Party On

Leadership

Jul 10

Think this through with me, let me know your mind,Woah, oh, what I want to know is are you kind?

- Lyrics to Uncle John’s Band by the Grateful Dead

Happy Monday!

Last week I was one of about 150K+ people over 3 nights that gathered at CU Boulders Folsom Field to have the opportunity to rock and roll to the sounds of Dead and Company. Dead and Co. is the latest rendition of the iconic rock band the Grateful Dead, on their “final” tour.

I put final in quotes because something tells me they will be back in one form or another. Or, as they like to sing in one of their tunes, “One way or another.”

While my husband, Ed, and his best friend Cully (who came in from Pennsylvania) went to all three nights of the shows, I opted for just the last night. And once again, I was in awe of the dedication of fans that this band continues to receive after all these years. They first formed the band in 1965 with two of the original band members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart still rocking strong in their 70’s.

The dedicated following of this greatly loved band is legendary to be sure. We met people of all ages from across the country who had come to Boulder to enjoy Colorado as well as to see the show.

The Dead’s power of attraction is the things books are written about and in fact it got me to dust off one of the books on my bookshelf, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead - What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History.

With that, I decided to make the book my You Tube Book Chat for this month. I will send you a link when it comes out on Friday. In the meantime, you can see my pics from the show over on my Instagram.

And speaking of marketing and Instagram, late last week a new social media platform popped up called Threads and within 24 hours of its launch, when I decided to see what it was all about, I was subscriber number 41,509,058 (yep that’s million). As of this morning 5 days in they are at 100 million. It is interesting to think about why in the world do we need with another social media platform but apparently, we do.

But what Meta aka Facebook proved (not my favorite company to be sure and perhaps the literal opposite of the Dead vibes) is that when you have a following such as they do with over 2 billion (yep that’s billion) users on Instagram, conversion can be simple if you make it simple. They did. Within minutes of my decision to take a look at Threads I was signed up with my current Instagram followers notified that I was there.

Meta’s goal they say is to make it an app around conversations and creativity… we shall see with their main focus to date only seeming to be around profitability. What I don’t want to be sure is another time suck.

One of the graces that I will share more in the book chat on Friday is the power of attraction the Grateful Dead has always had comes from treating everyone with authenticity and transparency. Something I wish Meta would learn a thing or two about. If you have ever tried to get any kind of service out of them you know it’s impossible.

Today’s picture comes from the drone show Dead and Company put on during that last show in Boulder that was fabulous. I love this reminder to please be kind.

Sad, we have to say it out loud, but the truth is this is the world we find ourselves in today. I hope you are on the receiving end as well as the giving side of kindness this week. That is when we all can really party on and enjoy the power of attraction in its truest sense!