In our business, we are fortunate to spend lots of time with both artists & guests.  We have been pleasantly surprised to see 95% of our guests take more pride in showing respect for the artists while they are on vacation than ambushing them for photos and autographs.  I witnessed something this past weekend on our 1st Annual KISS KRUISE that brought it all together for me.  I call it “The Take”.

Gene Simmons from KISS and Shannon Tweed (his wife) were preparing to leave the ship and a family had stationed themselves near the elevators hoping to get one last photo.  I happened to be there to witness this and before the elevator made it down to the lower decks, I introduced myself and asked the family to consider a different approach.

I explained to them that artists like to give themselves to their fans on the artists’s terms and it’s important to respect their space so they don’t feel like their autograph or photo is being taken from them.  Then I requested that the family put the camera and sharpie away and simply wave goodbye & say thank you when the elevator doors opened.  The dad was not buying it at first claiming he really wanted a photo for his kids but I begged him to trust me.

A few seconds later, the elevator door opened and Gene & Shannon exited and approached the ship’s gangway. At that moment, the mom, dad, son and daughter all waved goodbye and thanked Gene & Shannon for sharing their vacation with the fans.  It was perfect.  I was so proud of them for trusting me.

The best part is that after Gene & Shannon had passed by and right before they took their last step off the ship, Shannon turned around and motioned for the kids to come to her asking them if they wanted a picture.  The dad looked over at me and smiled, pulled out his camera and captured a great moment.

The next day I saw the family walking around the ship and the dad came up to me to say thanks for sharing that insight and he promised to spread the word.

It has to be so hard to be in a space with your hero and fight the urge to take something for yourself to remember the moment and prove that you were there for your friends.  For most of us, it might be a once in a lifetime moment, however, please know that the artist is usually aware of what you are thinking.  If we respect their space and give it a second, they will almost always acknowledge the respect you have shown them in a genuine & memorable way.

When we don’t exercise the moment of patience around our heros, we are “Taking” something that they would much rather give.

Andy

A few years ago when we were presented with the opportunity to take on more cruises, I noticed some hesitation from a few of the Sixthman team.

I sensed uncertainty and as a leader, I believe the best thing you can do is sniff it out and figure out a way to make it certain one way or the other.

When I asked one particular person what she was afraid of, she said, “I just want it to stay special.”  As I dug in with other people, that seemed to be the biggest concern.

So we got a small group of us together to talk about what “Special” means.

The conversation was about vacations and parties we had attended in our lives, and cool elements we observed that made the event memorable.  In less than an hour we identified seven checkpoints that must be present for us to be able to deliver Special on a larger scale.  As long as we could do well in these areas, we could grow as much as we wanted.

So here they are…

Invite
We want you to feel genuinely invited.  Until we can get the artist to knock on your door and say “I’m throwing a party on a boat, would you like to go?” we intend to find creative, tangible ways to connect with you and invite you authentically.  E-mail alone is not acceptable.

Inform
There are lots of questions to be answered when it comes to planning a vacation, especially one as unique as ours.  Our goal is to provide you with all the information you need at your fingertips.  What to wear? When to arrive? What documentation to bring? What’s included? Do I have to be able to swim? How to behave if you end up in an elevator with your favorite artist? Along the way we want the “Cruise to Start Now” by engaging you online and offline to introduce you to artists, other guests and our staff.

Excite
Life goes on after you book your vacation and sometimes there are months between the time you reserve your cabin and when we actually pull away from the dock.  About 45 days prior to sailing, we want to remind you that life is about to get better and it’s time to focus on what lies ahead.  Ideally an item arrives in your mailbox or inbox (or both), but it says it’s time to put your shades on because the future is about to get bright!

Welcome
As soon as you walk on the ship, we make sure that Sixthman is there to greet you with a smile and a high five so you know we have been expecting you, and are so glad you could make it.

Looked After
Our goal on board is to be everywhere you turn. If you need a guide, we’ll be there. If you’re lost, confused or frustrated, our team is committed to getting you back on track.  Maybe you need help making a memorable proposal to your future wife or wonder why artists prefer to not have flash photography while they are performing or need us to make something right because we didn’t deliver what we promised. We’re always looking for ways to take care of you.

Amazed
Everyone has his or her own perfect moment on board and we‘re here to set the stage so it can happen.  It might be under the stars at night watching a show, or enjoying an afternoon concert by the pool while enjoying a cold beverage with your feet dangling in the water.  Whatever it is, we want you to have that moment where you say to yourself “I am where I need to be, with who I need to be with, doing what I need to be doing”.

Appreciated
At the end of the cruise, we are flattered that you trusted us with your vacation and are grateful that you chose to spend your time and money with us. As you walk off the ship, we believe it’s important for you to know that!  Maybe it’s a “Bye Five” or a voicemail from an artist that evening or something in the mail the next week that simply says “We appreciate you being with us”.

So here is what we are shooting for…hold us to it!

-Andy

You may remember that last year we started a new thing here at Sixthman called freestyle officing.  So far, it’s worked great!  You can come in, sit where ever you’d like, and never get bored with the same desk every. single. day.  Well, sometimes finding the best place to sit is tough and that got us thinking…

We cruise all year long, and on each cruise ship there’s a Maitre D’.  They help the guests find their seats and make sure that everyone is looked after.  So, the question we asked ourselves was, “Why not give it a shot?  It works on board, right?”

Please welcome our newest member – the Sixthman Maitre D’.

So you know when people type about something so insanely amazing, the only way to get the point across and make it sound like you mean it is to type. like. this.? Well, in order to get the true vibe of TRB XI across, this entire blog post would have to be written just. like. that.

But I’ll spare you, because that would just be hard to read.

So much fun has been had, and so many amazing moments have happened – I don’t even know where to start. For me, this is the first Rock Boat I’ve ever worked. However, I’ve been in attendance since 2004. It’s a bit of a different experience on the flip side of a cruise – but I have to admit I’m having just as much fun working as I did when I was a guest!

This is actually my favorite lineup TRB has ever hadIt would be hard to go through all of the great moments that we’ve experienced, but here are just a few of my favorites so far:

• Watching Andy try to convince all of our guests that it was a great idea for him to apply sunscreen to their noses as they boarded. Some embraced it, others ran in fear. But everyone was in good spirits!

• Sister Hazel Sail Away Party – the time was finally here for us to decide where we were actually GOING on this cruise! At this point, we had 2 ports on hold – both of which were great possibilities:  Costa Maya or the Bahamas. After checking the weather reports one last time, Costa Maya won by a landslide. After the announcement, Sister Hazel broke into their first set of the boat. They kicked off the cruise perfectly by singing “Sail Away” and then continued on to do a rockin’ show complete with a limbo contest.

• Back Rub Blingo – when we asked Gaelic Storm to host Bingo one day, we had no idea what we were in for! They decided they didn’t just want Bingo – they wanted Back Rub Blingo! Never heard of it? Yeah, we hadn’t either, but it’s exactly what it sounds like. Gaelic Storm + the Carnival Spa massage team + lots of Bling + Bingo. If that’s not an equation for randomness, I don’t know what is.

Gaelic Storm's Back Rub Blingo

• Artist vs. Artist “60 Seconds To Win It” – to watch some of your favorite artists compete in 9 mindless mini-games was unforgettable. Kudos to Matt Hires, Matt Duke and our own Andy Levine for participating and giving us some great Rock Boat moments. (Ask Matt Duke about the “How’s it Hanging” challenge with the banana. You’ll get a good story.) And congrats to Matt Hires for bringing home the coveted Golden Ping Pong Ball Banana Trophy.

Artist vs. Artist 60 Seconds To Win It

• Costa Maya. Was. Perfect. (Seriously – best Rock Boat port stop ever. Perfect weather, perfect location – just 100% all-around amazing.

• NEEDTOBREATHE in the Paris Lounge – Just wow. Though the entire show was amazing, the end of it was the part everyone will remember. The entire band unplugged, came out to the front of the stage near the steps and sang “Valley of Tomorrow.” The crowd who had just been rocking out like crazy just moments before was dead silent – you could seriously hear a pin drop. I even saw the security guards turning around to sneak a peek at what was happening. The power in their voices was just incredible and gave me chills. They plugged back in and finished out the night with “The Outsiders” – absolutely perfect.

• Guilty Pleasures with the Goose – Goose just couldn’t stay away this year – and we’re glad he didn’t! This show was the ultimate artist collaboration set – he had chosen people from almost every single band onboard to come out and sing some guilty pleasures – we heard everything from Backstreet Boys to Bryan Adams, and it was all topped off with EVERYONE on stage singing Faithfully by Journey. These are the things Rock Boat memories are made of.

• Halloween Night – ALL of it! Everything about Halloween night was absolutely incredible. It was one of the biggest and best theme nights we’ve ever done, and we had a TON of participation. Sister Hazel zombied it up for their Monsters of Rock set which was extraordinary in itself, but THEN it was all topped off by Jett leading his band of zombies (a.k.a. the Sixthman staff) to flash-mob the crowd with the Thriller dance (definitely my personal favorite moment so far!). At the end of the night Gaelic Storm played to an Atrium full of costumed guests – including the Monopoly Man, some penguins, a Jamaican bobsled team, a cow, some sheep, and who knows what else. If you’ve ever been to an Atrium show before on any of our cruises, just imagine that, but with crazy costumes. Insane. The show ended with the entire band standing on the bar for their last song, instruments and all. Again, insane. And that wasn’t even the end of the night! Trailer Park Ninjas continued the party well into the morning on the Promenade deck. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that stage so packed.

Thriller Flash Mob

Alright, I’ll stop now. Though I could honestly type forever about other things that have been just as awesome as the few I’ve listed above. We’ve got one more full night of music out on the open sea – let’s rock this boat all the way back to Tampa!

~jen

In 2000, I was the manager for a band that was in the studio recording what I felt was the best song on the album and the producer was trying to chop the length of the song down to make it sound more “Radio Friendly”.  He was eyeing a section of the song that I had seen fans really react to at live shows and believed was important to the story.  The manager is often not welcome in the recording in the environment so for me to be offering my opinion to keep that part of the song in was a bit out of line.  The producer was visibly frustrated and said to me “We have to trim the fat” and I replied “That part isn’t fat, it’s a organ”.

Fast forward to a few months ago when we were preparing to launch our first “Digital Welcome Kit” for The Rock Boat. In the past we had sent a “Survival Kit” via mail with a Compilation CD featuring a song from each artist on the cruise, a luggage tag and some other items.  Getting clearance from artists to put a song on a cd vs. a download has become a big challenge for us and we rarely get it in time to do all the things you need to do to design, print, mail it in time.

Well once you took the CD out, it appeared to us that the luggage tag and the other items would not have the impact we wanted.  If I had been able to reflect on my experience that I shared above, I would have recalled that our guests love the luggage tags we send and that they would be considered “Organs”.

We launched the “Digital Welcome Kit” and it looked great.  We heard a lot of good feedback about the ability to just download the song right into their ITunes but got ripped for not sending the Luggage Tag.

We ordered 2,300 luggage tags the next day and while our guests won’t get them before the cruise, they will get them afterwards and hopefully forgive us for removing an “Organ” but “Making it Right” in the end.

Let’s have a great year and may you realize it’s an “Organ” and not “Fat”.

Andy

PS- The band was Sister Hazel and the song was “Champagne High” (see link to video for the song) and is about going to the wedding of your ex.  The lyric in question was the “while your story is completed, mine is a long way from done”.

Airplanes need both SPEED and LIFT to climb into the air.

It takes science to explain how the air travels further over the top of the wing than the bottom of the wing resulting in the plane lifting into the sky.  It’s mysterious & invisible.  It involves a little bit of magic and is absolutely necessary if flight is the desired outcome.

If you’re looking to be successful in life, whether it’s as a band, company, employee, spouse, you’re going to need both speed and lift.  Sure we all can generate speed but until we create lift we’re just speeding down a runway while burning expensive fuel and limited time.

How to create lift

A band that puts up posters, builds a website, records an album, and hires a PR firm generates speed. The lift, however, comes from the way the songs and the live show affect the listener.  For most bands, they can determine if they have lift, before they spend any energy on creating speed. Bands that focus on creating the lift long before they worrying about speed will have a better chance to soar.

A small business that pays for logos, business cards, office space, and lawyers generates speed. The lift comes from the satisfaction customers have with the product.  Many times, that can be determined from a pilot test or a “beta test” approach.  A good friend of mine got his first customer before he even had a name for his company because he focused on creating a solid idea first and testing it out.  He created lift and then focused on speed.

A spouse that spends years telling his partner each day that she is “beautiful” generates speed. The LIFT comes when he takes the time to discover that her “Love Language” is Quality Time and he starts “planning a date night each week”.  Both gestures are welcomed, just one generates speed and one creates lift.

If you feel the wind in your face and are not feeling like your band, company or marriage is achieving flight, stop building more speed and start focusing on creating lift.

-Andy

Happy Wednesday Cruisers!

As we wind down for the holidays here at Sixthman, we can’t help but get caught up in the growing excitement for cruise season next year! We have been working hard to plan amazing activities and cruises for everyone and we can’t wait to get started. We wanted to leave everyone with a little holiday message and we hope you all have a wonderful holiday and new years.

See you in 2011

-Your Friends at Sixthman

The Night Before Christmas: Sixthman Style

“Twas the night before Winter Cruise season, when all through the loft
Not a sixthman was stirring, not even a pup;
Cruise posters were hung on the round walls with care,
In hopes that the first cruise, would soon be here;

The team was nestled all snug in their desks,
While visions of living loud danced in their heads;
And Shags in her hoodie, and Minnie in her bed,
The call center was quiet, not a word need be said;

When out in the parking lot there arose such a clatter,
We sprang from our nooks to see what was the matter.
Away to the windows we flew like a flash,
Tore open the garage door, the glass made a loud crash.

When what to our wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature cruise ship, and 7 tiny ships near!
With a very loud driver, so lively and so,
We knew in a moment it must be Grande Rojo

More excited than cruisers, through the office he came.
He whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now Rock Boat, now Simple Man, now Ships  & Dips and Cayamo!
On 311, on Kid Rock and Best Cruise Ever!

To the top of the Lido Deck! To the top of the Promenade!
Now sail away, sail away, sail away all!”

So down to Florida the cruise fleet flew,
With the 7 tiny ships and Grande Rojo too.
It was only but a minute, as we turned back around,
In the front door Grande Rojo came with a bound.

He was dressed in blue and khaki, from his head to his socks,
“Your cruisers” he said, “had me going nonstop!”
A bag of poker chips he flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes – how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his hair so cherry!
His mouth was drawn up with only a smile,
And the beard on his chin had been growing a while.

He had a broad face and skin full of freckles,
That shook when he laughed when the bands he did heckle.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave us the know, he’d come back again;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And sold the last cabins, then turned with a jerk,
He sprang to the cruise ship, and gave a loud “HEYYOOO”,
And away we all flew, down to board the first boat.

We all heard him claim, as he disappeared out of sight
“Happy Cruise Season to all, and to all a good night!”

If you haven’t seen it yet, now is the time to take a look.  As we prepare for the holidays in the office, we also take a little time out to get our creative juices flowing and write a little something for you.  We give you information on upcoming events, ponder about recurring events, and even throw in a little fun.  It’s our bi-annual newsletter, check it out!

Hey I’m Natalie and I’m new to the Sixthman team! This is my first blog post to go along with my first cruise EVER!

Enjoy

It is the last night of the Elvis Cruise 2010 and all that comes to my mind is WOW.

The first team meeting was overwhelming and slightly intimidating with information but a friendly game of whiffle ball was an awesome bonding experience to break up the workday. The pre-cruise party was a great introduction to the next 4 days of non-stop ELVIS. The cruisers were excited and could not wait to get on the boat and get to hip shaking. Embark day was smooth and the next thing I knew we were off and sailing!

It’s hard to actually pick favorite moments from this cruise because honestly the entire event was an amazing learning experience. The energy and excitement of the guests was so uplifting and watching the artists interacting with them gave our Sixthman phrase “Live Loud” a whole new meaning.

Being a rookie on this cruise meant so much to me. To watch my team really push hard and hold the line with every task and trial they were handed, I feel so honored to have been a part of this.

Here’s to a fabulous Elvis Cruise 2010!

When our Away Team heads out to sea, they always send an update to the Home Team back in our Atlanta office.  Check out “Home Team” Denial for further explanation of this new company dynamic.  That said, here’s the update I just sent to our Home Team:

Elvis has left the building… and boarded a cruise ship!

The Elvis Cruise 2010 kicked off with a huge party for the yearlong celebration of Elvis’ 75th birthday.  We all had our birthday hats on while the huge crowd of Elvis fanatics stood around a 5-foot long, pink Cadillac cake while singing the Happy Birthday song to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.  It was an amazing moment and you could feel the passion in the room.

As the night continued, we all got a sneak peak at some of the hottest music about to hit the Elvis scene:  Viva ELVIS – The Album. DJ Argo was spinning these re-mastered Elvis tracks while showgirls and door prizes added to the excitement. The album doesn’t hit the public until November 9th.  Yeah, we’re special.

Another show to make you stop in your tracks is Stephen Fishwick’s Paint! In Motion.  His art really does come to life as he dances around the canvas slinging paint and making masterpieces.  This performance was definitely a new element to The Elvis Cruse this year and it was undoubtedly a huge success.

That brings me to one of the highlights of today – The Elvis Fashion Show.  We had models from all ages that consisted of none other than our very own Elvis cruisers.  That’s right, our guests got to strut their stuff on stage and all around the Lido deck showing off Elvis Presley Enterprises’ latest fashions.  T-shirts and purses and pajamas, oh my!

Everyone is kicking butt and making our guests have the experience of a lifetime!  Andy, we miss you buddy, but we’re standing strong and representing the brand well.

Stay tuned for more updates…

-Away Team