What do cults have in common with business?

Jared was on stage. He was teaching his audience health, wellness and positive thinking. The crowd roared. They loved what they were hearing. The high price of the tickets and seeing Jared on the stage in person played into the cult like adoration. Jared moved the event to Obanjon Island, off the coast of Croatia. The crowd, who now are called the Echelon, were happy pay upwards of $4k for a ticket.

Then it all changed. Pictures of Jared dressed like Jesus, with his followers dressed in white, flooded the internet and roused suspicion. Mars Island, as the event was called was a successful version of Fyre Island, the famous, pricey event that became nightmare. Shirts claiming, “Yes This Is A Cult” became available for sale. The band 30 Seconds To Mars, headlined the event and the Echelon were being referred to as, “The Family.”

Real or fake

This is not a hypothetical story, or the re-telling of the origin of a famous cult. This is the real story of a marketing and business move. Jared Leto, famous method actor and front-man for the band 30 Seconds To Mars used cult tactics to sell high-priced tickets to an all-inclusive concert. By all accounts, it’s working.

The many facets of Jared Leto are amazing. However this is not a story about him. This is also not an investigation into whether Mars Island and Leto’s fan base, The Echelon, are a cult, though it is hard to distinguish this event from many cult related events.

This is the story of how similar cults are to business. In a business, what you don’t know can be dangerous. The same is true about cults. In the following video I explain my next project. It will be dangerous. I will dive deep into the behaviors of cults. The danger is that some behaviors of cults, aren’t harmful. Despite the inherent scare of cults, my next project will cover what is unhealthy about cult psychology, and what isn’t. Then the tricky part happens. We will cultivate the good and abandon the bad from cult behavior.

The following video explains the journey.