Stop Filling the Funnel. Start Building Fans.
Peter Furler gave me a stage when I needed one. A year later, I watched him hand-paint drum heads for his superfans, and it reminded me why marketing should end in fandom, not at the sale.
When the THIRD DAY reunion tour was announced last year, the first call I got was from Peter Furler.
He was calling to offer his congratulations. But when I admitted I was anxious, that I needed to knock ten years of cobwebs off my bass playing before I stood in front of a crowd again, he didn't offer sympathy. He offered a stage. "Why don't you come play a show with me?"
So my first show in a decade wasn't with my own band. It was with Peter, in front of thousands at a festival in Massachusetts, playing an entirely new set of material I'd learned from scratch. That night did more for my confidence heading into the THIRD DAY anniversary tour than any amount of practicing alone in a room ever could have.
Over the past year, Peter has become one of my closest friends. We've gone to concerts together, shared long meals, and spent hours in conversation. And when it came time to gather endorsements for my book, Market Like a Rockstar, his endorsement meant the world to me.
On the Other Side of Fandom
This past weekend I joined him on the road again, for a couple of shows in California. But these were different. They were private gatherings, exclusively for Peter's superfans.
Market Like a Rockstar is, at its heart, a love letter to fans. It's a framework for organizations to stop thinking of marketing as talking to strangers and start thinking of it as creating lifelong fans. So much of it was shaped by my years with THIRD DAY and by my own experiences meeting the artists I love. This weekend gave me the chance to stand on the other side of that relationship, next to someone who does it as well as anyone I've seen.
Unexpected Delight Builds Lifetime Loyalty
Peter kept the trust his fans had placed in him by playing great shows, full of intimate and unexpected moments. But he went further. He created real moments of delight by giving those fans far more than they bargained for.
The peak was watching him hand-deliver four drum heads he had actually played on Newsboys recordings to his most grateful fans. He had hand-painted each one, personalizing it for the recipient. Not merchandise. Not a signed poster from a box. Something he made, with his hands, for them.
That kind of unexpected delight doesn't just make a fan happy for a night. It entrenches a lifetime of loyalty.
And here's the bonus: watching those fans with each other. Just like THIRD DAY fans, Peter's fans have built their own community, real relationships with one another that exist because of the music but go well beyond it. Seth Godin's Tribes, playing out in real time in a small event space one night and a historic theater the next.
A Challenge to the Business Community
Stop thinking of your marketing as an endless funnel of content, hoping to nudge strangers into becoming customers. A true customer journey doesn't end at the sale. It carries people past the transaction and into fandom, to a place where they express their own identity through their alignment with your brand.
Yes, that's a heavy lift. But we already do it, every one of us, for the bands and the brands we love most. Someone earned that from you. You can earn it from others.
Finally, a thank-you. To everyone who has encouraged me as I step into this new season, launching this book on September 15 and bringing this framework to businesses and conventions that are serious about creating the kind of moments I watched Peter create this weekend, I'm deeply grateful.
Let's go build some fans.
So I have a question for you
Who has earned true fandom from you, and what did they do to earn it?
If your organization is ready to stop filling the funnel and start building fans, that is exactly what my keynotes, workshops, and leadership sessions are built for. Learn more at taianderson.live/keynotes.
Originally published on LinkedIn, September 3, 2026.
