28th February 2020 //
Hey everyone!
It's our 8th birthday!
Usually whenever we celebrate another year of being online, we tend to have a big party and announcement.
And we are going to have one of those this time too, just not today.
In a couple of weeks we will be lauching something we haven't done before, so please keep an eye on our socials to make sure you don't miss it.
But let's have a chat.
We have been a little quiet around here for quite some time and instead of throwing something exciting out there, I wanted to sit down and tell you why we haven't been the loudest and busiest.
It felt more right to just have a chat for our eighth birthday, after all - with age comes wisdom.
So, in 2019 we slowed down a bit, for multiple reasons.
The most obvious one would be the making of the magazine. Since it was just Chris and myself, creating 80 pages of content did take up a lot of our time. While the designing and strategizing mainly happened in the late hours, our days included researching, scheduling, writing and emailing.
Once the mag was out, I found myself in a weird headspace. We got so much wonderful and heartwarming feedback from readers, labels and the artists themselves, and trust me, I was bawling my eyes out reading them.
But I felt like I didn't let myself enjoy it was much as I should've - once it was out, I was wondering what was next - instead of enjoying what just happened.
And I think a lot of us can relate to that, afterall it's sort of what social media tells us. We post one thing, seconds later it's kinda already forgotten and we need to work on the next. That's a weird dynamic.
Sure, you can't blame social media for everything, and certainly I don't want to - I wouldn't have HITS if it wasn't for the internet and social media.
But in a way this led to feeling a little paralysed. Who knew "Perfection leads to procrastination which leads to paralysis." actually rang true? (We probably all knew.)
As for me, posts started performing a little less successful than before and it terrified me. Instead of realising that that's because our readers have lives and also see so many other posts in their feeds, I spiraled into a loop of "nobody cares" and "nobody wants this".
So I kinda lost myself to the pressure of performing well in the algorithm - and if I have learned anything it's "don't do it, kids!". Seriously, don't do it. Create what you want to create and know that there probably are a ton of people who care.
Of course you need to keep an eye on numbers if you want to lead a business, that's part of it and that's good- but don't let those numbers control you. And don't take them personally, whether they are up or down.
You might be able to tell that I'm writing this with a lot of hindsight and that's truly thanks to a handful of close friends.
So as mentioned way above, (I've really typed up a storm there, haven't I?) we have something coming up. It's not completely ready to launch just yet and instead of rushing out something half done, we'd rather wait a few more days.
And I want to end this post by saying thank you.
It's something I try to do regularly, but I just want to make sure you all know how thankful I am that you care enough to even click on this link.
The past eight years have been a wild ride and I've been lucky enough to work with some of my heroes thanks to HITS.
To every artist, label, publicist, manager, tour manager and crew member we've ever interacted with - thank you, getting to navigate through this madness alongside all of you is an absolute treat.
To everyone who has ever read a piece, watched a video or liked a post on social media - thank you, your interest and love for new music is so inspiring and we wouldn't be here after all these years without you.
Here's to however many more years to come!
Thank you for your visit!
Credits // Words & Graphic: Vanessa Jetwash
