Welcome to The Beat’s latest drop—a playlist of perspectives from the influencers and innovators moving the needle. Here’s what’s on repeat from the voices moving culture forward:

• Embracing failure can transform your team into resilient innovators, fostering a culture of growth and success.

• Measurable experiences in marketing blend creativity and data, allowing brands to produce captivating events that deliver robust ROI.

• Focusing on premium quality in cannabis can safeguard your brand in a competitive market, attracting loyal customers and driving innovation.

For the uninitiated: The Beat is a free, biweekly newsletter designed for the influencers, tastemakers, and innovators in the worlds of music, entertainment, media, food & beverage, fashion, sports, gaming, and more. Each article featured below is penned by a member of Rolling Stone Culture Council, a community of influential leaders across an array of industries.

With the lineup set, let’s turn up the volume on this week’s insights.

Let Them Fail: Why Failure Fuels Innovation

Failure is more than an unpredictable outcome—it's a powerhouse for growth, innovation, and resilience. Embracing it, especially in a controlled environment, helps employees tackle challenges, sharpen skills, and build confidence.

But how do you make space for productive failure without risking chaos? Here's how:

🔥 Controlled Failure = Growth: Create learning opportunities by letting employees experiment and fail safely. Trial-and-error builds not just experience but also persistence and courage.

🗂️ Small Projects, Big Learnings: Start small—assign manageable tasks like streamlining workflows or testing new concepts. These mini-experiments encourage creativity and reduce the chance of major errors down the road.

🛡️ Checks and Balances: Systems like segregation of duties and internal audits minimize risk, while still allowing employees to take ownership. Pro tip: Trial internal audits before handling real ones for a safe crash course in problem-solving.

🎯 Feedback is Key: When failure happens, step in with constructive feedback that builds trust and aligns creativity with proven strategies. Let mistakes serve as blueprints, not roadblocks.

Read The Full Article >

Spectacle Meets Scorecard: The Future of Experiential Marketing

Gone are the days when applause and Instagram posts were enough. Today, the most striking experiences wow the crowd and deliver measurable results. Forward-thinking brands are blending breathtaking creativity with precision metrics, proving that art and analytics can share the same stage.

Here’s all you need to know:

✨ Start With Purpose: Define your “why” before designing. Boosting brand awareness? Building community? Creating demand? Spectacle without strategy is just noise.

📊 Bake Metrics Into the Moment: Measurement isn’t an afterthought; it’s your foundation. Track badge scans, live polls, and interactions to turn audience insights into actionable takeaways for greater impact.

🎥 Capture & Amplify: Every moment is a marketing asset. Plan for multichannel content capture from the start to extend your event’s ROI far beyond showtime. Think social-first edits and evergreen engagement.

🤖 Tech & Touch: Wow with AI and AR, but prioritize human connection. Unforgettable conversations and shared experiences create lifelong advocates of your brand.

🚀 Close the Loop: Post-event follow-ups with results, learnings, and next steps turn a one-off event into an ongoing relationship.

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Elevating Cannabis: Premium Quality as a Lifeline

As New York's cannabis market matures, operators face fierce competition, rising costs, and shrinking margins. The instinct to slash prices may seem tempting, but this race to the bottom threatens brand integrity and long-term sustainability. Instead, embracing a premium strategy can secure not just survival, but flourishing.

How to compete in a crowded cannabis market:

💰 Defend Those Margins: Premium products command higher prices, reducing operational strain while enhancing profit margins. Fewer sales of high-margin items can yield better financial health than volume of low-margin goods.

🏰 Build a Strong Brand Fortress: A consistent, high-quality product creates trust and loyalty. Consumers gravitate towards brands with a compelling story and reliable experiences.

🎯 Attract Loyal Customers: The premium demographic is discerning and less price-sensitive; they prioritize quality and brand alignment over costs, insulating businesses from price wars.

💡 Drive Innovation: Commitment to premium offerings fuels innovation in extraction techniques, flavors, and formats—keeping brands relevant and competitive.

Read The Full Article >

Wrapping Up

If these articles sparked your interest, we have a network that you will love: Rolling Stone Culture Council.

This exclusive, vetted community brings together influential leaders and innovators in art, media, gaming, theater, social impact, fashion, film, hospitality, sports, and more.

Put yourself at the forefront of innovation with access to publishing opportunities on RollingStone.com, a personalized, SEO-friendly Executive Profile, and the chance to network with other respected leaders in the field.

Join Rolling Stone Culture Council today and become part of a group driving innovation in entertainment.