Billy
Dolly Parton: 100M records, Dollywood, and a $500M+ fortune
Shaan makes the late Dolly Parton a Billy of the Week. She was the 4th of 12 kids from the Smoky Mountains, sold over 100 million records, won 10 Grammys, and built Dollywood into a major theme park, leaving a net worth above $500 million, which very few musicians reach.
“Yeah, she does over 100 million records sold, 10 Grammys. But then she just was a prolific businesswoman. So she owns this thing called Dollywood, which is this— essentially like a Disney World in Tennessee, like an amusement park that brings in millions of visitors a year and is actually a big contributor to her fortune. And the reason why she can qualify as Billie of the Week, she kind of passed away with a net worth over $500 million, which very few artists ever get to.”
Story
Dolly Parton turned down Elvis to keep ownership of her song
Elvis wanted to record "I Will Always Love You" but insisted on owning more than half of it, and Dolly refused. Because she kept the rights, Whitney Houston's later version earned her tens of millions in royalties in the '90s.
“Elvis wanted to buy it. So Elvis was like, I'll sing the song. And she's like, amazing. He's like, and I'll own over 50% of it. And she's like, I don't want to do that. Like, how about you sing the song and we'll do the normal, like, kind of, you know, whatever the rights breakdown normally is of the song creator versus the artist who sings it. And Elvis was like, no, no, I need to own most of it. I'm Elvis. I'm going to blow this thing up. And she turns him down.”
Steal thisDon't give away ownership of your best asset for distribution; license it on standard terms and keep the royalties.
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Dolly's buddy contract cut her county's dropout rate from 35% to 6%
Faced with about 35% of local 7th and 8th graders not graduating, Dolly Parton paired every student with a buddy and promised $500 each only if both graduated. Shaan says the dropout rate fell to around 6%. In the same segment he notes her Imagination Library has mailed over 325 million free books since 1995.
“And so she just went and she said, all right, I'm gonna pair all of you up. And here's the deal. You're gonna sign a contract with me. And the contract says, if both of you, you, everybody gets a buddy. And if you and your buddy both graduate, when you graduate, you get $500. Now this is back in the '80s, so it's like more like kind of $1,500 or $2,000 basically worth of money, which is a lot to a kid. She was like, if you both graduate, you both get the money. But if you don't both graduate, you don't get the money.”
Steal thisTie a reward to a pair both hitting the goal, so each person has a stake in the other's success.