Into the Great Wide Open

Written at 34,015 feet on the way to Red Rocks: the book goes to production, THIRD DAY is current again, and after ten years I have stepped away from my corporate role to speak and consult full-time.

I'm writing this from 34,015 feet, somewhere between Atlanta and Denver, on my way to Red Rocks for the 30th Anniversary Tour celebration with THIRD DAY. There's something fitting about drafting this announcement in the air. No ground beneath me. Just trust that the flight plan is sound and the destination is real.

This week I'm also hitting send on something just as significant: the final manuscript for my book, Market Like a Rockstar, is going to production. Three decades of stages, a decade of marketing leadership outside of music, and years of notes scribbled on hotel stationery are finally becoming something permanent.

This tour did something I didn't expect. It reawakened my passion, not just for music, but for fans. How do you make them? How do you keep them? How do you empower them to become part of the story instead of just spectators? I started learning those lessons on stages decades ago. Somewhere in the business of life, I let the volume go quiet. Red Rocks, and every city before it, turned it back up. All the way to 11.

Less Nostalgia, More NOWstalgia

Here's the part I didn't see coming. Until this reunion tour, THIRD DAY just lived in the past experience section of my LinkedIn profile. Now it's current. Less nostalgia, more "NOWstalgia." This fall we have 12 shows lined up with Chris Tomlin and TobyMac, and beyond that, a wide-open future. When the four original band members first sat down to talk about a reunion tour, my one goal was simple: come out the other side with our relationships stronger than they'd ever been. Mission accomplished.

Trading Certainty for a Calling

And in the middle of all that motion, I need to tell you something else. After ten years, I've stepped away from my role as Creative Director and Regional Marketing Manager at Supreme Lending.

I'll be honest. I keep waiting for that decision to stop feeling scary, and it hasn't quite yet. Sharing the news with you is making it very real!

A decade is a long time. It's relationships, routines, a paycheck that showed up like clockwork, and a seat at a table I helped build. Walking away from steady is not nothing. If you've ever traded certainty for a calling, you know exactly the knot I'm describing.

But here's what I also know: the things that have been quietly tugging at me for years didn't go away just because the job was stable. They got louder. Every time I've had the opportunity to speak, from Rotary clubs to real estate offices to conferences to classrooms, I've heard the same thing afterward. "You should really be doing this full time." I've heard it enough times now that I'd be foolish to keep ignoring it. It's time to listen to the fans.

Where I'm Flying Into

I'm stepping fully into speaking and consulting, bringing two keynotes I've been refining for years: Market Like a Rockstar, built on the framework from the book, and Responding Heroically to the Challenges of AI, which has become one of the most requested topics I deliver. If you're planning a conference, sales kickoff, or leadership offsite and need a speaker who's spent 30 years on stage and a decade in marketing trenches, I'd love to be considered. The reviews have been fantastic!

I'm also launching a half-day workshop for leadership and marketing teams. It goes beyond lead generation tactics into something I believe matters more: building a framework that turns your funnel into a megaphone, where customers become fans who do your marketing for you, unpaid, unprompted, because they actually love what you do. The best bands don't just sell albums or tickets; they turn strangers into customers, and customers into fans for life. Those same techniques can supercharge your marketing into a fan-making machine.

But wait, there's more...

I'm thrilled to share that I've started my first partnership with UNG Evergreen Learning, where I'll be teaching these same topics and more across North Georgia. Getting to bring this material into a classroom setting, working with students and professionals who are hungry to think differently about marketing, technology, and leadership. As someone who pursued his marketing degree in my late 30s, this is a full-circle moment I didn't see coming and couldn't be more grateful for.

Wheels Up

None of this happens in isolation. It's the tour. It's the book. It's a decade of marketing work that taught me more than I expected. It's every person who believed this was possible before I fully did! It's advice from mentors. It's being supported by my wife. It's a stirring in my soul I can't ignore.

I don't know exactly what next year will look like. I know it involves stages, classrooms, boardrooms, and hopefully your team's next event. I know it requires more courage than comfort some days. And I know that the view from up here, however uncertain, beats staying parked on a runway out of fear.

If you're booking speakers for an upcoming event and want me on your stage, or want to bring the funnel-to-megaphone workshop to your team, let's talk. And if this isn't your decision to make, you can still help. Share this with someone in your network who books speakers, hosts a podcast, or just needs to hear that it's never too late to chase the thing on your heart. They might be exactly the people who need a seat on this flight. Wheels up. Let's go.

So I have a question for you

What is the thing on your heart that keeps getting louder, no matter how stable the job is?

If you're planning a conference, sales kickoff, or leadership offsite, my keynotes, workshops, and leadership sessions are built for exactly that room. Learn more at taianderson.live/keynotes.

Originally published on LinkedIn, June 17, 2026.