NHT Blog

Last week I gave you a recap of the ten most read blogs on this site in 2020 that were written by me.  This week it’s time to look back at which guest blogs attracted the most eyeballs last year.

My thanks to those who contributed.  Be sure to note further below how you can write something for me to publish too!

Although I’ve been publishing weekly blogs on this site every Monday since late September 2014, this is “just” the fourth annual “Best Of” entry, recapping, in this case, the most read blogs that I wrote in 2020.

While some folks are on a long, extended vacation, for many of us others, it’s back to work this morning after the Christmas holiday and thus back to reality.

For our friends in Nashville, though, it’s not that simple.

It’s a sobering thought.  This year has forced performers to put on live shows from home, streaming through Facebook or Instagram or YouTube or some other platform.  All with the hope of viewers tipping them electronically or streaming their music – or both.

The problem is that neither of those have a high percentage of likelihood.

You’ve been beaten up by the now nine-month long pandemic.  You feel ignored because everyone is focusing on the homestretch leading up to Christmas in approximately a week-and-a-half.  And you feel lost in a sea (or, more like, ocean) of others doing exactly what you do.

Welcome to the world of being a creator in 2020.

Last week I hit what I called in the weekly e-newsletter an accidental milestone.  Mind you, it’s quite, quite notable.  Yet because of its construct, it wasn’t waving its arms and flashing all kinds of lights at me.

Last night I was watching television.  I have a Google Home Mini sitting right next to the TV.  So, when a commercial came on in which someone said, “Hey Google,” and then gave it a command to start playing certain music, yup, you guessed it, my smart speaker started playing exactly what the person in the ad asked for.  As Homer Simpson would say, “D’oh!”

No matter what level of your artist career you’re at, undoubtedly you’ve had thoughts that companies should be giving you product and/or money to endorse them and what they sell.  You probably even have some ideas of which companies you’d like to rep. 

Usually when I’m asked to cite one of the best pieces of advice I’ve gotten or lessons learned in business, I’ll point to someone I used to work for who lived out combating “out of sight, out of mind.”  He would travel halfway around the world, sit in a meeting for three hours, and then fly all the way back.  “If you’re not there, they forget about you,” he would tell us in staff meetings, reporting on his latest trip.

It’s Monday.  Strike one.  And it’s raining, because Hurricane Eta is starting to arrive for an uninvited visit here to the Sunshine State.  Strike two.  And my beloved Tampa Bay Buccaneers suffered a lopsided defeat last night on national television.  Strike three.