The first step is of course deciding on your Adventure. Are you thru-hiking the PCT or riding the Great Divide Trail. Maybe you are cycling from Alaska to Central America. I learned some important things about how the adventure fits with the sponsorship.

This may be obvious to many but it's worth saying. The value of you as a sponsored athlete is directly propotional to the marketing potential and the uniqueness of the adventure. For example, if you are thru-hiking the PCT, while this is an amazing feat it is not a first. In fact many, many people do this each year. As a result you may not get a full sponsorship from a number of company's. On the other hand if you are attempting to break the speed record on the PCT or be the first to walk it 4 times in a row you may have better chances.

Our adventure was not a first. People were very interested but some were not. For example, I called Smart Wool and talked to the Marketing Director. He was not interested, he said "we are supporting Ed Viesturs, he is attempting to climb all 14 8,000 meter peaks." There really wasn't anything I could say. What we were doing was cool but not that cool from a marketing standpoint anyway.

The lesson to me was: decide what I want from the adventure first. Then decide what I want from the business side of it and set realistic goals for sponsorship.