“The universality of tattooing is a curious subject for speculation.” - Captain James Cook, 1779

“Show me a man with a tattoo and I’ll show you a man with an interesting past.” - Jack London, 1883

People tattoo themselves for many reasons: religious, personal, aesthetic, or just to remember a specific moment in time. After the explorer James Cook first saw tattoos in Tahiti in the 1760s, they started to become fashionable in Europe, with sailors tattooing anchors and loved ones names. The practice spread over the years as we all know, and now you’re lucky to find someone who doesn’t have ink.

You wouldn’t be able to count the number of tattoos on Sixthman staffers on one hand, and you certainly couldn’t find two of the same tattoo here in the office. We all have our unique stories behind the ink, from the “Hello, I’m 18!” tattoo, to the roller-derby-team-unity tattoo, to the this-took-me-10-years-to-design tattoo. One thing all tattoos have in common, though, is permanence.

“So what?” you may be asking.

Well, a couple of guests have given Sixthman the ultimate compliment of becoming a permanent fixture on their skin, and we couldn’t be more honored. To know that Sixthman provided a vacation so memorable that no photo album or mental picture could do justice, to see that we gave a guest an experience that deserved an everlasting spot on his skin, means the world to us, and shows us that we have been doing our job right.

Collectively at Sixthman we understand the thought and commitment that goes into a tattoo. It can often be a painstaking decision process: What is the design? What colors should I use? Where will it go?

We know you took care in putting that ink on your body, and we do our best to take as much care times 2,000 (for each guest!) into making your vacation so amazing that you want to remember it for the rest of your life.

Don’t worry, we don’t expect all of you to tattoo the Sixthman logo on your foreheads or anything, but we do hope that your experience with us is so awesome that you want to preserve the memory – whether it be in photos, journals, new lifelong friends, a newfound musical obsession, or even on your skin.

What would it take for you to get a Sixthman tattoo? Do you already have one that we don’t know about? Any fun tattoo stories? Regrets?

-Becki

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The Rock Boat is our company’s flagship event and just celebrated its 10th annual sailing.

I say flagship event not because it’s necessarily our favorite (we love all our children the same) but it is the event we have produced the most amount of times and the community of guests we know the best.  This community has been patient while we learn how to create vacation experiences and just as supportive as we bring other communities together for new events.  It appears that we are operating with the understanding that says “We will be your biggest cheerleaders as you grow other communities so please promise to be good shepherds of our community.”  Sounds fair to me.

This past Saturday I got the rare opportunity to go out and see music without having any responsibility.  I went to see a concert featuring Graham Colton, and Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers (both veterans of The Rock Boat), and a new band we just added “sight unseen” called Needtobreathe. I was feeling a little vulnerable for adding Needtobreathe to the lineup as a headliner without seeing them perform first but after the 3rd song all I could think of was that I was experiencing what must be known as “Buyer’s Rejoice” rather than the common phrase we all hear of called “Buyer’s Remorse”. This band was awesome I can’t wait to see them next January on The Rock Boat XI.

Why would we put ourselves in this position to book a band we haven’t seen before?  For 3 years, the guests from The Rock Boat have been telling us that they want Needtobreathe to perform on The Rock Boat.  Every year we have made the band an offer to appear and for some reason or another, it has not worked out.  Finally the stars are aligning and I am so glad we listened to our community.

As I look back upon some of the finest moments in our history, they have all been shaped by listening to our communities.  The concept wasn’t our idea, it was theirs.  The experience guests receive wasn’t our idea, it was theirs.  And inviting a band like Needtobreathe to join us which has gotten me this excited?????

Yep, their idea.

I can’t recommend strongly enough to have the right tools in place to listen to your communities?  It has given us “Buyer’s Rejoice” so many times.

-Andy

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On the latest episode of Sixthman.TV, Jonathan Kingham and Alex Wong decided to spontaneously start jamming out (and freestyling) while in a glass elevator on Cayamo 2010, and we were there to capture it.  Check it out!

Sixthman TV – Jamming in the Elevator

Have a great Friday everybody!  Catch you next week.

-Steve

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Have you ever heard a song that instantly transports you to another time and place?

Last week, as I drove down the street on my way to work, I put my 10,000 song iPod on shuffle. “Endless Summer” by Zwan came on, and immediately I was brought back to the Summer after my junior year of college. Instead of driving down the highway, I was in the Pump House Surf Shop on Cape Cod, MA talking with the owner Matt about what kind of board to buy for the summer (I ended up buying a 9’1″).

This song came on the surf’s shop radio and I immediately recognized Billy Corgan’s distinct voice.  Now, every time I hear that beginning riff, I can see the surf shop, I can feel the fiberglass on a new longboard, and I can smell the freshly waxed boards, ready to go out on the ocean.  The funny thing is, it’s nowhere close to being one of my favorite songs – there’s just something about the three minutes in which I first heard it that will always stay with me.

Later on in my work day, the shuffle brought me to Third Eye Blind’s “Darkness.”

Once again, I was transported from behind my desk in Atlanta to behind the wheel of my black ’92 GMC Jimmy (this car was so old and beat-up that when it finally needed repairs we just sold it for parts).  It was the summer after my junior year of high school, Third Eye Blind’s Blue Album had recently been released, and I was driving down Route 6 on Cape Cod towards Sandwich Downs to teach a tennis lesson to some family friends.  I can feel the roughed-up and faded padding on my steering wheel and I can TASTE (yeah, how crazy is that) the Snapple Fire drink that I would guzzle on a daily basis. I don’t even think they make this drinks anymore; I still check every grocery store and every convenience store hoping that somebody would have one left. I don’t care if it expired in 1999, I’ll still drink it.

These are the two most vivid memories from songs that I can recall, but there are dozens of others that have a similar effect on me.  Here are three more:

• Guster’s “Homecoming King” puts me at the high school soccer field during the fall of my senior year; the temperature dropping as the sun goes down and Fall gives way to Winter.
• Collective Soul’s “Dandy Life” puts me on a cold school bus driving home from an JV basketball game, snow falling outside and the rest of the team fast asleep.
• Kenny Chesney’s “Anything But Mine” sends me out to San Diego on a lonely Monday afternoon, walking Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach, people-watching and wave-scouting, all the while wondering how the hell I’d survive living on the West Coast.

Although everybody else might not have memories as vivid as these (my mind chooses to remember the most minuscule of details for certain songs for whatever reason), I bet you can surely associate a song or two with a moment in your life that goes far beyond just words and music notes.   It doesn’t even have to be a good song – it just needs to somehow trigger something within you that quickly resurrects itself every time you hear it from then on out.

Good or bad song, good or bad memory, I’d love to hear about a song that has this power over you too.

Let’s hear it…and see it…and taste it…and feel it…

-Steve

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photo: ArcticPuppy

One of the inspirations for the name Sixthman originated from the basketball term, The Sixth Man, which refers to the non-starting member of the team who consistently impacts the outcome of the game.

In 1988, I played this role on my High School Basketball team even after getting off to an auspicious start.  It was the first game of the year and within a few minutes of me getting into the game, I had already taken 3 shots and missed them all.  During a timeout, my coach pulled me aside and said “Andy, your role on this team is not to shoot, it’s to play great defense, grab rebounds, get the ball in our good shooter’s hands and out hustle everyone on the floor.”  *see image below

Up until that moment, I was operating under the assumption that everyone was playing the game to get open, shoot & score.  From that day on, I focused on those things and was able to help my team win without scoring many points.  It was the first time I had heard the concept of playing my role and it has appeared in my life many times since then.

A couple years ago, a good friend’s dad handed be a book called the E-Myth.  The author makes a great point about the 3 roles that must be played in every venture for it to work.  The Technician, The Manager & The Entrepreneur.  The book features story after story about businesses started by people who are only strong at one of these critical roles and either give up or fail before realizing they need the presence of all 3.  It doesn’t suggest that all businesses must have at least 3 people in each to play each role.  It simply proposes that their must be a presence and balance of all 3 disciplines for a business to thrive.

It is so true in my experience and we all know someone who launched a business based on their strength in one area only to fall down because they were not developed or focused on the other two.  Maybe it was the “Idea” guy who did not follow thru on promises or the “Bookkeeper” who was unable to create demand for their services.

When I walked into my son’s room this weekend, I noticed a toy airplane without wings on it and it reminded me of this theory in action.  The propeller is the Technician spinning thousands of times per minute creating thrust for the plane to move forward.  The cockpit is the Manager monitoring performance and directing action.  The wings are the Entrepreneur taking wind and making it travel a longer distance to go over the wing than below the wing resulting in the plane lifting into the air.

For those of you who know me, I am clearly of the Entrepreneur mindset and once I realized that it was ok not be a great technician or manager, I was able to recruit talented people to compliment my strengths.

Are you mainly an entrepreneur, manager or a technician?

-Andy

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Sixthman TV is back!  Check out our latest episode: “Next of Kin”

Sixthman TV- Next of Kin

Happy Friday everybody!

-Steve

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A few years ago, while celebrating an unnamed mid-20’s birthday, I began to think about what I can do each year on my birthday to really make an impact on the next year of my life.

I wanted to give myself a stamp of some sort – a crest to live by – for that following year.  I read a few blogs, looked through some good books I had marked in, sorted through magazines, and finally decided that one of the most powerful things I could attach a year of my life to – was words. Simple words, but SO powerful. Words.

And thus it began. Each year since then, I’ve gone through a process of brainstorming, reading, writing, and then narrowing down to 1 or 2 words that I want to live my life around for the following year.  And honestly, it’s been one of the most incredible things I’ve done for myself.

Think about it… there is nothing working against you. (And no one working against you either… Don’t share your word or words until after your next birthday). Ok, let’s just pretend that on your 32th birthday you chose the word “clarity.”  You memorize a personal definition of what clarity means, you write the word down in several visible key places, and on your birthday you say a prayer (to whoever you chose) for clarity throughout your 33rd year of life.

Then, as the year progresses, and you make tough decision, or face challenges head on, or experience great moments, you can always come back to that word. Clarity.

Here’s how it works.

YOU:  “I am so torn on which decision to make. I don’t know how I am going to decide what to do.”  You need clarity.  You know how good it feels to make a decision with it, and do what you know is right.  Get yourself there. It is in your hands. Gain clarity about your options, and the affects of both. Then, make your decision.

Or.

YOU:  “That was the most amazing weekend of my life! I can’t imagine someone more perfect for me.”  Coming back to your word, clarity, will keep you grounded and focused, even in times of complete happiness.

See? Not that hard. And im telling you, the amount you learn about yourself when coming back to one word throughout an entire year of growth is nothing short of enlightening.  And the best part – there is no right word, or wrong word.  In fact, each year, you begin thinking of next year’s word a little earlier.

Hence this blog. A 2-parter.

I am less than a month away from my 29th birthday, and embarking on my 30th year of life.  It’s time I start thinking of what next year’s word will be, but after my birthday has passed, id like to share with you my words of the past 4 years, including the one I am living right now and how important they’ve become.  I also ask that you suggest words that inspire you, encourage you, or keep you true to yourself, because although I’ve already started thinking about options for next year, it certainly doesn’t hurt to get some outside perspective.

So, what do you say? I know it’s a little bit of a personal stretch for our blogs, but it’s character defining in my opinion, and has set me up for (almost) 4 years of continuous growth & self realization in ways I can’t explain.

-Ape

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Did you ever notice that the grass nearest the sprinkler, with the exception of an occasional leak or drip,  gets the least attention and becomes a “Bare Spot”?

How ironic is it that something meant to nurture everything within its reach is unable to attend to the life closest to it.

If we are sprinklers and the grass is the people in our lives, who are the ones closest to us in the “Bare Spot”?

Our immediate family?  Our best friends?  Our most loyal employees? Our best customers? Our biggest fans?

If you were shopping for a sprinkler, wouldn’t you look to see if it left a “Bare Spot” before purchasing?

If you were exploring a friendship or considering joining a company or following a band, wouldn’t you be curious how they nurtured the people closest to them?

I am so guilty of this.  Even as I am writing this, I am making a list of family, friends, employees and customers that are in my “Bare Spot”.

Let’s get out there and tend to the “Bare Spots” today.

- Andy

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Check out our kick-ass recap of Simple Man Cruise 2010!

Sixthman TV – Simple Man Cruise 2010 Recap

Have a great Friday everybody, catch ya on the flip side!

-Steve

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It’s now been more than a week and a half since we’ve returned home from Cayamo 2010, and we’re already itching to get back out there for Cayamo 2011.

How about you?  We thought today would be a great day to highlight some of the articles and blogs that have popped up around the net since our return, and then ask you to contribute your own stories or share links to your own blogs.  Sharing is caring, people!

From Paste Magazine: 7 Cayamo Artists Share Their Favorite Moments

From No Depression Magazine – “In all, to say I’d recommend springing for Cayamo next time it rolls around, would be an understatement.”  Here is their day-by-day recap:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Cayamo Wrap-up

From Blurt Magazine: “While I’ve endeavored to describe Cayamo as best I can and in as much detail as possible for one who’s weird and wacky, in reality the only way to truly appreciate all it has to offer is to experience it for yourself.”  Here is their day-by-day recap:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Day 5

Have a story or two of your own from Cayamo 2010?  Add it to the comments or post a link to your own blog where you discuss your experiences.  We’d love to hear from you!

-Steve

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