The Grateful Dead weren’t exactly the hottest selling commercial act, even at the height of their popularity.
In the over 50 years that they have had music out, the band has sold about 35 million albums.
Which isn’t anything to be laughed at, but in terms of top selling acts…it isn’t that great.
To put it in context, Thriller sold 29 million albums on its own.
What the Grateful Dead did better than anyone else is sell tickets to their live shows.
If they didn’t do it by having the best selling records or being the hottest band in the world, what did they do better than everyone else?
They told a story about their band and created a brand that spoke to a specific audience.
The Grateful Dead spent the better part of their career, building up an image for their band of hippies on a long strange trip.
This included inviting people into their San Francisco home from the streets of SF. It included having house parties in the neighborhood.
And, this image and this story was a powerful draw.
In fact, it was so powerful that it drew over 26 million people to see them live during the over 2300 live shows they performed during their lifetimes.
Larger than even the shows themselves, the band created a community around themselves that drew people to them. They followed them around the world. They created a community and an economy around the band that included people making a living to follow the band selling brownies, t-shirts, and other things to support their touring habits.
That is pretty powerful.
The future of success for all of us is going to look more and more like the Grateful Dead because we are all going to need to build communities to follow us around and support our work.
You won’t win by being more corporate and more just good enough, you will win by being unique and human.
That’s the lesson the Grateful Dead give us.