Safe enough for your kids

Hey, Nikki here.

Pulling one from the archive this week — a Giggs Rewind of my conversation with Marty Hom, a legend who's tour managed Beyoncé, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Shakira, Olivia Rodrigo, and more iconic artists across 40 years in this business. Even if you've heard it, it's worth a second pass.

What stayed with me is how plainly Marty talks about the biggest decisions of his career. No drama. No speeches. Just a clear question, asked out loud, in the room, when it mattered.

Why this one matters:

A lot of people in this industry chase the title, the artist, the credit. Marty has the credits — he just doesn't lead with them. 

His mentor Howard Kaufman taught him early: never try to be more famous than the artist you represent. He watched colleagues forget that rule and fall apart. Forty years in, he still won't.

The job, the way he describes it, is quieter than people expect. Know your people. Keep your head when everything else is loud. And when the answer is no, be the one willing to say it.

#1 Know when "the show must go on" doesn't apply

Fourteen years ago, an upstage corner of a Shakira stadium stage buckled during video load-in. 60,000 tickets sold. Engineers in a back room telling Marty the stage was safe. 

He asked, “Do you have kids, and will you bring them tonight and stand next to me on the side of the stage?” Silence. He canceled the show.

Takeaway: "The show must go on" only works under safe conditions.

Try this: Before you green-light a call under pressure, ask who you'd want standing next to you while it plays out.

#2 Buses are buses. People are the job.

Marty said it plainly: buses are buses, trucks are trucks, lights are lights. None of it matters if the people setting it up aren't in a good place. 

On Beyoncé's Renaissance tour (500 people on the road) they brought in mental health specialists, and the data kept pointing to one thing: people felt under-appreciated. So they worked on it.

Takeaway: Morale isn't a soft metric. It's the whole tour.

Try this: This week, tell one crew member specifically what they did well. Not a group thank you. Name the person and the thing.

#3 Stay in your place

Marty learned early on to keep his ego in check and know his role. He's watched colleagues climb a few rungs, start acting like the artist, and lose the plot. Humility isn't a performance. It's the thing that keeps you working for 40 years.

Takeaway: You're not flying private because you deserve to. You're flying private because you have a job to do when you land.

Try this: The next time the rider, the suite, or the title starts to feel like yours, remember whose name is on the ticket.

If you want the full conversation, listen to The Giggs Podcast Rewind with Marty Hom.
SPOTIFY | APPLE | YOUTUBE

— Nikki

P.S. One line I loved: Marty said his legacy isn't Fleetwood Mac or Stevie Nicks or the Stones — it's the people he's worked with who've gone on to build their own careers and support their families doing something they love. The real measure of a long career in this business is who kept working because you made space for them.