Stanton ‘Stan’ Ross, CEO of Kustom Entertainment, joined me on the podcast to share how a lifetime around music, events, and customer experience shaped the way he leads today.
A quick FYI: Kustom Entertainment is a live event production and ticketing company focused on delivering memorable fan experiences through concerts, festivals, and transparent ticketing. It also owns and operates Country Stampede and strives to make the full event experience clear, fair, and high-value for fans and artists alike.
What stands out most is his belief that trust is built through clarity, consistency, and an eagerness to listen, whether that means being frank about ticket fees or making sure fans get above-and-beyond value from any festival or concert they pay to attend.
For leaders in any industry, Stan’s perspective is a practical reminder that transparency is not just a brand value; it is a business strategy. His approach to ticketing, event production, and audience feedback shows how companies can strengthen loyalty by making the customer experience simpler, fairer, and more respectful.
Legacy Meets Leadership
Stan’s story begins with legacy. We talked about his father, Bud Ross, whose innovations in guitar amplifiers and pedals helped shape music history and taught Stan the importance of quality, reliability, and humility. That foundation still influences how Stan thinks about business today: build something people can trust, and then keep improving it.
He also shared how being raised around music and creative people gave him an early appreciation for passion and craftsmanship. His dad built amps and pedals for Johnny Cash, the Grateful Dead, John Fogerty, and more! That background helps explain why he sees business not just as operations and revenue, but as a way to create meaningful experiences for artists, fans, and partners.
Why Transparency Wins
One of the clearest themes in the conversation was Stan’s frustration with hidden ticket fees and his decision to build Kustom Entertainment’s own ticketing systems that show the full price upfront. He explained that consumers are already comparing multiple platforms, so the company that is most honest and simplest to use often wins their trust. That is a valuable lesson for any leader: if customers feel surprised at checkout, the relationship is already damaged. When it comes to both a frictionless fan and artist experience, vertically integrating the value chain wins.
Put another way, transparency reduces friction. When people know the full cost and understand what they are getting, they are less likely to feel manipulated and more likely to return. In a marketplace where trust is fragile, that kind of clarity becomes a competitive advantage.
Listening to Fans and Fixing Problems
Stan offered a concrete example of how listening to feedback can improve a business quickly. After acquiring Country Stampede, one of the biggest complaints was food variety, so the team responded by bringing in a wide mix of food trucks to broaden the festival experience. That is a simple but powerful model for any founder or operator: identify the real complaint, pinpoint what you can control, and make a visible change.
“We want not only the artists to really enjoy playing there so that they want to come back, but we’d like the fans to feel like they got more than what they paid for.” - Stan Ross
He also described how the team follows up with attendees after events to ask for suggestions, ratings, and artist requests for future lineups. That kind of feedback loop turns audience feedback into a management tool instead of a marketing afterthought. The message is straightforward: if your customers are telling you what is broken, treat that input like operational intelligence.
Lessons for all Leaders
There were several actionable ideas in Stan’s comments that leaders can apply beyond entertainment. He explained that his team tries to make events feel worth more than the price of admission, which translates well to any business focused on retention and loyalty. He also stressed the importance of being present, solving problems in real time, and staying close to the work instead of hiding behind titles.
As I like to say, Coach John Wooden, who coached UCLA basketball in the 60s and 70s and won multiple championships, was known to ‘sweep the floors’ after practice. No job was beneath him. Stan uses a similar mindset, which all leaders should heed: humility and being human win at the end of the day. The ability to acknowledge and address faults while understanding where the consumer is coming from is an advantage vs. the competition.
