Failure is not an option
Hey, Nikki here.
This week is different. We spent a day inside The Rock-It Company, the official logistics partner of FIFA World Cup 2026 and the company that has moved nearly every major tour of the last 47 years. If you’ve ever worked a stadium or arena tour, there is a good chance Rock-It got your gear there.
We talked to four people across the company. Alex Becker runs the control tower for the World Cup. Justin Carbone leads live touring. Nancy Alvarado came up through entry level operations and is now building out the next generation of the company. Stew Heathcote runs the whole live events division.
Four very different roles, but the same handful of lessons kept showing up in every conversation.
Why this one matters:
This summer, Rock-It is moving freight across 3 countries, 16 stadiums, and 104 matches, while still running world tours for artists like Harry Styles, BTS, and AC/DC.
As they say at Rock-It, “Failure is not an option.” The lessons underneath it apply at any scale, on any crew.
#1 Have a plan B before you need it
Nancy Alvarado was tracking a band’s gear on a flight to a festival in Australia when the plane made an emergency landing in Hawaii because of a medical issue with a passenger.
She called Rock-It’s agents on the ground in Hawaii right away. They were already ready to pull the cargo and find another plane before she even finished asking. The flight ended up continuing, and the band made it to soundcheck. The backup was moving before anyone knew if they would need it.
Takeaway: The work you do before the emergency is what actually saves the show.
Try this: Before your next event, name one thing that could go wrong and decide right now who you would call if it did.
#2 Relationships outlast any single deal
Justin Carbone’s first day at Rock-It was moving Enrique Iglesias’s gear on a flight that broke down halfway to Puerto Rico. Twenty five years later, they still work together.
Justin watched Katy Perry grow from an opening act to a global headliner over fifteen years of working with her.
Stew Heathcote once turned down a large brand sponsorship deal at Coachella early in his career, because the brand would not be credible in two years and he did not want the festival’s reputation tied to it.
Takeaway: The biggest check is not always the right one. The relationship that lasts is.
Try this: Think of one relationship in your work that was built slowly over years. What did you do early on that earned that trust?
#3 The work nobody sees is the job
Alex Becker runs what he calls the control tower for the World Cup, tracking thousands of shipments across FIFA, sponsors, suppliers, and their suppliers. The match balls are not even printed with team logos until each match is decided, so shipping logistics have to be ready the moment a winner is announced.
None of this is visible from the stands, but it determines whether the biggest event in world history happens on time.
Takeaway: The job nobody sees is usually the job holding everything else up.
Try this: Think about one piece of invisible work on your show that would cause real problems if it stopped happening. Make sure someone besides you knows how to do it too.
— Nikki
P.S. One line I loved: Justin Carbone summed up the whole company in one sentence. “Anybody can move cargo in perfect conditions. What Rock-It does is move it in the worst ones.” That is true of most of the best work in this industry. The conditions are rarely ideal. The job is doing it anyway.
If you want to hear the full conversation, listen to Episode #65 of The Giggs Podcast: How Rock-It Moves the FIFA World Cup & The World’s Biggest Tours. SPOTIFY | APPLE | YOUTUBE
