The Iditarod is a sled dog race that covers 1,000 miles of Alaska that happens every March (and just celebrated its 50th anniversary). Dallas Seavey is the youngest ever to run and win the race, accomplishing this at age 25. Now 36, he’s only the second Iditarod racer to win the race five times. In this episode of Upthining Finance™, Dallas brings us deep into the world of sled dog racing. He shares what managing the financial side looks like, how he leverages the tourism industry to fund his kennel, and his goals for the future.
Dallas has been mushing dogs his entire life. His grandfather started mushing dogs when his dad was only four. Dallas and his brothers grew up in the sport. He was always surrounded by 60–100 dogs. He was also the youngest person to ever race in and complete the Iditarod.
Most people start running for a kennel as interns trying to move up the ranks. They work with dogs around two years old, with the lead being older. When Dallas raced for the first time, the goal wasn’t to win—the goal was to build better sled dogs so they could come back as better athletes. They’d be rookies on the pro team the following year.
It was an educational experience and a lot of responsibility. He and his brothers learned how to manage an entire operation including managing staff, vehicles, equipment, and the dogs. If they broke down during the race, they couldn’t just call for help. They had to figure it out. They became self-sufficient quite young.
Dallas started his own kennel when he was 21. Dallas always looks at where his team is relative to the competition. He looks at where other mushers have gotten hung up. He studies why some racers have raced 20+ times and never won. He looks for room to improve. He focuses attention on the weakest points of his teams to continue to improve. People tend to avoid where they need to improve.
But finances are also a large part of the sport. You have to be great business managers so they aren’t handicapped on the finance side. Financing affects the team in many ways, including the number of dogs they can maintain and train. If you have a larger group of dogs to choose from, you can develop better individual athletes.
For every 10 dogs, you need another human to develop and train those dogs. There’s a tremendous amount of work that goes into the physical development and individual needs of each dog. The infrastructure has to grow to correlate with the number of dogs. And there are a million financial things to consider, from equipment, to feed, supplements, and more.
Managing the financial aspects also includes sponsorships, tourism, public speaking, etc. If something has a positive return, you can’t turn it down. It can be a time strain. You have to love what you do to make this a career.
Dallas is training and managing people to create more than a one-man organization. His focus is creating systems that make success repeatable.
Tourism is Dallas’s primary source of funding for his operation. They offer...
