Here’s our latest Sixthman TV film – Knowing Your Paris Lounge. If you’re joining us on the Kid Rock Cruise, VH1 Best Cruise Ever, or Sailing Southern Ground, this will apply to you!
Sixthman TV – Knowing Your Paris Lounge
Take care everybody, have a great weekend!
-Steve
This is a guest post from Kevn Kinney of Drivin’ N’ Cryin’, written while on board Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man Cruise 2010. The stage is yours Kevn:
Good morning sunshine
9,000 feet above the floor
my head is spinnin
not from the sea
but from the sounds of the next generation
blackberry smoke
runnin through my veins
hill country revue dancing in my head
high tide blues…
old school of fish
Bloodkin from my old hometown
Athens GA
It is no coincidence to me
This boat
Inspiration
It is a wonder
Get out of my comfort zone
And dig the inspiring sounds
On the sea
With the other 2000 folks
Roamin the deck
Lookin for a good conversation
A simple nod and a wink to that fella
I’ve passed a dozen times
a most awesome benefit concert
put together by Ricky Medlock
by far one of the coolest shows
to witness…I bear witness
to rumblin tumbling sounds
of the simple man cruise
like a f***in freight train
waves crashing off the bow
an honor indeed to be counted among one and all
rock on brothers and sisters
p.s. my friend Robert Kearns originally from the Bottle Rockets
on bass with skynyrd
FREAKIN AWESOME
Leon would be proud
Kevn Kinney
Drivin n cryin
When researching with Google, there are over 350,000,000 matches for leading, 150,000,000 for managing, and 31,000,000 for buddies. So, no, this blog is not the most original item you’ll find. However, it’s a good reminder, a learning experience that I’ve had, and possibly something that will be familiar to some of you out there.
At 23, I found myself as one of the youngest managers in a particular retail establishment. My competition for the job was not very deep as it wasn’t the most desirable position and you had to have unique skills to be considered. I wowed the district manager with my ideas for marketing and organization. I eagerly proposed an outline to better sales and make more efficient employees. I got the job with little to no experience in managing, thinking that it would be a breeze. As many of you probably know, it’s not a breeze, by any means.
However, that has not been the most difficult challenge for me when it comes to leading. Many things are predictable in an established environment with the basic business model. More marketing = more money. Rewards = happier employees. Etcetera.
The challenge is figuring out how to work with people that don’t necessarily want to be managed and drawing the line between friendship and business relationship. Hence leading becomes the operative word, and possibly why it comes up with the most hits on Google.
I learned that you can’t be best friends with your employees (they probably resent any effort you make to become buddies). I learned that just asking someone to do something usually isn’t enough (they probably question your every motive). You must inspire people. Leading is about pushing people in the right direction, producing positive teamwork, and giving your team the tools to become better at what they do.
But wait, that’s not all, the most challenging leadership has been (wait for it…) being the captain of a team. That’s right, I’m bringing it back to roller derby. This situation is a little different. Your team is not getting paid to work for you. This is not your regular business model. You do actually want to be friends with the people you skate with, and you also have to implement some of the same ideas you do in your everyday leadership position. You can inspire people with your ability to skate, but how do you inspire them to work together, to find a common goal, to put aside that female pride and let someone lead?
Well, it’s tough. But you can only learn by trial and error (and picking up a few books like Attitude 101, Teamwork 101, and The Everything Leadership Book). I get inspired regularly by watching other people and learning about leadership. So, I hope to find that this 2010 season will be the best leading I’ve done so far. Not managing, while still making best buddies, and inspiring a group of very different women to come together and make something wonderful happen. Something like winning a championship with hard work, dedication, and fun!
-Lisa
We got home from the Simple Man Cruise Monday. We’ve all got a really bad case of boat dumb, but we’re still at work! This past week, I worked harder than I ever have in my life, and my main source of calories came from chicken fingers snatched from the buffet, eaten while running down the hall. My toes are swollen and my knees are killing me from being on my feet for 4 days straight, and I’m pretty sure I blew out an eardrum at some point.
But you know what? I wouldn’t trade all that wear & tear for the world. This year’s cruise was a truly magical experience, and I am so proud to have been a part of it. I just spent 4 days surrounded by the best people in the world. This Skynyrd family raised over $13,000 to help a little girl most of them had never met, and absolutely overwhelmed us with donations for the Chrysalis Group in Cozumel, which is a charity benefiting underprivileged kids.
When I finally made it to bed Monday night, I fell into the deepest most exhausted sleep I’ve ever had. I woke up disoriented, and I thought maybe I was in another time & place. I soon realized I was at my home in Decatur, GA, and I needed to get up and head to work, so we can start planning on doing it all again!
Thanks for a great cruise, everybody. See you next year!
This is a guest post from Zach Daniels, banjo player for Oakhurst. Take it away Zach!
Hey its Zach with Oakhurst, out here on the open water, just trying to figure how this boat could possibly get any wilder and crazier. Sure enough, the minute we think it can’t, it does.
The music is awesome, the people are awesome, all-you-can-eat soft-serve is REALLY awesome… just so many forces coming together creates this powerful (and sometimes overwhelming) energy that gets our creative juices flowing. We really feed off that energy and use it. We are inspired. Its been a fun four days and as we approach the mainland, with the hours and minutes ticking away, I thought about everybody getting in their cars or on a plane heading back to that “grind”, and realize that this is special few days we all spent together is one of the biggest highlights of our year and I’ve got to believe everyone involved feels the same way.
Even when this comes to end, I keep in mind, that it will be here again next year as something to look forward to-to get us through that “grind” and think about how we have a whole year to come up with ways to make an already wild and crazy ride, even wilder and crazier.
Thanks to all for making this the best Skynyrd boat yet.
-Zach
This is a guest post from Cody Dickinson of Hill Country Review:
So as I boarded INSPIRATION, someone asked me which band I was with. I explained my partners and co-conspirators go by HILL COUNTRY REVUE as realized I was speaking to Johnny VanZant. My girlfriend and I continued to check in through security with VanZant, Rossington, and family. They were so friendly and hilarious. At this moment my mood for SIMPLE MAN was set. Good people, good times, and great music.
Blackberry smoke, Dead Confederates, Drivin and Cryin, Hightide Blues- the list goes on and on. Amazing bands I admire and people I’m proud to call my new friends.
Finally, let me just say that SIXTHMAN are the most professional and friendly hosts a band can ask for, and that is a combination hard to find.
As I lay drunk in my cabin last night watching the final Conan episode, Will Ferrell led the band through an inspired version of FREEBIRD to close out Conan’s stint at the Tonight Show. Serendipity at it’s finest.
F***ing cheers mate. 2010-
Cody Dickinson
I just filmed this video about an hour ago from the Lido Deck of the Carnival Inspiration while on Simple Man Cruise 2010. Don’t let Ship Envy happen to you. It’s kind of tough to hear me in the beginning (due to the ROCK CONCERT happening right behind me), so make sure your volume is turned up.
Ship Envy – Don’t Let it Happen to You
Still got another big night, and a full day tomorrow left on SMC 2010. This is awesome.
-Steve
On cruises, it is customary for Sixthman to have a late night staff meeting, after most of the day’s work is behind us, to prepare for the next day. On Thursday night, our meeting directly followed the 1st headlining Lynyrd Skynyrd show (which rocked).
One of the greatest parts of my job here at Sixthman is that I get to work directly with our artists and the teams that support them- not on all year long – but also onboard. I casually mentioned to Tom on Skynyrd’s team if he thought we could get one of the guys from the band to stop by our staff meeting after the show, to say a personal ‘thank you’ to our team – the people behind the scenes.
To my surprise, he casually said right back “yeah, we can definitely make that happen.”
He even had the idea that maybe Rickey Medlocke could kick it off and stop by on the first night, and Johnny VanZant could end it on the last. I could not have been more excited!
Melissa and I were the only ones that knew… and we decided to keep it that way.
So, as the midnight hour approached on Thursday night, I waited outside of our office for Rickey to come down. And as I waited, members of the band Oakhurst started showing up, with instruments in hand. And a cooler full of beer appeared as well.
Hmmm… interesting I thought.
Rickey came by, gave our team a very genuine ‘thank you’ and fired us up for what was to come the next 4 days. As he left… Oakhurst slowly walked in, belting out “Wagon Wheel,” playing the hell out of their instruments, and getting our entire staff to sing along.
It was only after the applause died down, and the boy from Oakhurst were gone, that any business was talked about.
When was the last time you came out a meeting with a big grin on face? This one will definitely stick with me for a long time.
-Ape
I only have time for a quick update, but I was reminded today why I love these cruises so much:
Discovering new music.
Because I just found out three weeks ago that I would be going on Simple Man Cruise 2010, I hadn’t got a chance to check out any of the new bands coming on board. Tonight, I went to the back lounge to announce Hightide Blues and ended up staying for the entire set. From the first chord to the last note, these guys kicked ass. They brought a great level of energy, turning a room full of seated concert goers into an all out party on the dance floor within a few songs. It was cool to watch them spread electricity and enthusiasm from the stage to every corner of the venue. Great songs, great stage presence, tons of energy,
I will definitely be picking up their EP and I eagerly await their first album (which they’ll be recording as soon as they get off the ship on Monday). If you’re a fan of the Strokes and bands of that nature, make sure to catch these guys in concert if they roll through your town.
-Steve
Earlier this year, the Simple Man team was throwing around ideas to make this cruise the most memorable and most fun of all time. Out of that brainstorming session came the BEST CONTEST OF ALL TIME. The Men’s Wet T Shirt Contest. We figured the ladies always monopolize those, so why not give the hot dudes a chance to show us what they’ve got?!
Scott Munns, our illustrious emcee, called 6 gentlemen to the stage, and the antics began. The entire pool deck whipped put their cameras, and as Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” played from the loudspeakers, these six gents were doused with ice cold water. (Don’t feel bad about the cold- it was HOT out there!) They danced, shimmied and shook their way around the deck, and the winners were selected by audience applause. The highlight of the contest came at the very end when a particularly enthusiastic participant ripped his shirt off and threw it. That wet t shirt happened to land directly on Scott Munns’s face.
Perfect end to a crazy contest.
-Barb
