NHT Blog

“I don’t want to go through the motions.”  That’s a line from the chorus of a popular contemporary Christian song by Matthew West.  But it can also serve as another type of inspiration too.

Three nights ago I saw someone out playing somewhere, sitting, playing his guitar, and singing.  He didn’t look like he wanted to be there.  He was just ‘going through the motions.’

Ask an independent artist what his or her goal is and you’ll probably get answers ranging from “a record deal” to “making a full-time living from doing music” or one of a few others that I don’t need to spend time predicting.  But, there are periods of frustration, times of laziness, or spurts when it gets challenging to see that this is all really going somewhere.

I’ve probably blogged and I know I’ve definitely mentioned on “Now Hear This Entertainment” before that, say, 17-year olds shouldn’t be singing songs about life experiences that they couldn’t have had yet.  But what about going the other way, when a, say, 55-year old is singing songs that are very popular by the Ed Sheerans and the Maroon 5s of the world?  Unfortunately, there’s a strong chance of it just not being believable.

Yesterday I came back from Orlando where I was a speaker at Podfest Multimedia Expo.  While I would’ve stayed the whole time anyway, I admire the organizers requiring the speakers to be there for all three days.  Too many times we go to an event and s

Today there are celebrations both in Philadelphia as well as wherever else Eagles fans are, basking in yesterday’s Super Bowl victory.  Later this week we’ll see the pomp and circumstance of the opening of the Winter Olympics.  And then next week will come Valentine’s Day, filled with love, flowers, candies, and restaurant dinners.

It’s a commonly used expression nowadays – almost, dare I say, overused – by life coaches, business consultants, sales trainers, and other motivational professionals.  People are being challenged regularly to “know (their) why.”  What’s the point of doing something if you’re not even sure of what your purpose is for that pursuit, why you do it?

I have written blogs before about e-newsletters, including one a little over a year ago entitled “6 Steps to a Good e-Newsletter.”  But, I’ve recently taken a step back and considered that there could be some resistance to even publishing such in the first place.

Last week we ran an entry featuring the ten most read guest blogs on our website in 2017.  It’s somewhat fitting, then, that this week’s blog is the first such contribution of 2018, coming from a veteran of not only the music world but two past episodes of our weekly show (NHTE 19 and NHTE 106).  Danny Brooks is a Canadian-born, Texas-living singer, songwriter, multi-instrum