriello. Guys, bear with me a little bit today. I know my voice sounds a little annoying and a little bit nasal. I am just getting over a cold. But to make up for that, I have a super special episode for you all. Goldie, the voice behind the Beehive bandwagon, is on the show to tell us all about his background, his business, and so much about himself. Really, really special episode for us. If you guys have ever run a Cirque series race, then you've probably heard Goldie's voice. Goldie is one of the numerous reasons the Cirque series has been so special, not just to me, but it's just been so dominant as a force and bringing something different to the sport over the better part of the last decade. Goldie's been a part of that. He, like I said, brings something special to be able to have that crowd work and recall knowledge as the announcer of the Cirque series. He also does announce a lot of other races and bike races as well. But I think you'd probably know that voice if you've ever run Cirque Series Alt, Snowbird, Targi, uh, or any of pretty much any of the Cirque Series races. Uh, that's your guy that is there. Um, yeah, kind of being the Bruce Buffer of the sport, announcing the elite athletes, doing crowd work during the middle of the race to uh keep the audience engaged and just being a special member of our community. So I hope you guys enjoy this one. I really like Goldie. He's an interesting character in our sport, and someone I think uh folks, race directors, and just people in the sport should know more about. So without further ado, Goldie, the founder of the Beehive bandwagon. All right, Goldie, welcome to the Steep Stuff Podcast. How's it going, my friend? How are you, man?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

What, James? How are you doing today? Um, I'm doing fine. Uh, I've scheduled a meeting to hang out with you for a half hour on your podcast. So what are we doing, brother?

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Oh, dude, dude. Uh so let me let me give a little background. For any person that's ever run the Cirque series, uh, you they they definitely know who you are. You are the announcer, the voice of the Cirque series. Um, you're at every race, more or less, out there, uh, you know, putting on, helping to put on a show. And dude, you just make it such a party. You I feel like you're you play such a big role in making it a party and making the race day atmosphere just so electric and so fun. You're out there, got the tunes pumping. It it's it makes it for a really fun day. So talk to me about yourself. What's your background? How did you start this thing? The Beehive bandwagon, uh, Beehive, yeah, Beehive bandwagon. And um, yeah, give me some background here.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Right, right. Yeah. You know what I could do? Why don't I just uh for the quick moment, I'm going to introduce the Beehive bandwagon. I'll be right back in a minute.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Okay. Ooh, this is this is cool.

unknown 3:55

All right.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

And so you're not getting any audio right now on that, are you? No.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Oh, that is awful. I wonder if I can.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

I don't have to edit this. It's not that big of a deal. But the um for um for I'll I'll put the audience watching on YouTube. I will uh ask them to pivot to get to see some of the background. Um, and we'll we'll uh collaborate on a reel and put this out there so folks on the podcast can can see it and uh get into it. Sure, yeah, and it's even playing it backwards.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Yeah, and it's playing it back like it's uh it's reverted on a backwards screen right now. So that's kind of funny. You see how everything's 180, everything's backwards. It is what it is. Um, okay, well, I can uh skip that. We'll just skip all that. I know. I really had all those dials. I can give them to you, and you can put them in the show if you want.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. So for the yeah.

The Red Bull Break And Action Sports

Enter The Cirque Series

Production Style: Structure Vs. Game Day

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Yeah. So let me uh I'll just kind of catch you up to uh uh you know why I got involved, all the things. Um, I mean, really, if you want to take it all the way back to like first the earth cooled and then the dinosaurs came, you know, and then all these things. Um, as it goes, I get into entertainment really young. I was Santa Claus in my fifth grade play, leads into um literally at the age of 14, I started DJing my summer camp Friday night dances. And, you know, we're talking, I was horrible, but it didn't matter because it was a good time, right? Everybody loved each other. It was summer camp. Um, but then that led into me DJing uh for money by the age of like 19, 18, 19 in the clubs. And I moved down to Orlando, worked for the Mouse. Yeah, I worked, I learned for I worked for Mickey Mouse for about three years. Great times. Never will do it again. Had a great time doing it the first go-around. Uh, and and and then that led into me moving back to Colorado, uh, kind of finishing up college and and getting into the groove of like DJing and being a part of events, and I was also bartending at the time. So I was kind of like getting money all where I needed to, right? Um something I wasn't having a blast with was college. And I was the type of person who was paying for it by myself. And I, you know, I just wasn't, I felt like when I was in college, I was surrounded by a bunch of jabronies because I was making money already, like DJing and being out and doing the things. And I was like, I think I figured it out already. So I just went with it. And now I'm about 112 years old and I'm still doing the same thing. Um so so I must have made a good decision back then. So DJing kind of led into MCing events as back in the day when I started DJing. Uh, very common that, you know, a DJ speaks on the microphone. These days it's like to find a DJ who actually talks on the microphone, it's like a separate skill set. So whatever, I don't want to go down that road right now. But the sort of like uh inception of my world of growing up through DJing and MCing kind of went hand in hand. And then um it was 1997 and a half. I had moved back from Orlando and I was DJing here in Colorado, and I had a DJ buddy ask me, he says, Hey, um, I've got this gig up in Vale that I don't want to do because I'm I want to stay down in Boulder and DJ down in Boulder today. Will you please go cover my gig up in Vale? And I said, sure, why not? Right? Let's go work. So I head up to Vale and he says, Yeah, it's like for this like beverage company. I I don't know, just anybody, some somebody, you'll figure it out when you get there. And I was like, whatever, dude, I'm DJing for him, it's fine. So I get there and it was at an old club that's now been demolished in uh in Vale. It was called 8150. The reason why it was called that, that was its elevation of earth at 8,150 feet. And unique thing about this bar is the uh stage actually bounced. There was rebar that went through the stage, and like people would dance and like your knees would buckle on this place. It was gnarly. They had to tear the place down, believe me. Not for that reason, but for others. But anyway, uh point is that I go and I DJ for this little little beverage company that day, and um we turned a bad situation into an amazing situation at the club. That's a very long story short. And the beverage company at the end of the day said, Man, you were really you saved our butts today. Thanks for being uh uh easy to work with DJ, and and we're definitely gonna have you back. That little beverage company is uh Red Bull, and I've been with them for like 25 years. Um yeah, so it and and as a friend of Red Bull, as they would know it. So it's like um I'm a subcontractor and they will call me for DJ gigs or MC gigs or things like that. So so I found the love of action sport DJing absolutely through Red Bull. Um prior to that, I was DJing like clown shows, like school school dances and weddings, and you know, like, hey everybody, I got my Mickey Mouse on, you know, and and and when I got a chance to to to DJ out in public, and Red Bull just says, hey man, you know the script, right? You got seven-year-olds out here, you got seven-year-olds out here, just be wary of your audience and we trust you. They did for 25 years, and I love it. And it gave me like a sense of like, hey, I'm actually a DJ. I'm not just a tool in the chest for some company to be like, hey, play the same crap that other DJ played yesterday, you know. And for me, I like I say, I can go on tangents of DJing, uh, and I don't want to because we only have a half hour. So um, so the thing is is that growing up with Red Bull uh and doing a lot of their events gave me a lot of like um creative freedom to understand why I'm there. Uh, that I'm not just like a tool in the box, like at a club or corporate DJing or something like that, where they're like, you gotta play the same exact songs that we heard yesterday. Otherwise, we're gonna be confused and probably mad. Um, they gave me the chance to really, you know, feel out the crowd and really, really dive into music that is like, oh, cool, you didn't hear this on the radio. So, what this all means is that it transferred over to MCing events the same way. That's when I met Julian halfway through my skiing career. Um, you know, I turned into a ski bum because of Red Bull events and stuff like that. It was totally innate. Uh, it was going to happen. Um and met Julian along the way, uh, got introduced through, I had done due tour and some X Games work. And so you kind of, when you work in these industries, you know, your name gets tossed around. Um, so somebody, I think it was, as a matter of fact, if I'm right, it was uh Jay and the crew over at Function down in Denver, uh, who had had introduced me to Julian. And uh and they were like, yeah, yeah, this guy never shuts up, you know, just give him the microphone. Uh and so Julian picked me up for a race at Deer Valley. I believe it was like literally his second race ever of the Cirque series. He had had a first one, which I wasn't a part of. We I just wasn't a part of it for whatever reason. We didn't meet yet. Uh, and I think maybe it was the first one where he was like, oh man, we're gonna need an announcer. That did not go well, or something like that. Or maybe he did, and that guy was a jabroni or whatever. I don't know. But it ends up that uh round two, the second race, it's at Deer Valley, by Park City, of course, all the things in Utah. Um and I have my Beehive bandwagon, right? This this big rig that I've made, and it's got all the buttons and the knobs, it's got the speakers, the microphones, the all the things that you need for a if uh a tournament director, a race director, it's turnkey for them. They just go, that's what we need. Audio, power, lights, microphones, it all just works. Yes, cool. Come do the job. Great. So when I brought this to Julian's first race, I you know, I'm stoked. I'm like, yeah, dude, I got the Beehive bandwagon with me. I'm gonna go park out on Deer Valley's lawn and we're gonna have this race, gonna be so rad. And I show up and Julian's just like, hey man, I don't I don't think the van's gonna work, bro. He's like, can you just like yeah, he's like, can you just like get all your crap out of the van and just like you know walk it over there and set it all up for me? And my stoke level was lower at that time. However, I was still like, all right, I'm a pro at this. Like, come on, it's his show. It's not about me, it's about him. Let's get this done. So I rip all the crap out of my car, the mixer and the speakers, and I'm just lugging it across the parking lot. You get used to it in the ski industry, and and I go and set everything up. End of the day, the race went great. And it was like uh at the end of the race, Julian was like, hey man, that was really great. You want to you want to come to the next race? Absolutely, I love doing this stuff. Um, and so since that race, I've done almost every single one since. Uh couple if we've had, let's say, if we've had 55 races, I've been at 50 of them, probably something like that. So it's been great. I love I love working with Julian. Um, he's been one of my more um brosive uh tournament directors that I I get to work with. Um he he I love the way he produces his events, and I say that sarcastically, but also like legitimately, because he's a backcountry skier through through and through. His blood bleeds backcountry skiing mindset. So he's a game day decision type of human, which I respect through and through. Uh now, when it comes to event planning, I've come from the background of things like X Games and Do Tour and Corporate and Winter Youth Olympics and major planning, where they're like, your tent goes in this square, your, you know, park your car here, here is your tick. You know, everything's rigid and and it's good because everything's planned and there's just no room for error because there's so much going on. At Julian's race, um, you know, we only get 500 people at most races because of the way the National Forest allows uh licensing for these races. Um, ultimately, they just don't want too many people trampling on the mountain, squishing all the flowers. So there's sort of a limit to how many people we get, which has been sort of the brilliance of part of this race. It kind of creates a um, you gotta kind of sign up early to get into this race, otherwise you just might not. Uh so when when when we set up the race in the morning, Julian like will be like, you know, we're just gonna put some tents over there, we're gonna put some tents over there, it'll all work out. Right. And I'm thinking, like, okay, okay, I hope, I hope it all works out. But you know what? Uh, out of those 50 of 55 times, it's always worked out. So yeah, it has always worked out. So, so I don't really question him anymore when he's when you know, when it comes to setting up site, I'm just like, you do you dog, and I'll just set up my rig over here and I'll let the flower bloom around me.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

I mean, what he's built though is like I don't know how many other races you've been to or outside of the Cirque series, but in the short trail scene, like in our just in our sport, dude, it's a it's a movement. Like, at least to me, I I think it's like just something so incredible and so different. And something like I I'm just very, especially as a podcaster, uh, if I have any voice in the community, I always tell people, like, you've got to do one of these races because it is just very unique and completely different to anything you're gonna get throughout the entire sport. Um, but yeah, so I don't know as far as like the planning and stuff goes and how he puts stuff together, but like, damn, does he put on a damn good event, dude? Like the stuff that they do is incredible.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

It's a 24-7 job, you know. The guy lives on his email, so you know, we'll go to Alaska and uh, you know, cruise out flagging the course and whatever, and he's sitting in a cabin just on his computer. And I'm like, bro, we're in Alaska, and he's like, I know, I'm working. So that's what it takes.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yeah, it's the job. But um, but yeah, I mean, as far as other races go, you would just mention things like that. Um, I do, I try to stay diverse. Uh, I did GoPro Mountain Games for 22 total years. Uh, I'm I'm not on their script anymore right now. Um, I could be bitter about it, but I will tell you I got replaced by an influencer.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Oh no. You could be paid. We don't we poo-poo on influencers on this.

Why The Last 100 Yards Matter

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Hey, dude, if you can get it for free and some guy wants the likes, uh okay. Anyway, that's all I'll say about that. Um, but you know, being in a lot of these multi-sport events, I've had the awesome opportunity to meet athletes that I would have never met in the first place. You know, guys in the kayaking community, the paddlers like uh Nick Troutman and Dane Jackson and all that. If it wasn't for GoPro Mountain Games, I probably would have never met these dudes. Right. So what's been really great is being in a lot of the sports, being in trail running. And now I'm part of that Utah gravel series where it's a lot of the gravel racing. Uh you know, I don't see a lot of crossover athletes from race to race, like I don't see the runners in the bikers race, and I don't see the bikers in the runners, and that's fine and whatnot. But what I can say to your question earlier is nothing changes from race to race for me. The perspective is the same. The tournament or the race director has a mission. Their mission is to throw the best dang race that they can for their athletes and hopefully their guests. Um, and one thing that I believe my duty as the announcer um is, you know, I've been to so many of these events where there are announcers who clearly you can you can listen to them and they have not done their homework. Yeah. They they they they they're on their microphone, they're talking about themselves, they're yammering about useless garbage, they're they're they're bringing no value to the microphone. They're just talking, either A to hear their own voice, or B, because they got hired as like, I don't know why. Maybe they're like, well, well, you DJ'd like my seventh grade uh daughter's birthday, I'm sure you'd be great at our race. Like, bro, no, not even close. Not even close. You know, when I announced when I announced winter youth Olympic Games in Switzerland, when I announced half pipes or big air or skier cross or border cross or anything at do, anything at X or something like that, if you don't come educated, why would anyone want to listen to you? Right? Like that could just be anybody on the microphone. I, you know, I don't need to go down too many bad examples, it's kind of like the bad wedding example kind of thing. But I've been around people who have been handed the mic. Obviously, they don't know their crowd in front of them. They're seven-year-olds, they're 70-year-olds, they're cussing, they're making lewd comments, things like that. It's like, bro, like cool. Like when we're drinking beers back in backstage, sir, say whatever you want. But like, really? Look at you right now. You're acting like a Jerry. So I think that there is, you know, it is. And it and it shows what makes me feel way more comfortable is when I'm educated on the subject in front of me, right? And then I don't have to talk that much. There's there's a there's definitely a uh a rule to letting it breathe. Yeah and just getting the hell out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

I'll I'll give you a compliment. I mean, one of the things like I mean, I was at Cirque Series Targy this year, and Real Recognize is real, dude. I was listening to some of the things you were saying before the race. Like you were talking about is Mason Copey gonna win this race? Is Jane Moss gonna win this race? I was like, he knows who these people are. Holy shit. Like I was actually like thoroughly, thoroughly impressed uh that like you did your due diligence, like you know who's who, and you have an idea of and who won that day? Mason Copey and Jane Moss. So I don't know. I just thought it was kind of cool that like you had done your due diligence, you know who was who, and uh you had an idea who the players were. And and I just gotta ask you, how do you like how do you not lose your voice by the end of the entire situation? Um, like it's I don't know. For any person that's run a Cirque Series race, like you give the same treatment for the winner to last place, like they're all celebrated. Every person, there's something there for everybody. And anytime someone's crossing the finish line, you've got a um also, how do you not screw up stats? Like, because I know in like runner sign up, like you can put like some stats or some information. Um like how do you not lose your voice and how do you not mess that stuff up? Like, uh, how do you do you keep that together?

Voice Care, Stats, And Flow

SPEAKER_00 20:52

So, so when I started on due tour, they were four-day events, and I'd be on site for literally eight to twelve hours a day yelling. And when I came back on Monday after four days, I I mean, I'm exhausted. Like you would call me on the cell phone, I wouldn't answer. I'd be laying on the couch, I wouldn't talk. It was like vocal rest day. I was exhaust. I mean, everything. I was so you know, flying back on the airplanes, people would be like, hey man, how you doing today? And I would just be like, you know, you get nothing. Uh so so in in those four-day stints, I absolutely lost my voice. Like I and I would have to, you know, rest a couple, two, three days to kind of get it back. And you feel it, and it gets raspy, and you're like, ah, you know, am I like destroying my life? You know, where am I going with this? And um over time, you know, and and you know, kind of goofy enough. I was in choir growing up through all this theater and you know, stage presence stuff and all that. So you get vocal lessons, you learn things like this, you learn how to use your diaphragm. Fram, you learn all these things. Something I started noticing about uh announcing maybe three, four years ago is I started cramping up in the stomach zone here. And you know, I stay active and things like that. And I'm like, what's going on? And I realized I just wasn't liquidated enough. So now, before every day, I'm just pounding electrolytes like, you know, like alcoholic to vodka. Yeah, I'm just soaking in them and you know, like all day long. And um it, it, it, you save your energy for the right moments. Um, you know, obviously the uh start line is always, you know, volume up, pump, let's go, let's rage. And and then obviously when the race is coming back, it's like two to three hours of just yammering of humans coming through. Now, of course, when you like you said, people sign up, and how do I keep those stats? Uh, we have our timers who will you know give me all that information on a computer and I'll be like, oh, okay, cool. Um, you know, okay. So they have a chip, and um, and it's not just like here comes Bib 15. It's Bib 15 is Mason Copey out of, you know, what is he, Montana? Am I wrong?

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Montana, uh Lakewood, Colorado.

Serving Athletes And Guests Alike

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Oh, look. Sorry, sorry, Mason, my bad. He'll listen to this, he'll be Matt now. I'm kidding. Yeah, yeah. Uh, and and and then so this that's why it's in front of me because I don't remember it all all the time, right? Uh, you know, I get lucky enough with the humans that cross the line multiple times a year. I'll recognize um, you know, like Grayson or you know, Alexa or or uh Bruiser, OCR Bruiser. That's it. Yeah, yeah. She's amazing. Jamie. I know. So you you you get used to the the regular faces, but this is what I believe, this is a core belief as I give me to races, is you think of it when you ran your first race, you were seven years old, right? Dad brought you out to the local 5K, and he's gonna go run it, and you are too, and you're like, I don't know, this this could suck, you know, and and and you you go and you run, and uh, you know, your dad's faster than you, and you know, you're trying to keep up, and there's all these people around you, and it's a commotion, and you're like, all right, like I guess we're doing this, so I'm seven, let's run. I hope I don't pee myself. Okay, cool. And I'm running and I'm running, and here we go. It's like 3.2 miles later, and you're finishing your 5k, and that last hundred yards means everything. It's everything. It doesn't matter if it's an ultra hundo, 50, 25, whatever you want to call it, 7,000 mile run, like whatever Chris Fisher's doing. The last hundred yards of whatever race it is, Jabroni 5K in your local city or full-blown UTMB in France, that last hundred yards matters everything. Why? The the race director is going, I want to do this again next year. I want to build an amazing race for my guests, I want to build an amazing race for my athletes. May not do it in that particular order. Typically, they build a race for their athletes first. I understand. I'm not calling anyone out. What I'm saying from my perspective, if you don't think of that last 100 yards as a race producer, you're missing the entire point. And I'm sorry, I know there's gonna be people, oh Goldie, shut up, you don't know anything. Ah, 30 years of this, it might. Here's the thing is all that struggle, everything leading up to it, right? You're trail running, you you you cut your leg, you're bleeding, you're cramping up, you didn't drink enough water, everything's going south. It's late, lightning, it's raining, whatever. But here you go, and you're you dumped your PR today, you're seven minutes off your pace, you're pissed off at yourself, and you come through. Some guy like me is just like, here comes Joey Smutsie, or whatever your name is. Cheryl, here comes Cheryl, you know, and they it's like a horse to the barn. They hear it and they go, Oh my god, okay, I'm almost done. I'm almost done. All right, and the pain starts to disappear a little, and they go, Okay, just literally, all I need is this last hundred yards, and I'm done. And then I can sit there and I can throw up and I can cry and I can drink whatever, you know, warm up, be done with this. But that last hundred yards, that's the memory. It's the same thing you had when you were seven years old at that 5k. And that announcer was like, Yeah, dude, look at the little kid running through the gates. Yeah, everybody give him a high five. And you're like, dude, I don't know any of those people. And yet, at that last hundred yards, you high-fived 14 random people, and somebody was like, Woo-hoo, kid in the red shorts, or whatever. And the announcer was like, Yeah, dude, you're awesome. And and if the tournament director is apt enough, they have your name. And I'll say, like, little Joey, little Joey Fuco, how you doing? Welcome back, you know. And he's like, Hey, I'm Joey. How does that guy know my name? Right. So we've just created an experience that for all the work, it could be Mason Copi, who's done a hundred of these things, 10,000 of these things, and he'll remember like the best 10 races of his life. Or it could be somebody who's like, I just got introduced to this last night at the bar. We took three shots, and then we had three more shots this morning, and my buddy said, Just sign up, dude, and let's go. And then you run and you come back and you're sweating out the bar, and some guy's barking your name, and you've never even done this before. You know, and hey, here comes Frank, Frank Rizzo, and he's like, I'm Frank Rizzo. All right on. And he throws up on the side of the trail and goes against the finish line, voila, and everybody's cheering. And Mason Copey, Alexa Aragon, and Jerry Buttifuco all got the same love. Yeah. It's the same money that goes into it, it's the same amount of energy. It doesn't matter the goal, just the fact that Alexa can beat your ass anywhere is fine. It's fine. You know, she's she's gonna be, you know, it's more against her, her, it's her against herself versus her against the field. Now, of course, in competition, when you get to the top five, top ten, people are in a sort of mindset like, I need to pace, I need to find where this guy's on trail. They're trying to make a couple of bucks. Of course, Julian does a great job bringing in the money to the event. Um and, you know, I think that when it comes time, you know, if I was in a tournament director's shoes, this is where my mindset would be. Yes, I want the best athletes, right? But if the guests and the athletes are having the best time at the last hundred yards, the magic's made, dude.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

It's amazing. It's amazing. Now, it's interesting to me, because like I I gotta ask you this. This might be like a left field question, but like who inspires you on that end? Like, do is there other announcers like that you get game from? The only reason I say this because like you're like our Bruce Buffer, dude. Like, do you know what Bruce Buffer is? I do. Yeah, let's get ready to rumble, bro. It's time, it's time, you know. Like, I don't know. Like, I I see that, and like I'm like, oh man, we have a guy. Like, you're our guy that we have for the sport that that does this.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Um I um I I have I have uh humans that like I I I could be envious of because of their job capacity. Like uh, you'll get a kick of that, like Mike Tarico and Jim Nance, right? Like golf and NBC sports. And man, do they have do they have like the best jobs ever? Like all they gotta do is just go dress nicely and and go to events and just speak highly of people. How are you gonna lose? Everyone loves you. You know, and and uh I guess um this is gonna sound maybe uh contradictory to what you're trying to say, but it it it's it's the jerry announcer that keeps me fired up because uh it's the Jabronies who get handed the microphone who sure you can get every anyone facts. I've been to a lot of bike races where I if the if the award was to bore everyone to death, I got awards to give to people because they're just sitting there and they're staring at their paper and they're like, okay, uh, looks like Joe just crossed the line at 11 minutes and 52 seconds. Okay. And then pretty soon it looks like we'll have Sherry, Bob, and Sue. All right, great. Now they're in. What? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

What is that?

SPEAKER_00 30:51

What is that?

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Yeah.

Keeping Crowds Engaged On Course

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Um I think you have to understand what drive, I mean, yeah, sure. I guess to answer the question, what drives me is the fact that what these people are doing is deserved of my energy. So you just hucked 8.2 miles around Arapo Basin, or you did Crystal Mountain, or you did Kellington or Cannon or whatever, right? That's a hell of an effort, right? A lot of these people, uh, you know, like like I say, in a lot of these races, 10 to 20% of the races are pro athletes. The rest are Rick and Jerry's like us, right? Like we are not gonna put a gold medal around, we are not Joe Gray, right? We are not going to, we are not built like them. That's fine. But the experience doesn't change. It's still for Joe or for Jerry, it's still the same. It's an amazing experience. You got out, you did your thing, you pushed your body, uh, either one way to feel great or to battle through pain, whatever the version, everyone has their reason, right? And of course, like I've done a lot of those like uh local city chaparroni races where I should just omit the word races, because they're really not. It's like people are walking, yeah. Right? Yeah, but there's a reason for that. Maybe they're battling some sort of like terminal health problem, maybe they're battling some sort of like nerve or or they had a body issue, or maybe they're just like, um, I'm overweight and I need to stop sucking at life, you know. I I there are every reason out there why people join these races. Um, and I think that's why I love the short course stuff so much, because it's not agree. The the ultras are cool. 100 100 miles, good for you. You ran 100 miles. That's for you. That's for you. And I'm not hating it. I think it's great. You run four marathons in a in a full day, fantastic. That's the American that's the human body and the human mind saying, I want to push limits. Fantastic. I take nothing away from that. If you're a race director and you want to build something that like what we've got going on at Circ and what I try to bring to other race races that I do, you've got to really focus in on your guests as well. They can't be left out. And uh the ultras, there's just not a lot there for them. I mean, what are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Not at all, you know, and and it doesn't make sense to be like, okay, well, I'm here at four in the morning cheering you on. And then what am I supposed to go wait at the bar for like 28 hours? Like, I think I'll just go live my life. So, what I find is it's some of these races that are athlete-centric, and like I said, I'm not talking trash or anything like that. It's just that the one element that's missing from them is the guest element. You can't forget them. They're part of it. They're the reason why uh these athletes can dump their crap in a car before they go run. You know, yeah, here, hold my stuff. I gotta go run. Okay, cool. Um, so you know, the short courses, I believe, invite a lot more athletes from a lot more uh mindsets, right? Where people are like, okay, cool. Well, I've run a 10K on the flats around City Park in my local town. I'll try this trail running thing. Sure. I mean, it's under, yeah, it's around six miles. It can't be any harder. Yeah, right. Uh, but it is it is it is nice to see that you can have a Joe Gray and you can have a Jerry Schmo all in the same race. Yep. And and and that there's something everybody.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Right. And and Jerry Schmo is gonna go, you know what? I may never be a Joe Gray or or or one of these top athletes who are finishing in like, you know, when we hear these times of people finishing Arapaho Basin in 54 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

That's a stupid. What? That's fast. That's a good time.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

That's ridiculous, you know, and and and the guests, you know. So when Julian still yet has to see this one day, he has no idea that I have fun with the crowd while he's out on the race. Yeah, yeah. He's uh he's out there, he's got his radio, yeah, you know, he's got his cell phone.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

What are you doing like in this time?

SPEAKER_00 35:20

So now it's time to like really take the guest for a mental a mental journey for what the athletes are doing now. Yeah, and I've done it, I've done the races enough to know kind of like the tracks well enough. And and literally in the back of my head somewhere, I have stats rolling going, okay, cool. Like, say if we were at Snowbird, right? You know, we got Mount Baldy and we've got the first hump to get over, and then we've got to go up to the Mount Baldi. Um, I know that that's gonna take our hero runners like a half hour, yeah, right? Just because we've done this enough now, right? Now I got I've got some info to kind of, yeah, stats to lean back on. Um, and then you know, soon enough you're gonna start seeing the ants crawl up the hill. And and you do, and it's crazy. Like I tell I'm like, anyone with a cool camera, you know, anything better than a disposable, get it out because you're gonna start seeing all the athletes, you know, cusping the ridge. And it's cool, right? Now you kind of know where they're at. And then, you know, I'll speak the race to them and I'll say, you know, I one thing I always talk about is a lot of the runners, like we have said, they don't all, they're not all trail runners elites, right? They're coming from like the 10K's at the local, you know, 4th of July run or whatever. So they they think that, oh, I run an eight-minute mile at my local, you know, 4th of July run in City Park. Um, shoot, uh how long could it possibly be a mile up in the mountains? Double it.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Little they know. Double it.

Short Course Culture And Community

SPEAKER_00 36:51

Say less. Right. And I and I tell all the guests that and I say, listen, like if you're if because we the the the technology exists to have GPS points around the course to say, oh, okay, bib 17 is here and bib 14 is here, and all that. It's just really expensive. Yeah, and so a lot of tournament directors are like, uh, we'll do some for aid stations in first aid, but we can't really just start having more GPS stations just because we're like, oh, these guys are at mile marker four when we could have, you know, uh somebody on the team who's on a radio just being like, hey, we're good. So there are cost things that tournament directors have to balance. And, you know, of course they want all the bling, you know, like a Chicago marathon or a whatever, but they're not working with two point gazillion dollar budgets, right? They're working with what they got. So all good. Um so in my mind, I'm bringing them that experience, right? Like, hey, our front guys are gonna be like, you know, our alien blood guys are gonna be down here in probably around an hour. And the rest of the actual humans made of chromosomes, X, Y, they'll be down here in about an hour and a half and after. Uh, and and people go, Oh, okay, cool. So, what that does for the guest is give them a timeline. Now they're like, oh, well, let's go to the bar. I got 45 minutes to go hang out. Like, why would I want to hang out and listen to this guy yell at me all day long? So, you know, it's just like being a wedding DJ or uh an MC of a large event. Your job is to keep everybody on schedule.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

You need to let not only your athletes know what's going on, you need to let your guests know what's going on. And if you're not facilitating the event in the mindset of what helps everyone in front of me, you're not the right person for the job. It's just all there is to it. And that's I think that's really what drives the whole idea. Is like, you know, I see Julian, he's like, he's got his race. I mean, I I I almost wonder like if I was maybe worse at this, if Julian would like stop running his races and be down at the helm and just be like, well, you know, that goalie guy kind of sucks. So I gotta be here. Yeah, yeah, you know, like micromanaging me, right? Like, and so I don't know. No, no, no, not at all. So I think it's it's more about like, you know, everyone, you know, like it's it there, it's right back to what we said at the beginning. The the backcountry mindset is like if you're gonna go backcountry with a bunch of riders, you want to go with guys, girls that you can trust in, that you believe that their abilities can handle the day. And and at that point, you're not constantly looking behind your shoulder going, all right, are we doing the right decisions? So the same thing in business, same thing in a in a trail run. You know, if I do my job properly, Julian can go do his job properly, and we've got all the other guys doing their things too. And and and they're stoked to do it, right? They're it's not like uh, oh, here we are working at Taco Bell again. I gotta be here for eight hours. Like everybody on the team is like, this is rad. I like being here. So that helps. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Dude, I love it. I love it. I am so sorry. I have to, I got a hard stop. Um, no worries. Construction at our house. Um, but let's do this again, man. I I really enjoyed this conversation. I want to keep this role in the same energy. Um, and yeah, I I think we need to do a part two maybe during the summer sometime. Maybe live, dude. I'll be at Snowbird. So maybe let's do one, let's do one live at Snowbird uh that weekend if you want to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

That event, I don't get to bring my rig because I'll bring it out. Well, they they because we're on the they were on the main deck now. We're not down there by uh uh what was it? The uh what is the chair? Gadzooks. Uh yeah, we're not there anymore. So we're back up at the main tram, and and they won't let me drive my rig on the patio. I guess it will fall through. So, like, whatever.

Trust, Teamwork, And Event Rhythm

SPEAKER_01 40:48

All right, let's not we'll figure something out. I'll be in a bunch of them the summer. So cool. Okay, Goldie, I want to say thank you so much for your time. I genuinely appreciate it. Um, like I said, apologies that we got to cut this one a little short, but definitely we'll do a part two. Yeah. And we'll we'll we'll we'll talk a bunch. Um I'm looking forward to and uh getting to know you better and and definitely uh yeah, have more convos. So I appreciate you. And uh the audience, uh, they can find you at the Beehive Bandwagon on Instagram. And uh yeah, I'll I'll put it in the show notes so they can give you a follow. And uh yeah, man, appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

All right, brother. We'll talk soon. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

What'd you guys think? Oh man, I know this was a little bit of a short one, had to cut it down for some timing issues, but definitely want to thank Goldie and we'll bring him back on over the summer. He and I'll have some uh some fun chats over the summer at the Cirque series races, and uh you'll get to hear more of his voice. Um, just a just a great character in our sport, and like I said, someone we need more of at these races. Uh so hey, if you're a race director or someone that's interested in potentially having Goldie at an event, um it's gonna be linked in the show notes, but you can find him at beehiveproductions.com and you can give him a follow at it on Instagram at the Beehive Bandwagon. Um, like I said, the dude is the Bruce Buffer to me, I think he's the Bruce Buffer of our sport. I love folks that uh are enthusiastic about what they do, um, and he just brings a very unique take to the sport. And I think, like I said, one of one of the things I just really admire about the Cirque series is they're just it's just different. What they bring uh at a race, um what they bring to the community is just different. And I think one of the many reasons they're so dominant and such uh so good as a racing series, I think I think Goldie makes up a nice little piece of that. So I think it's really cool. So guys, uh definitely uh give Goldie a follow. And like I said, if you're a race director and you're interested in having them at one of your races, you can find them at behiveproductions.com. Guys, if you've been enjoying the podcast and uh you like what we've been giving you, please give us a five-star rating and review on Apple Spotify YouTube or wherever you consume your podcast. Uh definitely hit that subscribe button on YouTube. That's uh a channel I'm trying to grow right now. Um, definitely want to uh grow that. And hey, you know what? I know you're not used to watching us on Spotify or Apple, but you can watch us on YouTube. You can see my beautiful face and our guests' beautiful faces and 4K video on YouTube. So be sure to check it out. Lots of cool stuff coming throughout the rest of your week. I've got Jackson Cole coming on uh later this week and a few other athletes, and we're gonna be doing a free agency episode pretty soon. Um yeah, it's just February. We've got some really cool announcements to make that I just can't quite make yet. Uh, we're still in the final, final, I guess, final finish line of some things, and hopefully announce that soon. So thanks, guys.