NHT Blog

Today I’m flying back home to Tampa from having been out in Anaheim since last Wednesday, with the NAMM Show having been the impetus for this latest trip out west.  My luggage weighs the same as it did going out there, but I’m sure carrying back lots of new insights gained while in California.

In last week’s blog I made a reference to “Who do they know,” as I suggested that you keep in mind how making the right first impression on someone could lead to a referral, even if the person you’re talking to doesn’t end up doing anything with you.  This week’s post takes a look at that from a different, cautionary, perspective.

I was meeting with one of my clients recently and she talked about an opportunity I’d gotten for her and how she looked at that and took gratitude all the way back to the people responsible for the two of us ever having met in the first place.

Connections, moments, meetings, introductions can really be powerful.  Talking to someone for the first time can be a true make or break moment.

I’m emptying out my notebook today with a lot that I’ve been accumulating.

In no particular order:

Please be enthusiastic when you speak.  Whether you’re being interviewed or if it’s a situation where you’re actually doing a speaking gig or even a performer who is on stage and talking in between songs, have some good, positive emotion.  I saw a speaker get asked a question recently and their answer started off with, “Ummm, eh.  I don’t know.”  Coupled with the disinterested monotone that this person had, I immediately discredited them.

Last week I was in San Diego attending Social Media Marketing World.  The week before I had been in Las Vegas for Podcast Movement Evolutions.  The two events came just over a month after I was in Orlando for Podfest Multimedia Expo.

It should come as no surprise that at all three of those events the topic of YouTube came up over and over (and over) again.

While in Las Vegas on Friday I met with someone who was filled with positivity and happiness.  One element of discussion was the topic of expectations, which, when managed, can help avoid disappointment.  You can see, then, that it keeps you on the path to a healthy mindset.

It’s ironic that this song was released on Valentine’s Day since it deals with sensing that something is wrong in a relationship.

But, wow! It's a hit! I was still in the first verse of “So Sweetly” by Jesse Felder and was already thinking, "I want to add this to my OWN personal Spotify playlist." While it's not something I went through, the message is still so powerful that it touched me anyway.  In other words, it did what a song should do (made me feel something). Bravo!

This is three weeks in a row now that – coupled with others I’ve done in the last, what, I don’t know, six months maybe – an argument could be made, “Is this turning into a music review blog” instead of what we’ve become accustomed to all these years?

The answer is, when you get a track like “Problems” by CeCe submitted to you, there has to be a post about it regardless of whether it makes three consecutive ‘good song’ review-type posts or not.

Say what you will about all the streaming platforms and what it means for artist earnings, but, you have to admit that today’s technology has made music discovery so, so (SO) much easier.  In fact, note to self – that’s a blog for another time, although I’m sure that I’ve likely talked about it with a few guests on my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast.

In sales, one of the things you want to accomplish is to get your potential customer to say, "Tell me more." In the case of the song, “Teeth,” by Ergo, Bria, as I listened, I kept wondering, "What's next?" That's a "sale." It's successful in making me stick around for the whole track.