Early Call Time Early Call Time Pod

The ECT Pod is back and better than ever after a longer than expected Eli-had-room-for-nothing-in-his-life-outside-of-planning-the-Twin-Cities-Marathon-and-then-a-new-Turkey-Trot enforced hiatus! And the first episode after our break is a doozy--an exit interview with outgoing Twin Cities In Motion Executive Director Virginia Brophy Achman (who also happens to be Eli's boss).In her almost quarter-century in the industry, Virginia has witnessed a lot of "beginnings"--the beginning of Running U...

After a bit of a hiatus Tony and Eli are back with a bang, with an in-depth interview with one of the most entrepreneurial people in the industry, Ragnar Co-Founder and CEO Tanner Bell! From a project that started while Tanner and his co-founder were undergrads and thought it was just something that would look good on a grad school application, Ragnar has grown into one of the most successful brands in the endurance events industry.Tanner gives Early Risers a behind the scenes look at all asp...

In a special Earth Day episode, Eli and Tony couldn't be more excited to have Council for Responsible Sport Executive Director Shelley Villalobos on the pod for an interview. The guys first find out a little about Shelley's athletic background--which includes Division I experience in a non-running sport--and how "she resisted running as long as she possibly could" until finishing her first marathon at the 2021 Bank of America Chicago Marathon (yet another ECT Pod guest who's a member of the "...

In this special mini-episode, Tony caught up with almost twenty industry leaders at the Running USA conference last weekend in Florida and asked them what it meant to be back together with their industry peers at the Running USA conference. Enjoy--and see you next year in Denver!If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and if you don't ever want to miss an episode be sure to subscribe. If you have any questions, com...

In this episode, the guys discuss how events and event production companies can retain their talented people after as the industry emerges from a tough couple of years--they talk work-life balance, opportunities for growth and avoiding getting stale, and how sometimes event production people need to just be allowed the time to do what they need to do.Tony and Eli also discuss which types of events are seemingly emerging from the pandemic unscathed and whether there are some types of events th...

In the Season 3 season premier of Early Call Time, Tony and Eli interview Michael Luchsinger, President and Co-founder of Event Southwest, a Dallas-based event production company that works on some of the biggest races in the country (including the Houston, Chicago, and Dallas marathons) and also happens to be where Tony used to work.Michael tells the guys his intergenerational event production story, including old school stories about tear-tag spindle timing and when his father sold his busi...