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What's The Big Deal About 20K Anyways?

Featuring TikTok talk, A Shane Profitt interview, Alan Jackson fandom, and more.

Setting intentions is the act of stating what you intend to accomplish through your actions.

I don’t believe in making vision boards or wishing that stars align in my favor, but I do believe in setting intentions.

In January, I made a list of all the high-level goals I wanted to accomplish this year, both personal and professional. I’ll admit here and here alone that ‘getting to 25,000 TikTok followers” made that list.

I crossed the 20,000 follower mark a little over a week ago, and I’m chugging ahead at a rate of about 1100 new followers per week. That number can change quickly if a video takes off, but I never count on that.

Here are some things I learned after hitting 20K:

Stop reading the comments.
Only do it as long as it’s fun.
Set reasonable goals.
When achieve those goals, celebrate them. Yes, every time.
If you obsess over the numbers you’ll never have fun.

I should hit 25K this month, and I’m still excited to celebrate with my wife.

The next goal? I’m still figuring that out. This idea has taken me further in seven month that other projects have gotten me after years of work and thousands of dollars. I’m enjoying the ride, and I still look forward to making new content. I didn’t feel that way eight months ago. So this—right now—is a win.

Shane Profitt: Country’s Rising Star Making Waves On TikTok And Beyond

AMIDST HIS BUSIEST YEAR TO DATE, SHANE PROFITT TAKES A FEW MOMENTS TO REFLECT ON HIS JOURNEY, THE STORIES HE SHARES, AND HOW HE SHARES THEM.

You can’t fake authenticity. Try as many country musicians do to sing songs written by other people about lifestyles they don’t know, listeners can always tell the difference between what’s real, and what isn’t. Whether or not they choose to believe the law is an entirely different story, but country is uniquely built, on a sense of authenticity. More than any other genre, the songs, the great country singers, sing touch on the man you should love life and bring us closer together through the relatability of their lyrics. Shane Profitt is the latest in a long line of people contributing to the great American songbook that is country music, and he has many stories left to tell.

In early March, profit was afforded the opportunity to perform for the most influential radio programmers in North America at CRS, an annual event in Nashville Tennessee. He performed his current single “How It Oughta Be,” and spent time shaking as many hands as possible. As he explained to me over the phone last week, “CRS, man, it was so much fun. It was really good to just reconnect with everybody and spend that little bit of time that I could get with everybody there.”

In truth, 2023 is not the first time profit has been to CRS. Before we can share that story, we have to tell you how he met his songwriting hero, Chris Janson.

“I was on a first date with a girl I’ve never been out with,” explained Profitt, “And Chris Janson held the door for me at that sushi restaurant, which is odd because I don’t even eat sushi,” he recounted. He introduced himself to Janson and sent him some songs that night. Two weeks later, Janson offered him to come out on tour with him and open for him, as well as a publishing deal.

When asked if meeting Janson derailed the date, Profitt chuckled. “She thought she knew who it was, but she wasn’t 100%. And when you see somebody like that, you’re like, is it? But I saw those tattoos on his arms. And he was wearing a Bass Pro hat. That’s the version of Chris you want to meet. And you know what? That’s who he is. He’s no different than anyone who listens to his music.”

Janson has played a unique role in Profitt’s success since that fateful meeting. Last year, shortly after getting his publishing deal, Profitt needed help covering expenses. Janson offered Profitt a job involving a mix of farming and music-related tasks. In fact, Profitt drove Janson to CRS in 2022, though he waited in the car while the star performed.

“To actually be inside at CRS this year was really something else,” Profitt adds.

@theshaneprofitt Everyone has a hometown, mine means the world to me, so I wrote a song about it. #unreleasedmusic #newmusic #countrymusic #backhome

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Profitt has been teasing new and unreleased music on TikTok, a platform that has played a significant role in his success thus far. “TikTok gave the underdog a place to stand in country music right now. It has opened so many doors for people that normally wouldn’t have that opportunity,” he explained. “Everyone and their mama is on TikTok. Whether it’s 11 p.m. or the middle of the afternoon, you’re scrolling through before you go to bed or while you’re waiting on a flight in an airport. You can hop on TikTok and, you know, find the next song that changes your life. Something that you wouldn’t have heard otherwise. I think that’s cool, man.”

“Back Home,” Profitt’s upcoming single, is one of the songs you might discover while scrolling through your For You feed. The song references a hangout spot in a Walmart parking lot where he and his friends used to gather growing up in a small town. “Everybody had that hangout spot, whether it be a Kmart parking lot or Walmart parking lot or Kroger parking lot or Big Lots, whatever,” he says. “I remember sitting there with all of my friends in this parking lot, and we’re not doing any harm. These cops would always pull up and run us off. We’d hop in our trucks real fast like we were doing something wrong. It may sound silly now, but that was us.”

This kind of familiar storytelling is what Profitt aims for in his music. “I want it to be very relatable,” he said. “I want to tell those stories because we all have moments and people like that in our lives. It’s a reminder that we’re not that different from one another.”

As for his upcoming album, Profitt didn’t give a specific release date, but he did hint that it would be coming soon. “Think warm weather.”

Profitt’s tour plans are also keeping him busy, with shows already lined up for the year and more being added. He’ll be traveling all over the country and even out of the country to Canada. “Getting to interact with those fans, man that’s what country music is,” he said. “And that’s what I find so much fun about it.”

With his relatable lyrics and relentless dedication to self-improvement, it’s no wonder that Shane Profitt is quickly becoming a rising star in the country music world.

Another Time Alan Jackson Gave a Middle Finger To An Awards Show

@countryminute Living #CountryMusic icon #AlanJackson has infamously fought with the producers of various awards shows throughout his career, and it all began with the 1994 #ACMAwards. Jackson was slated to perform #GoneCountry, but grew upset after being told he had to use pre-recorded tracks. To combat this demand, Jackson had drummer Bruce Rutherford perform with his drumsticks, and you can see the hilarity that ensues in nearly ever shot of the performance. #CountryMusicHistory #ClassicCountry #90sCountry

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Ahead of his high-profile appearance at the 1994 ACM Awards, Alan Jackson was at odds with producers over his planned performance of "Gone Country." Jackson wanted to perform the song live, but producers insisted he use pre-recorded tracks instead.

Always one to put fans first, Jackson went ahead with the performance but asked drummer Bruce Rutherford to play his part without using drumsticks. The resulting visuals make for one of modern history's funniest and most distracting award show performances.