Every time I say the word “fan”, I feel uncomfortable. As someone who spends most of his time with “fans”, I see people who are more like “friends”. It’s just that if any of these “fans” did as much for me as they have for these bands, they would be better “friends” than most of the people I call “friends”.

Our business was inspired by a group of “fans” that demanded to spend some quality time with their favorite band, Sister Hazel, whom we managed at the time. These “fans” had called every radio station to request the band’s songs, bought tickets to the shows when the band performed in their town, passed out flyers and even let the band sleep on their couch when they could not afford hotels.  So, in order to show their appreciation, the band invited the 400+ fans on a cruise and they all showed up. Once on board the ship, we quickly realized that if we abandoned the thinking that we were supposed to build a wall between the band and the people who cared about them the most, we would have a perfect opportunity to get to know amazing people that we now call “friends”. That weekend was an exchange of mutual respect and appreciation like none I had never seen.

Hopefully all bands will take a moment to shake hands and get to know some of the “friends” who afford them the opportunity to have a career in music. Maybe even ask their new “friends” for their autograph? After all, their autograph should be worth more to the band than the band’s is to them. I’d like to hear some stories about bands that have “fans” and bands that have “friends”. My hope is that in some way or another Sixthman has been able to play a small part in promoting more of the latter and less of the former.

We are working hard here at Sixthman. A new year in planning, our first cruise on sale and booking fast, our other cruises starting to be finalized/take form, and all this with the help of chocolate.

My job/goal is to keep the awesome staff of Sixthman happy, and I have found that a big bowl on my desk of assorted chocolate does just that. And while I might be helping to break resolutions and weight watchers points are being thrown down the drain, the Sixthman’ers stop, justify their candy intake (i.e. it is the last twix I have to eat it, my lunch just wasn’t enough, I NEED CHOCOLATE), and get that jolt of sugary sweetness to fuel them back into the swing of creating amazing cruises that include all of you!

So really I am keeping you happy…indirectly.

Don’t be fooled. While they walk by, hesitate, look at the bowl once or twice, determine what piece of yumminess to indulge in.  I smile and know the cruises will be even better because of that mini 3Musketeer or Milky Way that they finally choose and walk away with already in mid-consumption.

You can thank me on the next set of cruises.  I will be the one in the gym

Escaping the recent snow, Sixthman spent a few days earlier this week at a beautiful home south of Augusta having our first annual “retreat”. We’ve now fully turned the page to 2009. I feel like I’m always living my life one year in the future.

We learned about our personalities, strengths and weakness, and team dynamic. We learned that if we were in an outlandish survival situation Andy would be the leader (surprise, surprise), that we would never agree if passive means calm or inactive, and that we’re lucky that we don’t have a 7 year old employed here.

We spent a lot of time discussing each cruise, the community that revolves around it, what went right, what went wrong, and how we can make it even better next year. And maybe there was a little drinking by the campfire too…just a little bit.

We all walked away tired and hungover, but excited by a new set of challenges and opportunities for 2009.

The End

-L.Mac

Every year around this time we engage the managers of the artists we are targeting for next year’s cruises. And every year, we get a handful of managers tell us that they would like to be a part of the cruise but they can’t commit this far in advance because their artist could be TOO huge by the time we sail and could potentially miss a bigger opportunity like playing Madison Square Garden.

It’s never our place to predict whether we think the artist is on that track or not. However, we have no problem reminding them that the success of any artist is directly tied to the type of relationship they have with their fans. We also let them know that every artist should make time to spend a few days with some of the most passionate music fans in an intimate environment. After all, our guests are the ones most likely to spread the word about the artist to their peers once they return home. We often hear from artists who perform on our cruises that they see a dozen or so guests with friends at their shows after the event and it always makes us feel good to see the experience live beyond the ship.

Sometimes our position is received well and the artist jumps on board immediately and other times we wait for another year to pass and check in with the manager to see how its going. This year we were able to at least let them know that John Mayer, Barenaked Ladies and another 80 or so artists who joined us this year are ready to commit to next year because they know that spending time with real music fans is always the best place to be.

So if Madison Square Garden calls, they probably want you bad enough to wait one week and certainly could not hold it against you that you took your fans on vacation with you.