There are two women in the Sixthman guest community who have been on more of our events than 95% of our Sixthman staff. They have both been with us since The Rock Boat wasn’t even called The Rock Boat, and have been exceptionally loyal ever since.

Over the last several years, I have gotten to know these wonderful ladies – Beth Gosnell and Gail Harkins – very well. And, because of the personal relationships they’ve built through their own lives and through the Sixthman world, they started a music festival weekend highlighting many artists who have been on our cruises. What’s more – all proceeds from the event benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Lyrics for Life. Even better – it takes place at a great beach in Florida. The icing on the cake? They graciously invited Sixthman to come down and hang out as their guests.

Happy to take them up on the opportunity, myself and two other Sixthman staffers made the trip down to Rock by the Sea and were not disappointed. Days were spent splashing in the ocean, playing beach bocce, and laying around by the pool, and nights were spent enjoying the cool beach night mingling with old friends and listening to artists like Michael Tolcher, Jackson Rohm, Five Star Iris, Chuck Carrier, Wideawake, Scarlet Kings, and Sister Hazel. It was incredibly inspiring to see the Sixthman tree extend into a whole new world – where guests who met through our events create their own experiences and raise money for a cause they really feel passionate about. Well, inspiring until that fourth Patron shot at least. After that, it gets a little fuzzy. Did I mention that events are more fun when we get to drink a little? ☺

Beth and Gail, congratulations on a job well done. I’m incredibly proud of you (for what it’s worth from a 24 year old kid).

Everyone else, I hope you make the trip down to St. George’s Island next year to enjoy the music and camaraderie and help me cheer on two of the biggest VIPs I know.

LC

We recently subjected ourselves to a series of tests that assessed our personality and strengths. Who knew that a 20 question document could tell you everything you hoped everyone around you never realized about you? After we got over the uncomfortable part of our exposed weaknesses, we had some good laughs and joked with each other about how we completed each other in a professional way.

We were each assigned our personality type and shown our dominant “Kolbe Color.” We learned that RED = Fact Finder, BLUE = Follow Thru, GREEN = Quick Start and YELLOW = Execution. Our friend Jim Doggett from Avalaunch Consulting reassured us that we are all unique in our own way and that if you put two BLUE people on the same team to prepare for a “Catfight”. I had to get comfortable with the fact that after the initial idea was on the table, my contribution had been made. It was an amazing experience that I highly recommend for groups of people working together.

-Andy

Book of the Week: Also been reading some good books lately. One in particular that I enjoyed was the “Culture Code.” He theorizes that we unconsciously assign a meaning or CULTURE CODE to things based on our culture. Anyone read this one out there?

Hello to everyone in cyberworld. It’s Nora here and believe it or not, this is my very first blog (gasp!). I know, I don’t even have a my space page or facebook or belong to any other social networking site which, these days, is almost the equivalent of still using a phone attached to a wall as your primary method of communication. After all, this is the way the world communicates, is it not?

Seeing as how I have a masters degree in communication, one would think that I am more adept at such things. However, I know ten year olds who have mastered blogging, my space messaging, and texting. I pride myself by knowing omg, lol, and even idk, but seriously, half the time I have no idea what they are saying in their coded speak. And do I ask? No! Then I just sound old, and I’m only 29!

All of these practices have allowed us to communicate at a greater capacity than ever before, but are we communicating better? Recently I attended the wedding of two of my closest friends from college. Prior to the event, the couple had asked for song requests on their wedding blog. So I wrote, and I quote, “What wedding is complete with out Shout and The Chicken Dance?” When they actually played Shout at the wedding and the bride made sure to make sure I was listening, I realized that my sarcastic tone hadn’t come across as I had intended.

I have found myself in this predicament more than a few times. The smiley face and sad face icons can be helpful, but until someone invents a sarcastic face, I still have to carefully monitor my outgoing messages.

Hopefully you all know what I mean, this being my first blog and all.

TTFN & CUL8R

Nora

“Shake it, don’t break it” is a phrase often heard in the call center’s little nook of the Sixthman offices, and I’m not just referring to our method of getting the fax machine to work. I am of course referring to the magical hour of day when the phone ninjas like to get this party started, better known as our 4 o’clock dance break. I will not claim sole responsibility for this genius invention to break up the monotony (yes, gentle reader we are only mere mortals even our jobs can get monotonous), but I do like to think that my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.

My dance moves have long been legendary amongst my friends, regulars at various seedy dive bars across Atlanta and tribal chieftains in Uganda (don’t ask). Although a few of my co-workers knew me before I brought my inappropriately loud mouth to work at Sixthman, I was more than happy to help those who remained un-schooled in the ways of the dance. My first displays of unparalleled undulation on the dance floor were met with mixed results during our late night dance parties on the promenade deck of this year’s cruises. Andy, who still can’t get enough of the basketball analogy, was confused as he thought I was trying to “guard” him. Poor Andy is just not hip enough to recognize fierce move when he sees them, god bless him. My supervisor, Jill B, had obviously never seen maneuvers of such skill as she pointed at me from her barstool to ensure that no patron miss a once in a life time chance to see a born dancer on the top of her game while Peter, king of everything computer, flashed me a look that many mistook as panic and fear but I know to be his way of showing he’s impressed.

Back on dry land, there is no promenade deck and the dance parties are few and far between but we have to keep the creative juices flowing so I solemnly swear to ignore the terrified looks and to never stop dancing.

Joy’s Top 5 Dance Songs
“Baby Got Back” – Sir Mix-a-lot
“Whoomp! (There it is)” –Tag Team
“The Cars That Go Boom” L’Trimm
“Galang” M.I.A
“Express Yourself” Madonna

Hey hey everybody! Carla here, checking in on The Great Blog. You know, I’ve been thinking, where would we be without music? Just think of the memories alone that a good tune conjures up. “Benny and the Jets” by Elton John always reminds me of being babysat as a little kid. God, how I hated going to bed when it was still light outside! Crystal Gayle’s “Blue Bayou” reminds me of my grandmother. That wonderful lady sure could whip out the Toll House chocolate chip cookies! “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tear For Fears brings back visions of my senior year of high school. (Yes, I am dating myself.) Or how about the Rocky theme? Da na NAH Da-na na-na NAH

Anyway, I guess my point is that we are so dang lucky to have music, to experience music, that it just makes me want to cartwheel across the room. Except that I can’t do a cartwheel. Never could. But that’s a whole other blog altogether. We are gonna ROCK 2009! Are you with us?

-Carla

“It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care.”

These famous words, spoken by Peter Gibbons in the cubicle cult classic Office Space, personifies how most Americans view their occupations. If you don’t care about what you’re doing, what’s the point of doing it? Jobs are often seen as a means to an end: survive and maintain rather than thrive and enjoy.

I am Peter Gibbons; I need to be inspired in order to be effective. Get me inspired, and I’ll move mountains. After watching any major golf tournament I hustle out to the nearest course and sneak in a quick 9 holes before sundown. Every time I watch Jimmy Chitwood knock down the winning shot in Hoosiers, I have to find a gym and go play ball. Whenever I stumble across a new song on the Internet I’ll spend the next thirty minutes sitting at the piano or behind a guitar trying to figure out how to play it…and don’t even get me started on the ending of The Shawshank Redemption: “get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’.”  Fellow Sixthman employees, if I ever go missing from work suddenly, it’s probably because I decided to move to Mexico and fix up an old boat on a beach overlooking the Pacific.

My father always told me to “find something you love, and everything else will fall into place.” Well, I found it. Here at Sixthman headquarters, I am inspired every day. I wake up in the morning, and I can’t wait to go to work. I love facilitating new experiences for fellow music-lovers; I love working with musicians; I love making people’s dreams come true. You know what the great thing is? I know I’m not alone. Everybody at Sixthman feels the same way. It doesn’t get any better than working with others who share your level of dedication, pride, and eagerness. Rest assured guests, fans, and friends: you’re in good hands.

Last week in my company review, I was told the responsibilities of my job now officially include “staying enthusiastic and energetic.”

No problem.

-Steve

The struggle between Mac and PC at Sixthman has ended and Mac has prevailed. We still have PC’s but as they expire, we are replacing them with Mac’s. I used a PC for years and finally switched to Mac about 3 years ago.

Our IT team recently asked me why it was so important for us to move to Mac. They reminded me that our accounting software would not work as well. So I asked them, “Does Apple use a PC to manage accounting”? (I realize we aren’t Apple but it was a funny thought). Then I told them that it was important to me for the team at Sixthman to work with a product made by a company who thought about the experience the user was going to have before it was made. We are in the business of building experiences for people and I’d like to think that we share the same level of commitment to considering what the guest is going to experience with our vacations before we allow them to purchase.

I had a good feeling about the marketing department being excited about the transition but the real seal of approval came after Peter, our Reservation System Developer, called me to thank me for making the switch. He said it was amazing to work on a product that was so user friendly and intuitive.

I hope I have stirred up some healthy debates amongst households and small businesses about Mac or PC. It makes for good chatter between football seasons.

Andy

If the Sixthman office were large enough we would surely have a rock wall, if not a rock gym. But because we don’t the marketing team took a trip to the Atlanta Indoor Rock gym. I have never been intimidated by nature; I actually believe that I would be a storm chaser if I weren’t working here at Sixthman. But fake nature, like the 60ft wall with nubs and hooks pretending to be a rocky mountain – different story.

So we took our turns climbing up the walls with the comfort and security of a harness connected to an 85lb girl belaying us, and if she couldn’t prevent us from plummeting to the floor, I’m sure the 3 inches of recycled Converse soles would do just fine to break our fall. Fear set aside, we all took on the challenge; some more willingly then others. It took April a solid five minutes to convince me to stop clinging to the top of the wall and come down. Going up…not so bad, letting go…not so fun. Lauren hung out with me up there, as she too was not convinced it was a good idea to just “lean back and let go”. Ashley proved she’s got some go-go gadget legs and stretched herself across the wall in a way that would impress the inspector himself (that is a really corny comparison, sorry Ash). Then we have Steve, who earned the title of Superman for the day. Disregarding our instructor’s advice to use your legs to push yourself up, Steve decided to use no legs. He only lacked a cape and a big “S” as he swung around the wall.

We all shared some moments of brief terror, embarrassment, encouragement and some fits of laughter, walking away from the experience feeling a little sore but accomplished! And of course after such an extreme workout we had to hit up the Chic-fil-a on the way back to the office to balance out our calorie loss with some #1’s! Ahhhh teamwork…

If you have not heard that at least once in the last few weeks, I gotta ask: Why haven’t you called yet? Everyone else has and we’re starting to feel a little hurt that you don’t love us anymore. The call center ninjas need your love!

So the call center has been on FIRE these last few weeks as the pre-sale has come and (almost) gone. Vets, Hanson fans and newbies alike have had us booking cabins like mad and the excitement of it all has been intoxicating (or was it the rock shots?). I think for us this is the time of the year we look forward to because we get to hook everyone up with the trip of a lifetime and talk to so many friends, fans and music lovers and share in the excitement and possibilities that next year has in store.

We hope by now you have booked your cabin and secured your crew and can start thinking about the fun you’ll be having in a few hundred short days. I know we’re getting a little giddy about it!

So until we get to share a late night and much needed beer a few months from now, go ahead and give us a ring. Ask us your questions, tell us you love us, or just say hi because chances are if we have to call you, it won’t be as fun!!!

In a never-ending quest to improve the guest experience, we at Sixthman feel that we need to go the extra mile and check things out for ourselves to be sure everything is up to par. 

So, this past weekend, the operations team jetted down to the Caribbean to check out the Carnival Destiny (our ship for The Rock Boat and Simple Man in 2009).  We were off to Puerto Rico Saturday morning to begin our journey.  We suffered through lunch in an indoor garden, a few glasses of sangria, a daiquiri and pina colada here and there (trust me, they’re not all the same, we had to get a good sampling) and dodged hundreds of flying kites to walk all the way out to the historic fort to check out the view.  It was OK.

We boarded the ship Sunday and checked it out from top to bottom…we had to stop and test out the ice cream machines (just like daiquiris, those are sometimes different, but not on Carnival—all the same)…we had to try out those drinks with umbrellas in them…we even had to eat dinner in the dining room…have you ever had chocolate melting cake?—it’s OK.  We finished by sitting in every seat in the main lounge to be sure everyone could see.  I was proud to play the roll of speaker (those things are a lot bigger and louder than me so it was quite a challenge).  It goes without saying that the casino needed a little testing too.  All covered by your dedicated operations team.  We’re proud to say the Destiny passed with flying colors.

Our trip continued to get more brutal.  We got off the ship on Monday in St. Thomas and had to move to a smaller boat to be able to fit in all we had to cover that afternoon.   We were whisked away to destinations like Jost Van Dyke and Tortola.  We were fed conch fritters and wings on a pirate ship and Jill and I even had to walk the plank (the Willy T’s version of the plank at least).  We hopped in the water to check out the fish (yup, we’re thorough) and were surprised by a huge three foot barracuda…two feet away.  One last stop at the Soggy Dollar to swim up for a quick painkiller and our day was almost complete.  Top it off with a gourmet dinner and we were all ready to file workman’s comp claims for cruel and unusual punishment and stay there forever.

But we came back…until our next “business trip”, we’re here to stay.

Yes, it’s rough.

Red