Ask Giggs #9 | What Great Crews Do That Nobody Notices
Nikki Sanz spent years on job sites pretending she knew what was going on. She didn’t. Nobody does, not at first, but she thought looking competent mattered more than actually learning the job. It took a long time and a lot of embarrassing memories to figure out that the opposite was true.
On this Ask Giggs, she takes questions straight from the Giggs community and works through what she’d tell her younger self about ego, leadership, feedback, and why she still doesn’t say no to a gig.
Performing Competence Instead of Learning the Job
The first question gets right at it: when did she realize she was performing on a job site instead of being herself? Her answer is that she didn’t realize it while it was happening. She thought she was pulling it off.
“Ultimately you just look like a big dummy if you are just acting like you know what’s going on. Just ask the questions.”
Early in her career, she believed she had to prove she belonged, that she had the competency, that she knew where things went. She didn’t, and the result was that she’d mess things up anyway. Asking for help was always the faster path, and as a manager now, she can spot the difference immediately between someone performing and someone learning.
Knowing When to Step In
Safety issues are the exception; those get an immediate step-in, no debate. Outside of that, she points to a leader she knows who let an employee spend weeks working through a genuinely difficult problem instead of solving it for them. The employee’s eventual solution was better than the one the leader had originally landed on himself.
She admits this doesn’t come naturally to her. She calls herself a bit of a control freak, someone who wants to just do it herself because she knows the way she’d do it works. Letting someone else find their own way, even a better way, is something she’s still learning to sit with.
Never Say No to a Gig
Asked what one yes changed her career, she refuses to name a single moment. It wasn’t the tour that changed everything on its own. It was every gig before it: showrunning for Live Nation at Bridgestone Arena, working catering for a festival she didn’t particularly want to work.
“I didn’t say yes to this one catering gig that, honestly, I did not want to do — I would not have gotten the gig that changed my life. So I preach it over and over and over, but never say no to a gig.”
Her point isn’t that every gig is glamorous. It’s that there’s no way to know in advance which one leads to the next thing, so the safer bet is to take the work and figure out the rest along the way.
Preparation Is the Whole Job
When it comes to what separates crew members who get rehired from everyone else, she doesn’t point to talent or experience. She points to preparation: studying the advance, knowing the venue, showing up already knowing where catering is instead of asking someone else to explain it. She says she wasn’t that person for a long time, and she noticed the difference it made in who got hired back.
Consistency matters just as much. The crew members she trusts most are the same person at 8 a.m. load-in as they are at 3 a.m. load-out, whether or not the boss or the artist’s team is watching.
Feedback, Reputation, and Staying Consistent
On giving feedback, she’s honest that it isn’t her strength. She’s afraid of hurting people, which she’s realized only ends up hurting the work. Her go-to is the compliment sandwich, but she also thinks leaders should simply ask people how they take feedback and encouragement, rather than guessing.
On reputation, her answer is straightforward: one bad moment doesn’t ruin you if it’s genuinely one moment against a track record of showing up and being dependable. The people you tour with see you at your worst, tired, homesick, off your routine. What matters is that it doesn’t become a pattern.
