Taylor Swift & The Partner Ecosystem

Taylor Swift's 6-show tour stop in Toronto generated an economic impact of $282 million.

Her ability to create an ecosystem that fuels entire industries is unparalleled. Here’s how businesses like Salesforce, Amazon, and ChatGPT emulate this model—and how you can too.

Below you’ll find:

1. What we can learn from the “Taylor Swift Economy”

2. Industry Headlines

3. Industry Events

4. Global Selling

5. Are hotel gyms important?

Let’s get into it.

⌛️ Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Create your Taylor Swift Ecosystem

Last week, Taylor Swift came to Toronto. She had 6 shows, with an estimated economic impact of 282 million dollars. She’s done this for almost every other major city in the world.

That is absolutely mind blowing. I remember the first time I read this about Beyonce and was stunned…but her impact was nowhere near that of T-Swift.

When I was looking for a flight back to Toronto on Nov 15 before I flew to Dubai with my parents, there wasn’t a single ticket available, other than an overpriced seat on Flair Airlines. On that flight, I met a mother and daughter who paid $5,600 for 2 nosebleed seats, & that’s not counting hotel, flights, food, or anything else they’ll do around the city.

They were so keen to go that they flew from Boston, to NYC, to Toronto….which makes absolutely no sense. Couple that with all of the above spend & it’s not hard to see where 282 million dollars is counted.

T-Swift on the other hand makes $13.6M/show roughly. So, if we assume she makes this number x 6 shows… she’s still only (lol) making $81.6M overall, a far cry away from the $282M she is generating overall.

Side note: I was sadly surprised to see Flair airlines didn´t take advantage of this opportunity. Most folks on that airline are not typically riding a Flair, a budget airline but due to demand had to….perfect opportunity for Flair to win some brand loyalty with some creative in-plane service. After all, 7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain one…someone needs to speak with Flair´s head of marketing & CS.

So what does this have to do with you?

Taylor has created her own ecosystem, which she very clearly is the middle of. This is similar to other companies who have a dominant stake in their respective industries. Take Salesforce, who for every $1 they make in revenue their app exchange ecosystem makes an estimated $2.6.

The apps on their app exchange are partners, and are heavily reliant on Salesforce.

Salesforce having control over their ecosystem allows them to not only bolster it, but also make it really difficult for customers to switch to a competitor.

Other fantastic examples of this in real life are Amazon (FBA wholesale is extremely lucrative), Youtube generating 31.7B in Ad revenue, & now Chat GPT which has a whole GPT ecosystem where anyone can build a custom GPT.

When you look at your market positioning, your overall ecosystem & what will make you successful in 2025 and beyond, you need to answer the following:

1. Are you a central hub?

2. Are you a partner?

3. Are you a periphery player just happy to be there

Once you understand this, the next step is to do a valuation.

1. How much is your ecosystem worth?

2. Is there ways to make it more valuable?

3. For every dollar that you make, how much do your partners make or vice versa?

It’s important to have this information, to understand if you have control of the ecosystem around you and how strong it is.

Understanding this will allow you to make strategic decisions you might’ve missed beforehand.

Don’t have an ecosystem? You have a few options:

• Build one

• Buy one

• Join one

If you want to learn more about being a part of the Polaris ecosystem, reply to this email and we can chat.

Global Selling

If you think selling software or real estate is tough, try selling random trinkets to people chilling on a beach who aren’t even looking to buy. These sellers in Goa and Mumbai? Their entire livelihood depends on disrupting someone’s peace and turning zero buyer intent into a sale.

Here’s how they do it—and how we can learn from them when it comes to outbound hustle:

1. Reciprocity- give something without asking for anything in return. I had a bracelet put on my hand with no ask in return, my ethics couldn't allow me to not continue the convo

2. Bait & Switch- Get an inch, take a mile. I was given something initially to draw me in then once interest peaked, the rest of the wares were illuminated

3. Persistence- These sellers were waiting every day, would ask 100 times, and didn't stop at the first no. Patience & persistence is a virtue
   

4. Know your bottom line and hold true on it- Everyone wants a discount especially if they had no intent in the first place, once they locked you in to a meeting, it was negotiation time and they were strong on not taking a loss just to get cash in hand

The takeaway? Outbound selling is about patience, persistence, and confidence in what you’re offering—whether it’s bracelets or SaaS. What else can we learn from sellers literally fighting for survival?

More posts like this a few times a week on my Linkedin.

📆 Upcoming events

Holidays with The Collective 2024

Don’t Miss our last Collective Event of the Year. Details below, tickets will go quickly. As a gentle reminder, if you are an Executive member, your ticket is comped!

🗽 Cannabis Collective!
📆 December 12, 2024 6pm - 10pm
📍Tickets

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Metrc + BLAZE Present: MJBizCon Cannabis Executive Luncheon

🗽 METRC <> BLAZE Cosmopolitan Hotel
📆 December 4th, 2024 12pm
📍Tickets

The Collective is also hosting a Happy Hour Wednesday from 5-7 at The Cosmo come say hi.

🧘 Longevity

Hotel gyms. For me they can make or break my mood, especially if I’m not feeling my greatest or lost in a new city. I was in India and Dubai this week and it left me yearning for a good hotel gym and made me think of the importance. We need to be active on the road to get our mind and body right, having the facilities ready can be a game changer.

We looked at the best hotel gyms in the world.

What we took from them:

• It’s About More Than the Equipment: The top-tier gyms don’t just rely on high-end machines—they create an experience

• Offer Versatility for Different Lifestyles: From squash courts and lap pools at Jumeirah Beach Hotel to Hotel X Toronto’s golf simulator and tennis courts, the best gyms cater to a mix of fitness interests.

• Make Wellness Part of the Identity: Hotels like Palace Hotel Tokyo incorporate wellness into their brand DNA, with their Evian spa complementing the fitness facilities.

What do you think? Do you take advantage of hotel gyms?

As the world becomes more complex, it becomes more and more challenging to stay grounded, focused and aligned. Stay ahead by fostering unity, innovation, and trust across your teams and yourself. Don’t miss out on upcoming events and insights that will help shape your success in the months to come.

- SKV