The year seemed to go by fast, and there’s certainly a lot more things I feel I could have accomplished, but I must have learned something right?
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all that fun stuff!
I can’t believe 2017 has come and just about gone. Didn’t it just start? I feel like a week ago I was rejoicing over the idea that Halloween was only a couple months away! Where did the time go?
I don’t know how your year has been (I hope it’s been fantastic) but this year for me was full of a lot of starts and stops. And starts. And false starts. And stalls. Bathroom stalls.
The big plan for this year was to get The Art Of Tactful Procrastination done and out and into your hands and ears. But as summer ran down and baby number two’s due date neared, I saw the writing on the wall – not only was the album not going to be finished but I had no idea how I was going to promote it. So while work on the album continues (albeit slowly – not a whole lot one can do about that with a newborn) I’ve been putting whatever time I can find into sharpening my marketing skills. I’m learning a lot, I’m gaining new fans and I’m inching ever closer to understanding what my target market actually is. I still expect a slow build but I see it starting to come into focus. I’m really excited about what 2018 holds.
Despite how quickly things went and how little I felt I’d accomplished this year, I did actually manage to publish another book, The Dream Divide: How To Conquer The BIGGEST Barrier Between You And Your Dreams. Part of the Operation Joy series, The Dream Divide is about understanding what’s really keeping you from accomplishing your dreams, your plans, and your goals, and what to do about it. I’m more proud of this book than I am of the first volume of Operation: Joy, and I can’t wait to put out more.
The thing I’m really super pumped about this year is Nashville’s successful bid for a Major League Soccer team. I’ve said for years that the only thing Nashville was missing for me was MLS. And now here it is! It may not seem like much, but this is a big win for my adopted home. After all, it was barely five years ago that our only semi-pro team, the Metros, folded. And it was within that vacuum that Nashville FC – the first ever supporter-owned club in America – came to be. I was part of that – I was one of the “founding” members and did a lot of their early videos. From there we got a USL team, which upon being awarded the bid, was a tier 3 league. Between that time and now, USL has been promoted to tier 2 – just under MLS. And before we’ve even taken the field, we’ve been promoted to MLS.
But that wasn’t a sure thing. In fact, it was a long shot.
We put in our bid to MLS with eleven other teams back in January of this year. At the time, we were considered the least likely of all the teams to get rewarded expansion. By late summer, we were considered top 7, as other teams – some themselves considered “sure things” – couldn’t get their act together. When Metro approved a soccer specific stadium (contingent upon being awarded a team) back in November (a requirement for entry into MLS), we immediately launched to the official final four considerations. From there, Detroit couldn’t get a stadium resolution passed, Cincinnati (long considered top two for having 35k+ fans per game to their USL matches) found themselves facing the same problems, and Sacramento (thought to be the easy first choice since day 1) saw its majority ownership change hands.
Suddenly, we looked mighty attractive.
So it was that on December 20, 2017, MLS came to Nashville and awarded us the team. From last to first. That’s an amazing story!
It’s going to be fun enjoying Nashville SC games over the coming years, from USL to MLS and beyond!
This is very illuminating and inspiring. Often times I feel like I can’t get out of my own way. Like I slow my own show down and overthink, over-prepare or over step. But then I see what this city did with MLS – going from barely a mention to the top consideration – and I know that with hard, smart work, an ability to surround myself with a good team of valuable and trustworthy people, I can go places.
That knowledge is a wonderful Christmas gift, indeed! And I can’t wait to see what I do with it in 2018!