As for Stevie’s School of Business, it all comes down to clear, memorable branding:

-same hat with the buckles every time
-well-worn, battle scar-ridden Stratocaster, as many mentioned, with the unmistakable tone
-the deft skill at building a solo through several layers and textures, with a rising then falling dynamic, then bringing it all back

and..

-playing his music for the one he loves (works every time)

Thanks for highlighting this performance and re-invigorating the context, Jonathan!

Peter

SRV.

Full of passion, full of integrity. Full of authenticity.

Awesome! I knew we had some more stuff in common!

I jam to SRV, JIMI, and some serious Zeppelin, when I’m in the need of motivation. Watching folks that were (are) the best in the business, is always inspiring.

One more thing;

Go to YouTube and find SRV’s Texas Flood-the long version.

Trust me, J

The Franchise King®

Love the “it’s who you are…” I write a lot about that concept in Strength for LIFE, about the magic, the strength, the freedom is released when you can stop “doing fitness” and start “being fit.” For it’s on who you are being.

There’s something else here that rises up in the KISS vs. SRV examples… business is business… and we can all salute success. It’s a win in most people’s books. Great…

But SRV was never trying to “win” at that game… he was winning in finding a way to release that which he couldn’t let sit inside for it would kill him.. it was to “be” in the moment…to express a part of his soul.

And it’s in “being” vs. “winning” where I think you swap “span” for “depth.” The span of mass is attractive and they are prone to jump on anything with long blonde hair and big things… but depth tends to be reserved to those more alert, more discerning , more selective about the experience. Not better, just different.

The depth as Seth will tell you will carry you far. The span is more prone to spreading you far and when it succeeds, it can give you what you want, if that’s wealth… but rarely will it bring the satisfaction, the shear pleasure which is the essence of life.

I leave you with a thought from Clapton… during the SRV memorial concert, Eric in speaking about Stevie, said, “He had that thing… something that simply awed me, that I knew and know I don’t have… he channeled… he was the music. it came through him without thinking, it was straight, direct line to ‘the power’… me, on my best moments I still have a mind and I still think about every note and that’s something I have always known I would never have.”

Amen.

And, on a bigger scale, one of the bigger business lessons is that marketing isn’t something you bolt on after the product is created, which is how it happens in most businesses. It can be, but when you do it that way, you generally have to invest a ton more in keeping the engine alive and the moment you stop feeding that engine, it sputters and stalls.

Whereas, when you see marketing as simply the logical extension of product development, your quest becomes to create something that not only immensely rewarding for yourself, but stunning, downright remarkable, for any others with even the remotest interest.

When your quest become to create something that delights from the very beginning, and then you go and do that very thing, the “marketing” becomes largely a self-fulfilling prophecy. People can’t shut up about how blown away they are by who you are, what you’ve created and how it’s impacted their lives.

And, I love that the example of KISS was brought up, because they appear to represent the closest thing to a business-venture that music has seen. But…not really. KISS was never about the quality of the music, the members all readily admit that. But, it WAS about the mad quest to create a level of theater that consistently blew peoples’ minds. They weren’t so much about the music or the cash as they were about the quest to tantalize and delight using damn near any means necessary.

Full circle, though. Marketing begins the moment you pick the guitar, you begin to turn ideas into action or solutions into products and services. Done right, it’s an organic, necessary part of conception, birth and evolution…not something you bolt on once the product is nearing readiness for sale.