Should influencers be able to run the Boston Marathon?

Influencers have taken over social media. Everything from sponsorships, brand deals, and yes free race entries. But where should we draw the line? And how are these creators shaping the running industry?

We talk about all this and more!

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Transcript

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Should influencers be allowed to record and post content during races? Should big companies like Adidas and Brooks and Nike be able to pay for sponsored bibs that they give to whoever they want to give to? Um and where's the line when it comes to business and capitalism and making money when talking about these topics? Should we only stick to qualifying times, like for the Boston Marathon? Um, and what are runners saying about this topic? So, welcome to the Entrepreneur's Wife podcast. I'm your host, Carly Rains. This is a podcast where we talk about finding purpose as the helper to our small business owners in this feminist obsessed world. And today we have I think is a fun topic to discuss. Tomorrow is Monday, April 20th, and we have the Boston Marathon. There has been a lot going around on social media in terms of this marathon, and today we're specifically going to talk about my personal opinion um and just the hot topic of influencers, running influencers, fitness influencers, what their space is when it comes to creating content during races, what runners are saying, the business perspective of this all, um, and then really just my takeaway from this hot topic. So buckle up. This is gonna be pretty interesting. If you are not a runner or if you're not in the fitness fitness industry, you might not even know that this is an existing topic, but it is a pretty hot topic. We own a running company, so this is kind of getting into our space. And I've already asked my husband, Briston, his thoughts. He really doesn't care. Um, so you know he he says it's whatever. I I'm gonna take it from being his wife and being on the business side, but also being a runner, because I am also a runner. Um, so I'm gonna try to take it from both angles, and you make your conclusion. You let us know what your thoughts are when it comes to influencers, running influencers, and content and all of that. So we're gonna hop into it. Um so, like I said, the Boston Marathon is tomorrow. Um, if you don't know what the Boston Marathon is, the Boston Marathon is this huge race. I don't know exactly when it started, but it is having its 130th year race um tomorrow. It has been around for a very long time and it has gotten so popular that you just can't go and sign up for it. You actually have to have a qualifying time based on your age group, your age category, or you're running for a charity and you're fundraising for that, and then or you are sponsored by a business or a brand. And those are the three ways that you can actually get entered into the Boston Marathon, even if you have a qualifying time, there are so many that enter into it that I don't even think everyone who qualifies with their time gets it. I think it's based on fastest times, and then they fill the spots accordingly. Um, it's a pretty high um achievement if you ever qualify or run the Boston Marathon, because again, not everyone can just sign up and do it. Um, big city races like the New York City Marathon, um, probably the London Marathon, like big huge marathon event races, they require qualifying times and different things because so many people are signing up to do them. And so this is one of them. Um the hot topic that is getting talked about on social media and within the fitness industry is regarding influencers. Um, if you don't know what influencers are, they are people who have a big following typically on social media, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and they record content based on their niche. Now, your niche is really just your category. So you can have like you're a mom and you're you post content based on being a mom, or running, you post content based on running, or fitness, or lifestyle, or health, or nutrition, or there's literally so many Christian. There's even influent Christian influencers. There's literally every topic you can think of, fashion, um, travel, vacations, like every topic there are influencers. So the big hot topic is when it comes to races. During races, typically influ running influencers will record, they'll have a GoPro or their phone camera, and they'll take pictures, they'll take videos, they'll make content during running. So that way afterwards they can go and edit it and post it, and all their followers get to see it. And a lot of runners are blowing up saying that this shouldn't be. They are saying that, you know, it's kind of uh ruining the purpose of a race. They are saying that they're getting in the way of them when they're running, they'll just stop in the middle of the course and block runners from continuing to run on their race. It's a I I want to say a very 50-50 deal because half of the people just say, you know what, like it's their job. They're supposed to promote this niche that they're filming content in, and then half of them are saying no, they shouldn't be allowed to do it, and we're gonna specifically talk about running events. Um, and so with the Boston Marathon, a big topic is should influencers even be allowed to post and film content during the race? Um, and should they even be allowed to be sponsored by big companies? Because typically what happens is if you are an influencer, you have a ton of followers, a brand, a company will come to you and they will say, Hey, we will pay for you to run the Boston Marathon. They have sponsored bids, a set number of sponsored bids. So they will say, Hey, we will pay for you. You're gonna wear our stuff, you're gonna represent our stuff, and we want you to film content before, during, and typically after the race, and all about our brand stuff, and you're gonna represent our brand, and then all of your followers are gonna see that. And a lot of runners are blowing up about that, saying that that's not fair to people who have qualifying times, and that really is just ruining the like I said, the running and the race experience. Um, so here are my thoughts. Okay, we live in the 21st century, so I have a feeling that a lot of people don't like change, and especially a lot of older people. Um, no offense if you're older, but a lot of older generations, the boomers, the gen X, maybe even some millennials, okay, they don't like change. So back then, before social media, before cameras on the phone, you really didn't see people recording content. Like they might have taken pictures with a with a camera, or they might have like taken a video with a video camera, but you really didn't see people doing what they're doing now. And so I think there is a group of people who want it to be what it's always been. I mean, think about women when it comes to running marathons. Women didn't start running marathons until I think it was like the 60s or 70s. That was the first time that a woman decided to run, and people were fed up about it. I mean, the fact that a woman signed up to run a marathon, that was like a huge ordeal. And sorry, my husband's looking at me. Why are you making that face, Riston? Uh, you can use it, yeah. Yeah, I cleaned it. No. But I hand washed it. Yep. You can use it, babe. Yes. I promise. Um hang on. Okay, this is definitely the Entrepreneur's Wife podcast because I am feeding a baby in my hand, and my husband's asking me questions about household items. So there's your tidbit for entrepreneur's wife. Anyways, so when women started entering races, that was a big controversial topic. I think very similar to this topic. Anytime change happens in society, it becomes a very controversial topic. And I believe that is because we as humans don't like change. Change is very hard for us. I think some people are better at adapting to change than other people. But if you are a person who gets stuck in your ways, this can be a very hard thing, a hard pill to swallow. Um, because it's different and it's gonna change the industry. And from a business perspective, I hate to say that that's life, but that is life. Like, look at society, yes, nothing is new under the sun, like Ecclesiastes says, but things do evolve, things do adapt, things do change. So I say all that to say I think that is one reason why runners are fed up, is because they want it how it's always been. And I'm I just want to say I'm sorry. I I don't think that that's realistic, especially where technology is going. Um, and especially when, for instance, the fitness running industry is blowing up. And and honestly, I believe that it's blowing up because of influencers. Is there a negative side to influencers? Yes, right. Like sometimes it does paint this unrealistic expectation for that category. Um, I do think it is how the influencer portrays it. I think that is a big part of it because I do follow some moms who do a fabulous job, but they're also real and raw and honest when they're going through a hard time. So I do think that there is, you know, it is important how the influencer is influencing their audience. But I want to say that this is where I believe we're moving forward as a society. And with the fitness industry blowing up and the running industry blowing up, I I think that a big part of it is because of influencers. Because to be honest, y'all, I the first time I heard of the Boston Marathon was when the bombing happened, however many years ago, and I was a kid, and I remember on the news, my mom watched the news before we went to school. I remember seeing that on the news. That was the first time I had ever heard of the Boston Marathon. Even when I was running cross-country in high school and in college, I really didn't pay much attention to marathon races. Um, maybe that's because that wasn't the distance that we were running. And so, you know, I was telling my husband Briston, like last year, last year was the first time I had actually watched and kept up with the Boston Marathon, and I had watched it live. And I contribute a lot of that to I had been following fitness influencers on Instagram, and they ran the Boston Marathon, and they were talking, they recorded, you know, their travel to Boston, and they talked about their training leading up to the Boston Marathon, and so it caused me to be excited for the event, and then I watched the event, and I was telling Briston it'd be so cool to qualify for it, and so I think influencers, yes, there is always a negative side to everything, but there's also a positive side to everything, and I think a positive side to running influencers is that they are opening people's eyes up to the running industry to races like this. I I I firmly believe that it is so popular and so many people are signing up for races and watching marathons like this because of the influencers. And so, you know, I'm sorry to the runners who are not influencers, but this this is when we talk about business, um this is a plus side, it's a win-win. Uh, that's I just want to say that it's a win-win. Um, the only person that it I guess it's not benefiting is the person that's complaining because they don't like change. Like that that is the only person that it's not benefiting. Because from the business perspective, if you will, it's benefiting an influencer because that's how they make their income, that's how they make their living. Um they're bringing awareness to a topic, so fitness and running, for their followers. So now their followers are like, hey, I think I want to get into running. I think I want to try to do a 5K, I think I want to try to train for a marathon. I think I want to maybe qualify for the Boston Marathon. I think maybe I want to watch it. Um so now they're getting p other people into the running fitness industry, and then yeah, those big company brands, guess what? They're having people buy their clothes or buy their shoes or try their stuff because influencers are promoting them. And we can get so fed up about that and then promoting brands just because they're getting paid for it. But again, going back to the business side of things, if if an influencer really does believe in a brand, and I think it really goes back to the intention of the influencer, I understand your frustration if an influencer is just doing it for the money, they don't actually love the brand, they don't actually like have the same values as that company or as that brand. Like, yeah, I get your frustration with that, but if an influencer is like, hey, I love running in Brooks and I am going to talk about them and I am going to wear them, or hey, I love wearing Adidas clothing, or I love having a Koros watch or whatever it is, right? Like if they are genuinely loving a running brand and they're talking about it and they're sponsored by it, I I I don't see why people are complaining about that. Um, and also I I I just personally don't understand why people are complaining about having sponsored bibs, like companies buying sponsored bibs, um, with these huge marathons. I I mean it it's a competitive world, like that is a part of capitalism. It is a game, it is how the system functions. And so, yeah, if you don't have the best time and you don't get one of those qualifying spots, you're not in. And and some of those spots are gonna be sponsored because of how much those brands are paying for those bibs. And it's just how I hate to say this, but it's just how capitalism works. And owning a running company, I think, put puts a lot into perspective because um, like I was telling Briston, you know, if we paid an influencer, a trail running, ultra-marathon running influencer, to come to one of our races and you know, do content and talk about our stuff and they have the same values as us. And I mean, like, I don't I don't see the negative side of that. Number one, it helps us out as a business, right? Number two, it helps them out as an influencer because they're getting paid to do it, so they're making money. Number three, they're showing their followers, hey guys, there's a thing called trail running, there's a thing called running in nature. You're not just hiking, but you're running in nature. Um, you're showing someone a really cool place. Typically, we you know have our races at cool, beautiful places where you see scenery that you wouldn't typically see in an everyday life. And so, I don't know. I I think that the whole uproaring about influencers shouldn't have spots is dumb. Um and a part of me wonders like, are these people upset too? Because not that they're jealous, but I just don't think that they understand like the reasoning behind what's going on. Um we we are influenced by what we see, what we read, what we watch, and if you have social media, you know this. You follow a set group of people that you either love their content or believe in what they're doing or share the same values or are passionate about what they're talking about. And if they say, like, hey guys, you know, I love this food, I love these clothes, I love this, you should try this, like, and they talk about their experience with whatever brand or thing that they're talking about. Typically, nine times out of ten, it sparks your interest to want to try it. And you know, sorry guys, I had a crying baby, but typically it does spark your interest to want to try it. And now you might be sitting here thinking, well, what about the Christian side of things? So this is something that I've really like sat with and thought about theologically. I think God looks at two sides to there's two sides to whether something is considered good or evil, morally correct or or not. And I think there's two sides to the coin. Number one is your intention. What is your intention behind what you're doing? Um, number two is what is the physical act? Is this physical act something that explicitly says in scripture that we should not do or that God defines as evil? For instance, if you decide to okay, sorry. But for instance, let's say that you have good intention. Um I'm trying to think of an example, but I I do believe that it that is two sides to every coin. Is number one, God looks at your heart, what's the intention behind what you're doing, but he also looks at what is the physical action and is this something that he says is good or evil. And I say that to say that that's how I believe we should look at we should filter this topic through when it comes to what we should do as Christians. So, you know, whether influencers should have a space in the Boston Marathon or not, I think it's okay. Well, let's look at the intention of the influencers, let's look at the intention of the businesses, let's look at the intention of what's being done. Yes, do I believe money is a huge topic? Yeah, that that duh. Okay, the world literally revolves around money. Like it's just that's not gonna change until Jesus comes back. But I don't think I don't think um, you know, the idea of making money in itself is an evil thing. It is the she burped. Sorry guys. My daughter is on my shoulder and she just burped. It is the girlfriend trying to give her a passy. It is the love of money that is that is evil. So yeah, do I think these big branded companies are you know some of them probably have evil intentions? Duh. Okay. Duh, they that they have evil intentions. However, I don't think that everyone who is a part of what's going on has evil intentions, and I just from the fitness side of it, I think that there is a lot of good, like I said, that can come from people seeing influencers run marathons, run races, be a part of the fitness industry. I think that you know, a huge sin that we don't talk about in the church is laziness, is obesity, is not taking care of our bodies. Um, we literally in America are so overweight. Um, we don't exercise and we we don't we don't talk about this um in our churches. It is a silent sin. You know, gluttony is like one of the seven Deadly sins. Um, laziness, when Proverbs talks about just laziness, I I'm not saying you have to rigorously, you know, discipline your body and fitness um in order to be in right standing with God when it comes to taking care of your body. However, I I do think that daily movement, I think a lot of our mental health issues that we see in America today could be solved simply through nutrition and simply through um fitness, simply through exercising, daily movement. Literally, guys, walking. Um and maybe we might do a whole topic on this, I don't know. But you know, we're we're using medicine and we're using pharmaceutical companies in order to cope and in order to kind of numb a lot of the mental health crises with anxiety, or we're trying to, you know, I I hate to put sexual sin, but we're trying to get this dopamine boost um through the P word or through addictions, or we're trying to cope, or we're trying we're on antidepressants because we're sad, or you know, ADHD, or like whatever it is, we are legitimately taking medicine and using that as the alternative rather than saying, you know what, like what foods am I actually putting in my body? Are they good foods? Are they whole foods? Um, what am I doing with my body? If I'm just a couch potato, yeah, I'm probably not gonna feel good. I'm probably not gonna have confidence. I'm probably gonna feel super fatigued, super sluggish. Um, you know, am I am I going outside? Because let me tell y'all, just walking outside makes a huge difference. Like God created a beautiful earth, and just getting outside, getting some fresh air, walking for 20 minutes, um, can do you wonders. Like it seriously can. So, you know, I think us getting us getting fed up about this, I I just I don't think this is a bad thing. I think again, number one, people don't like change. And so it's hard for them to adjust to the vlogging, filming, content creating society that we've grown into. But as somebody who loves creativity and loves the business side of things, I I this is the thing that I talked about. You're either gonna feel inspired by someone's content, or you're going to feel envious about their content. Like it goes one of two ways. So you're either gonna have a positive outlook on what they're creating, or you're gonna have a negative outlook on what they're creating. If you are inspired by it, it means that they give you hope and that you at least somewhat want to um do or be a part of what they're doing, like they make you want to be a better person. And I think this is what I'm trying to come across with this topic of influencers running sponsored bids. To an extent, they are helping people become better. Now, there, you know, yes, there is a degree where people become obsessed with fitness and they over-train or they get an ED disorder because they feel like their body has to look a certain way and yada yada, all of that. But I would not pinpoint that wholly on just the influencer because I also think a big part of that is how the person who's receiving the influence takes in that information. I think it's how they're responding to their content. Um, if you have like if you see someone's content and you're envious or you have a negative effect of them, that doesn't necessarily have to do with that person, that has to do with what's going on in your heart, and I think you have to check your heart first, and you might need to unfollow them. I've had to do that with people before, and you might not need to watch their content, and that's okay, but again, pinpointing it just on influencers because they have this big platform and because they're influencing so many people. Um, I I just I I think we need to take responsibility for our own actions and what's going on inwardly and not just pinpoint it on the people who have the most influence because they could again be having great intentions by their content, be really trying to inspire other people. And not everyone's gonna receive it as inspiration. Some people are gonna receive it as jealousy, some people are gonna take it too far. Okay, sorry, y'all. But some people are gonna take it too far. Um, and and that's that's on them, you know. That's they need to find help for themselves, they need to figure out what their root problem is, the lie that they're believing, yada yada yada. So I think as Christians, as women of God, entrepreneurs' wives, um, you know, I make sure the influencers that I'm following are people who inspire me. And also, what season of life are you in? Because I want to end with this. I think it's unrealistic if you're a mom to try to maintain the lifestyle and the habits of an influencer who is not a mom because their season of life is totally different than what you're going through, and I noticed this with myself. When I became a mom, a lot of the people that I had been following when it came to fitness and even not just even fitness, but like my Christian walk, they were either married but didn't have kids, or they were single and weren't married, and I found myself like trying to measure up to the habits and lifestyle that they were doing when I became a mom. They're not a mom, so their schedule and their life looks totally different than mine. So I had to actually go and find healthy people who inspired me in fitness, in my Christian walk, as a mom, as a wife, for with people who were in the same season of life that I was in. And now I just had another baby, so now I have two kids, and I'm looking at moms who are Christian, who have more than one kid. How do they maintain their fitness? How do they maintain their health? How do they stay, you know, good wives and all of that? And I'm listening to their advice. Do I still follow single running influencers? Yes, and I follow them because you know their content is inspiring. I'm like, oh, I might use that for my content, but I'm not necessarily taking their advice or trying to live up to their lifestyle because their lifestyle is totally different than mine. So I think that's another thing because a hot topic that also is brought up in this is that influencers portray like this unrealistic life on social media, and yes, it is edited, like they're not gonna show every single part of their life. I don't think we should expect them to show every single part of their life. I think they have room to choose what they show and what they don't show. And I appreciate the people who do show the hard moments and are like, hey, my training right now sucks. But I also think that it's unrealistic for us to expect them to show every single part of their life because that has to be really hard for them to do. Um, think about it for yourself. Like, if you were showing every single part of your life on social media, guys, the literally the hate comments, I just I just want to say they are enduring a lot. I mean, like my husband literally will post one thing, and and so many people will just talk so negative about the one thing that he posts, and he don't even got that many followers. So I can't even imagine, you know, what these people are going through, especially with this hot topic. So I just think that's something that we should consider as we talk about this. Like, wow, am I open to change? Like when it comes to the running industry, am I open to the idea of the industry changing how it looks, things like that? Um, number two, let me, and I I get it, if you've never owned a business, it's probably hard for you to think about this. But let me try to think from the business side of things, like who is this benefiting and who is this not benefiting? And if you're sitting here like, well, this doesn't benefit the runners who didn't get accepted in their qualifying time. I I I also want to say from running in college, not everyone um, you know, like gets there's heats, if you will. So the fastest people are in heat one, and then the next fastest people are in heat two, and yada yada yada. And I I I just think that's how the game works, and and I don't think again, because from the business side, you also have to think people have jobs with these brands. So people work for Adidas, people work for Nike. If Nike doesn't make their money, people are gonna lose their jobs. So I also think that we have to consider that. Like, if they're paying for these spots because they know they're gonna get business from it, I mean, again, that's part of owning a business in capitalism. You're trying to think of ways on how can I make a better profit? Like, how can I um make more money if you will, and it's not just from a greedy standpoint, it's also from life, inflation gets more and more expensive, and the more and more employees I have, the more and more payroll and expenses that I have. Okay, sorry again. So, um you know, you have to these companies have to pay people, and anyways, so I say all that to say Boston Marathons tomorrow. Um, we'll see what happens in the future with this whole thing. Um this also brings up another hot topic for college athletics with the whole name image likeness thing. Um but anyways, that is a whole different topic. And we might talk about that next, because that also is the business side of college athletics. So, anyways, but I hope y'all enjoyed this episode, and I will see y'all on the next one.