**407 How Adam Morka Grew Trail Hub 170% Year-Over-Year: Event Marketing, Digital Strategy & Brand Building in the Outdoor Recreation Industry**

**Episode 407:** Rain or Shine Podcast
**Guest:** Adam Morka, Professional Mountain Bike Racer, Olympic-level Athlete Coach, and Business leader

From Ski Hill to Destination Empire: How Adam Morka Grew Trail Hub 170% Year-Over-Year Through Intentional Marketing

Episode 407: Rain or Shine Podcast
Guest: Adam Morka, Professional Mountain Bike Racer, Olympic-level Athlete Coach, and Business leader

Quick Summary

Adam Morka is the entrepreneur behind Trail Hub, a 142-acre events and recreation destination in Durham Region, Ontario built on the site of a former ski hill. In this episode, Adam breaks down how he drove 170% year-over-year revenue growth using a multi-channel marketing strategy, the hard lessons that came with scaling fast, and why his bet for 2026 is simple: elevate your brand.

In This Episode

How Adam's background as a professional mountain bike racer and Olympic-athlete coach shaped his entrepreneurial mindset
The morning routines and calendar blocking habits that keep Adam performing at a high level — even on two hours of sleep
Why content marketing and digital visibility are non-negotiable for any business or professional in 2026
The step-by-step marketing strategy behind Trail Hub's triple-digit year-over-year growth
Why event marketing is one of the best ROI-generating strategies available (with a real-world case study from supplement brand BPN)
The operational growing pains that come when marketing works too well
Adam's one-word marketing bet for the next 12 months: brand elevation

Key Takeaways

Schedule everything that matters. Adam's morning workout, family time, and personal development are all on his calendar — not left to chance. If it's not scheduled, it's not a priority.
Marketing results lag behind effort. Trail Hub didn't see significant impact from their revamped digital marketing until 6–12 months after launch. Set realistic expectations and stay consistent.
Event marketing pulls double duty. Well-executed events can run at break even or a profit AND generate content and brand awareness that keeps paying off long after the event.
More impressions, fewer conversions. Most businesses convert only 2–2.5% of website traffic. Trail Hub hit 10% — but it required 375,000 annual website visits to get there. Volume of impressions matters.
Elevate your brand deliberately. Consumers in 2026 are investing in brands they share values with. Get clear on who you are as a brand and constantly raise the bar — your marketing spend becomes more efficient and your customer quality improves.

Memorable Quotes

"If everything matters, nothing does. If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. — Adam Morka (referencing Alex Hormozi)"
"The standards you hold your organization to are essentially the business you create — the same way the standards you hold yourself to create the life you live. — Adam Morka"
"Event marketing truly is one of the best marketing spends a business owner can make. If you do it properly, you can run the event at break even or a profit — and you're also getting the content and awareness out of the event itself. — Adam Morka"

Resources Mentioned

LinkedIn: Adam Morka
Instagram: @adammorka
Trail Hub: trailhub.ca
Kelsey’s Instagram: @KelseyReidl
Kelsey’s Website: KelseyReidl.com
HubSpot — CRM and email marketing platform used at Trail Hub
Bloom — paid media marketing agency (Toronto & Montreal)
BPN — supplement company; referenced as an event marketing case study
The Four Burner Theory — framework for life prioritization
Alex Hormozi — entrepreneur and author; quote referenced

About the Guest

Adam Morka is the driving force behind Trail Hub's explosive growth, bringing over a decade of experience spanning professional mountain bike racing, Olympic-level athlete coaching, and tech company scaling. He joined the family business in May 2023 and has since grown revenue by triple digits year-over-year through a relentless focus on digital marketing and brand building.

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p.s.

I went to Trail Hub for Mother’s Day this year!

Two of my closest friends and I decided to do something a little different this year on Mother’s Day. No brunch reservations. No flowers. Instead, we packed up and drove 2 hours north to a trail system called Trail Hub in Uxbridge, Ontario to go mountain biking.

3 moms. 6 kids at home with the dads. 12 hours away from it all.

What we found felt like a little slice of paradise tucked inside a conservation forest. The trails were some of the most beautiful I've ever ridden — fast, flowy, technical, downhill, flat — genuinely something for every level, all within a short ride of Trail Hub.

We were welcomed with open arms by the mechanic in the bike shop before we even clicked into our pedals. We explore the trails for over 3.5 hours (you can also hike the trails!). And we returned to the restaurant with hungry bellies!

We then sat down to a three-course Mother's Day menu: duck wings, crispy Brussels sprouts, beef stroganoff, and chocolate cake. And some drinks. The restaurant is called Nest and it was 10/10 food experience!

We all left with tired legs, a full heart, and memories I know the 3 of us will talk about for years.

Here are some photos…

A) Cleaned & Edited Transcript
Kelsey: Adam, welcome to the Rain or Shine podcast. I'm super excited to connect, talk about all things Trail Hub, and also your journey as an entrepreneur. I know you're also a new dad — you have a one-year-old and you mentioned a crazy night of sleep. So I'm just excited to dig into who you are and what lights you up. Thank you for being here today.
Adam: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Kelsey: Let's start with some rapid fire. You mentioned you were up a few times last night — how do you get your energy revved up when you haven't had a full eight hours of sleep?
Adam: That's a good question. For me, I'm pretty big on schedule and time blocking. For the most part I try to stick to my schedule as much as I possibly can. So when you have a rough night, I just stick to that schedule. First thing this morning was a quick workout just to get the body moving. I work out pretty much every day, first thing in the morning — some weeks I'll take a day off here and there — but that's usually priority number one, followed by a good meal and some quick family time. That's it.
Kelsey: I feel like that's such a through line of high-performing entrepreneurs. Sometimes things don't go according to plan, but we have things scheduled and, as best we can, we try to show up to the commitments we made to ourselves. Those commitments — your workout, cooking a good meal instead of going through a drive-through — help you feel your best so you can perform in your role as a business owner. Sometimes we don't feel like going to the gym, but you still do it anyway. Maybe it's a shorter workout or not your best, but habits make you the best version of yourself.
Adam: Exactly. I'm big on energy, and one of the reasons I work out first thing in the morning is to raise that frequency right away. I can typically carry it through the day and it helps me start in the right way. I find it very valuable.
Kelsey: Has this always been natural for you? Were you an athlete growing up? Because a lot of our listeners know they need to prioritize their health as a business owner, but the day can pass and suddenly it's been a month since they went to the gym. How did you build that muscle?
Adam: I've always been an athlete. I've kind of split my time between two worlds — high-performance athletics and business. I started in professional mountain bike racing, and my wife Emily is a two-time Olympian. Helping her build her career over the years meant working with some high-profile brands, and I also built a coaching business to fund my professional racing career, since sponsorship was quite difficult at the time.
Adam: The marketing side of helping Emily build her online profile with content marketing led me to working in tech for upwards of seven years. I came on at a SaaS company as around employee number fifteen and, over the course of seven years, we grew to 175-plus staff. It ended up being a successful founder exit. I was close to the executive team the whole time, so I really got to understand what it meant to build toward a founder exit and the pressures that come with reporting to a board. I've always been in that world — the pressures of being a high-performance athlete and the pressures of performing at a high business level. I think I've just built that muscle over time and it's become part of who I am.
Kelsey: There are so many parallels between the world of high-performance athletics and entrepreneurship. That's why so many entrepreneurs are pursuing Ironmans or were ex-Olympians — it's that muscle of showing up daily for the grind even when you don't want to, because the reps all count.
Adam: Definitely. A lot of athletes are pretty entrepreneurial as a foundational component. As an athlete, there's a big visionary element — no different from entrepreneurialism. You have this vision for yourself and you're constantly stretching your actions on a daily basis to reach toward it. You kind of have to have that vision in your head before you can become that person.
Kelsey: I want to double-tap on something you mentioned — supporting your wife's content marketing and brand building. So many of our listeners are physiotherapists, clinic owners, or other professionals who know they need to be more visible but are still hiding in the four walls of their office. Can you speak to the importance of building a public profile and creating more than just showing up for your craft?
Adam: I've always been passionate about content marketing in general, and I think for businesses and individuals, content is really at the forefront of everything nowadays. It's so difficult to cut through the noise to get enough eyeballs on your product or service. It really does take a multi-channel approach in most cases. Trail Hub is a hospitality business, but since I came in, what I've really been building is primarily a digital marketing base. Whether you're driving traffic to a website and converting it into a product or service sale, or simply trying to build awareness for your personal brand, digital marketing and that online presence are so critical.
Kelsey: I heard from one of my mentors that 'more eyeballs solve most of your business problems.' More visibility is not going to hinder your business — it's going to help you grow, make new connections, and land opportunities that otherwise wouldn't have been possible.
Adam: It really does take a lot of impressions to squeeze down into a conversion. Trail Hub spends upwards of 10% of gross sales on marketing annually. In 2025 we did 375,000 website visits, and that translated into converting roughly 10% into customers — which is pretty high for a hospitality business. Most businesses only convert website traffic at around 2 to 2.5%. It just goes without saying how many impressions you need to translate into website traffic, which then translates into a form fill or a conversion at a product or service level.
Kelsey: Let's give a quick rundown of Trail Hub for anyone who's never heard of it. Paint us a picture.
Adam: Trail Hub is an events and recreation destination located in Durham Region, Ontario. We're smack-dab in the center of a 6,000-acre parcel of conservation forest. Our property is 142 acres, and we have a restaurant on site, a bike shop, trails, a bike park, and we host upwards of a hundred weddings annually and 24-plus corporate private events annually.
Kelsey: What was the space before Trail Hub?
Adam: It was formerly a ski hill known as Sky Loft for most of its history. My father-in-law and mother-in-law acquired the property on the tail end of COVID — it had gone into receivership. They acquired it, did a bunch of renovations to bring it up to speed. That was April of 2021. I didn't step in until May of 2023, and since then we've had insane growth, largely attributed to marketing. Triple-digit growth year over year. From 2023 to 2024 it was 170% year-over-year revenue growth. From 2024 to 2025, 70 to 75%. This year we'll do around 50% year-over-year revenue growth, but we're starting to max out operational capacity, so we're looking at other avenues to add value. We're planning to break ground in 2027 on 15 eco-luxury cabins, which will open up a lot of cross-promotion across all our products and services.
Kelsey: What were some of those first marketing initiatives that really moved the needle?
Adam: When I stepped in, I looked at the core products and services and what the revenue model looked like, then created a forecast, a budget, and determined what percentage of gross sales would go to marketing. From there I went to work on a full website rebuild. We didn't really have any systems, so we immediately implemented HubSpot, Slack, payroll, and a bunch of operational systems.
Adam: Once the website was rebuilt, we turned on a lot of marketing channels in parallel. We engaged Bloom, a paid media agency out of Toronto and Montreal, for paid social and paid search. We started scaling organic social and email marketing through HubSpot. It was actually surprising how much revenue lagged behind the pace at which marketing turned on — we didn't see significant impact until six to twelve months later. Year one I was a little short on revenue targets because I was overly optimistic and didn't account for that lag, but year two we made up for it tenfold.
Adam: With that increase in volume came a lot of pain. We pretty much broke our operations team. There were HR issues, hard lessons in customer service, and challenges with our non-cloud-based accounting software that didn't speak to any of our 14 SaaS tools. But as an entrepreneur, you're just creating something out of nothing. You can have the most perfect blueprint, but there are going to be challenges you didn't plan for. It's all going to be iterative and evolutionary.
Kelsey: Can you share a little about why you started hosting events like trail running races, and how that has impacted Trail Hub's visibility?
Adam: When I first started, priority number one from a revenue perspective was focusing on what the business could operationally support right away — events, the restaurant, the things that already existed without major capital investment. The first two years were solely about standing up the event side of the business and getting the restaurant going. In the background we were building trails and ideating about the bike shop.
Adam: Now we're shifting focus back toward the recreation aspect. We have the bike shop going, and we're adding recreation events to the calendar. Last year we started with The Whole Enchilada, a trail running race. This year we're adding a Bike Fest. We're adding these events to act as marketing — to drive the recreation products and services here at Trail Hub. Event marketing is really one of the best marketing spends a business can make. If you do it properly, you can run the event at break even or with a profitable margin, and then you're also getting content and awareness out of the event itself, which drives the business forward. It's like killing two birds with one stone.
Kelsey: There's a specific case study you mentioned — BPN and their 24-hour running event.
Adam: Yes — BPN, a supplement company, produced an event in Texas called 'Just One More.' It was a 24-hour, four-mile lap running event. I think it cost upwards of $100,000 to produce, but the media impressions, the awareness, the live streaming from athletes on site, and all the follow-up content they got out of it resulted in roughly a 10x ROI. It's become a true case study in event marketing. You're seeing brands like Bandit Running do similar things — community-driven events that act as product marketing and build brand equity.
Kelsey: What is a tool, object, or ritual in your workday you feel you couldn't live without?
Adam: Calendar blocking. It's really difficult as a founder to channel your focus when there's always a list of a hundred problems to solve. Calendar blocking and time blocking help me move through my day with intention. My morning workout is on my calendar. Family time is on my calendar. Time for personal development, reading, listening to podcasts — all on my calendar. And being strategic with how you line up meetings in a week is critical. Are you doing all your meetings on one day? Or are you just letting people book time whenever, which gets chaotic and leads to constant context switching? I kind of live and die by the calendar.
Kelsey: I love that you don't just schedule work priorities — it's also your personal life, personal development, family. If it's important to you, it's on your calendar. You're not leaving it to chance.
Adam: There's a quote from Alex Hormozi that I love: 'If everything matters, nothing does.' If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. You really have to be intentional with where you put your focus, time, and energy. It's like the Four Burner Theory — family, work/finance, health/fitness, and friends. The theory says you can really only do two of them exceptionally well at any given time. It takes a lot of intention.
Kelsey: Okay, final question. It's 2026, attention is fractured, there are so many platforms to be on, and people are returning to IRL events and community marketing. Where should we be focusing our time and energy over the next 12 months?
Adam: What I've really been focused on is elevating the brand. I believe the standards you hold your organization to are essentially the business you create — the same way the standards you hold yourself to create the life you live. You constantly have to be raising the bar, and the same goes for marketing. By elevating the brand and the marketing constantly, you're doing a positive service to the organization because you're building brand equity, attracting the right audience, and potentially attracting a higher-paying customer.
Adam: Consumers are really investing in brands that they align with from a core values perspective. If you get really clear on who you are as a brand and start elevating toward that, you're constantly speaking to the people you actually want to reach. Your spend becomes more efficient, you get a higher-paying customer, and there's a cascading positive effect across the entire business. If I were to bet on one thing for the next 12 months, it's to elevate your brand and elevate your marketing.
Kelsey: Love that. So if somebody wants to connect with you or visit Trail Hub, where should they go?
Adam: They can check out Trail Hub at trailhub.ca. To connect with me personally, I'm fairly active on LinkedIn — just search Adam Morka on LinkedIn. I'm also on Instagram as Adam Morka. Feel free to shoot me a DM. I'm an open book when it comes to business and helping others figure their way through things.
Kelsey: Amazing. Thank you so much for your time today. I can't wait to visit Trail Hub — I'm queuing up an April or May trip. Thanks, Adam.
Adam: Thanks, Kelsey.

407 How Adam Morka Grew Trail Hub 170% Year-Over-Year: Event Marketing, Digital Strategy & Brand Building in the Outdoor Recreation Industry