Real Talk On DJ Gear And Growth

New Studio And Sponsor Shoutouts

SPEAKER_01 0:17

What's up everybody and welcome back to Beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. I'm one of your co-hosts, Joe Bunn. That's the other co-host, Brian B. We are in the new lab, the new studio, the new digs in Raleigh, North Carolina. Finally. Yeah. Finally. After three months literally of dicking around with this place, and I still don't feel like I'm still sitting here making notes on how to make it better. Yeah. But it's better than what you had. Bro. And I own it. And I own the one next door. And I'm charging rent for it. And that's a boss move right there.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Very proud. Well, this podcast is now presented by Lead Excess. Go on. Which helps established multi-ops turn more leads into booked consultations. Okay. Which hopefully leads to booked business. But which leads to money.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

That leads to money.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Look, I think that there's some misconception about like this thing is just a chat bot, and it's so much more than that. As a user myself, I would call ourselves, I would call us power users at Bun DJ Company. Randy really runs the system uh and sees these conversations that are taking place, but it's so much more than just like a chat bot.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

I mean, saying that we have AI, it's kind of old news. Exactly. Wow. I've got Google. It's like everybody, yeah. Yeah. So you have to have AI. But what I think that Lead XS does, and Craig and his people there is now, I feel like we've been on over a year. So uh multiply at times however many customers, customers they have, which I don't know the answer to that. And at the end of the day, man, I mean, there are definitely other types of programs that do this, but no two systems are alike. And uh how many can say that they are literally trained uh by and for DJs? Like this is something that that we as private event DJs are using. Yeah, I mean that experience is really the advantage of this system. A thousand percent. Same reason you and I use DJ Event Planner. Yep. It I mean, there's 8,000 CRMs out there.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

And that one just happens to be made by DJs for DJs.

SPEAKER_04 2:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

So check them out.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Yeah, check them out. Leadxai.com.

Patreon Thanks And Road Show Plans

SPEAKER_00 2:37

We skipped the Patreon last episode in shouting out some of our new members, and we've had a plethora. A plethora, he said, of those joining us. Okay. And so we gotta like shout some of these people out. I'll do the first one here. We have John Walker. Is this Ackworth? It looks like it. Georgia. Shout out John Walker. Who we got next? Woo! I love to save these for you. I think you can get the aka part. Uh Jacques.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

AJ AKA DJ Sandström. Not Sandstorm. Sandstorm.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

From Sunsval, Sweden.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

You were close, weren't you? Were you in Switzerland?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Is that close to Sweden? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

You're in the sphere, though. You're in Europe. Right? Yeah, I was definitely in Europe. So another country added to the list of uh Europe is kind of starting to blow up a bit here. Blow up. It looks like it's a shit show over there right now. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Let me tell you where you don't want to be right now, Paris.

unknown 3:36

Totally.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Unless you want Louis Vuitton, real Louis Vuitton goods right off the street. Yeah. And our third uh one we're gonna shout out, Chris Byers. Shout out Chris Bryant Byer. Hickory, North Carolina. Isn't that like near Highlands? I believe it's like it's out there. East Carolina's three and a half, four hours from here. Yeah. Me and Saquon go every year and do this uh art um museum galaxy out in Hickory?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yeah. I know they have a general store out there that is pretty popular because it's like a farmer's market deal. Okay. Every time I go to Highlands, we like stop in Hickory. Hickory. Yeah. Well, we floated the idea of going to different cities, taking this podcast on the road in 2027. Okay. So I wanted to expand on it slightly. Okay. I've been doing these corporates, and it's a very similar model. They take basically their panels similar to a podcast, and they take it on the road to different cities, and they have conversations with the local, uh, in this case, medical uh personnel. And one of the ways, and you had talked about this a little bit on the last episode about how they make this work is using the people who are in the towns to find the venues, find some of the resources that would be necessary. So although we haven't completely fleshed it out, I would just like to say today that if anybody would like to see us in their city with the show and you feel like you have the connections or the spots where maybe we could film this in, maybe you have a good reputation with other DJs in the area, please send us a DM through Instagram or socials, I guess, would probably be the best place. Or put it on the, I don't care anywhere. We'll look at it, we'll find it. But if you think that you would be the person to head that up in a city for us, let us know. I mean, we haven't uh again fleshed out exactly what the needs are. We've got some ideas, but if you're like, hey man, this sounds kind of fun. I'd love to be able to like help you guys out. We're looking for some people who would be boots on the ground.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

If you're one of those people in your market that's a dick, though, and everybody hates, please don't contact us. I don't want to have to sort through who's a dick in the market and who is the uh the alpha. So

Everse 8 Wins And Misses

SPEAKER_01 5:50

if you're a dick, please uh stand down. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Great segue, because we're going to off the record. Speaking of dicks. So let's get let's hit the off the rec record.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Uh off the record, let me talk my sugar honey ice tea. They throw a shade while I'm sipping on this ice tea. Don't care if you hate on like me. You know why? Cause that's just how I see. I'm gonna say what I want to say. Time to rent and ready, get out the way.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

All right, dude. So I'm not gonna call you out on this, but you last time we were in Florida together, you were like, bro, you gotta get these uh things. And you gave me a laundry list of things I needed to get, one of which was the everse eight speaker. All right. So I now usually I would do my research, but you've been pretty spot on. So I go get what you tell me to get. I go get these two speakers, okay, bring them in out of the box, put them on, and uh I would say they're I mean, they're light compared to what I was using, the sound quality is better. Two misses for me uh on the everse eight. Okay, go on. Number one, no hard mute button on the actual unit. Now I'm assuming you are using the iPad or phone app to mute something. The reason why I bring it up, efficient mic. Okay, I want it on completely and have a mute button to turn it on or off. Usually I can app yeah. See, I I didn't like the fact I had to even download an app. Why don't you have that on the speaker? If something goes wrong with the app, it should be a hard mute button on the actual unit.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Because you would have to tap the button and then crank it all the way down to minus 50 or whatever to get. That's what I'm having to do. Because I'm using my iPad to control the music. You can still do it for both. The music and the split the screen. I just need to show you how to do that. That's what we were doing. When we were doing that rig, we were supposed to do that.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Yeah, if you if you yeah, you gotta have the app. Speaking of, we got the studio uh engineer room now.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Are you ready for it?

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Setting your camera back there, or are we? No, no, I I gotta I gotta set it up. You know, the new Osmos you gotta set it up, but it it's coming soon. It's coming soon.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Saquon Saquon camera will be coming soon.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

So I didn't know there was an app needed. That's a bummer that I didn't I mean they don't advertise that. I don't want to say it's needed, but I see what you're saying. And the second thing with that is if you are using the little my mini screen on the everse eight itself, it is hard to read in the sun. It's not good in the sun. I was like, is there a brightness thing? Right.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

No, this is true.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

And then the third issue I have with this e-verse eight things, yeah, is you don't have an RCA, you have a mini jack input into it unless you Bluetooth. And I don't like the Bluetooth. I personally do not like the Bluetooth because I've had it drop out before. I'm nervous. We're talking about a ceremony here. I want to be hardwired. Do you Bluetooth everything?

SPEAKER_02 9:03

No, they have they have a line in, they have an eighth inch. An eighth inch. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Who has an eighth-inch connection? Who's using an eighth-inch connection? I gotta buy a special cable for this one speaker. Like, have an RCA, like at the very least. Like, who makes these decisions and goes, This is a great idea for a DJ? Let's add one more wire that I gotta go buy. That's a specialty cable. Like, these are basics to me. So, anyway.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

I think to be fair, to be fair, me and you that day did not do the ceremony. I was in Florida. Right, we did not. I thought you were gonna use these for the fills instead of the 50s. And they are great for that. So I, in my mind, we're just going, okay, this eliminates the jackery. Right. You're going battery powered, you just take your wireless transmitter or receiver and stick it up on top. Yep. You stick it in the corner on a tripod and you're good. Right. U that to be fair, that's what I thought you were using them for. But you use these for your ceremonies. We do, but now we have that little cart with a bunch more gear in it and the Allen and Heath uh SQ12T or whatever it's called. Like, so we we I don't want to say we graduated from that, but because we did that for three whenever they came out, we've been doing it off the back of the speaker forever, but we did split the iPad screen that had a mount on the tripod. Half of it was the mixer for the EV, and then the other half was the music, the DJ app.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Got it. All right. So I'm not terribly disappointed with it. I think the sound quality is good. I do want to ask you one more question about it though. Because I have used it as fills. Yes. And this the battery life doesn't seem to be past four hours. Like I it's it's died on me twice. And I've had it fully charged. This isn't me just like, you know, taking it in there. I mean, I've had it charge. And speaking of charging, I also feel like that's also kind of a miss. Like, I don't really know, like I wish there was a percentage. It just shows the battery, like actual, like how many per like rings it is, but I don't know if it's a hundred. I don't know if I'm at 95. I don't know. I'm just kind of guessing. I wish it would say 100%. Like the Jackeries do. Yeah, so at least I know.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Anyways, you know what, man? We don't ever use them that long, I guess. I don't know that I don't know that we have used them past four hours. Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Kind of defeats the purpose of it being battery powered if it's not gonna be wet. And it's it's a fill. I'm not that concerned about it.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

It's not like cranking it, are you?

SPEAKER_00 11:26

No, no, no, no. It it it definitely two gigs, and these were more than four hours worth. Yeah, it's it's died. And I was like, that's weird. I'm surprised that the battery life wasn't that good. Um, but anyways, overall, I'm pleased. But there were some misses. I should have done some more research.

Shipping Issues And Missing Parts

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Also, sorry, I ordered some things from uh Hollywood DJ. Okay. And I things were not in the box that I ordered. Like certain like screws and different things, not for this. I'm talking about some other things. Um, in fact, actually, those Ever stands that I got from you, the white ones, the top of it was like kind of deformed. The it wasn't like the plastic piece on it. Yeah. So I call him up. I'm like, dude, I mean, it's not a big deal. It still fits on there, it just doesn't look great. I'm like, I mean, it's not his fault. It came from the manufacturer like this. I don't think this was a shipping issue, you know what I mean? And they're like, Well, dude, we can't send you a I mean, a brand new one. Let's just give you some money back, basically, which I thought was better than nothing. You know what I mean? They don't offer me anything, right? So, but it was frustrating to have two things come from them. And again, I don't not blame in the store, it just things were not in the box, and I had to like jerry rig these things, just kind of frustrating. You hope that you have everything when you order something and it comes in, and sometimes those things don't always come to do we have that problem with Bun Gear.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

I mean, and and ninety I'd say 10% of the time it was something at the factory, 90% of the time it was UPS fucked it up. Oh, they did oh standing on them to get to the top shelf in the van, right, dropping them, throwing them on people's porches. Like, I mean, the thing is aluminum and it's industrial, but Jesus Christ, man, you can't jump up and down on it.

Dealing With Online Comment Hate

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Yeah. What's your rant today? What do you got, man? Man, I think that I probably need to stop monitoring the socials for my different companies. Oh, you're getting the uh just the haters, you know, when you're ads, yeah, the keyboard warriors. And and uh without going too in depth, man, I I I'll just say this. I don't know where the concept of if you don't have something nice to say, just don't say anything at all. Did your mom teach you that when you were a little bit? I mean, I remember the saying. I mean, do you I mean in school they would say and my mom would say it, my dad would probably say it. I I just don't I can't I see things every single hour that I'm on social that are either cringy, I think they're dumb, I think it's a bad product, and all I do is just flip to the next thing. I don't there's not one bit of me that like is gonna stop and comment. And sometimes I'll wake up first thing in the morning and I have this thing that aggregates from all of my different things into one page. So it'll be like you have 25 comments, and it'll again it'll be all the Bun Gear comments, all the Joe Bun comments, all the Where you've been tagged? It's called um where I've where somebody has commented on any post on anything that I've made.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Seems aggressive.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

It's aggressive, and I have to be in the right headspace. And sometimes I go after people. You're not just deleting. Are you deleting these people? I I have been told multiple times by people to delete and move on. Right. Block, because you can actually block and delete and move on. But sometimes, man, if y'all catch me in the wrong mood, I'm gonna fucking make you cry. And and if it gets and if you try and clap back again, I'm gonna get personal. That's when I'm gonna start looking at your page. I'm gonna go after you, your mama, your mama, your family. Like I'm telling you, man, I've hit the wall with some of these people. I just, if you catch me in the wrong mood, I'm I'm gonna come after you. And the the audacity of somebody to come after somebody like me that and and act like that I'm overcharging, price gouging, blah, blah, blah. After all that I've created, done. We ain't made shit doing this podcast for two years. Right. And here we sit. And here I just spent tens of thousands of of my own money to build the studio to keep pushing out content. YouTube, zero dollars. Every week, you got a brand new video. Like and for them to have the audacity to come at me and act like I'm price gouging, or they that my margins are crazy, or we're running it up on people. It's just it's mainly to bungear people. Right. If you can't afford the booth, don't buy the booth. Right. Just keep scrolling. By the buy the Amazon shit, buy the buy the competitor thing. Like just move on. Right. I I just people come at me, man, and it is wild. I'm sure. It's wild. Like, I'm gonna send you some of them, and you're gonna be like, is that guy for real? Yeah. Anyway, man, come up and say that shit to me in the next conference you see me at, and then we'll get into it. How about that?

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Let's go positive. Let's move on to some music.

The Shazam Five Music Picks

SPEAKER_00 16:29

We got a new segment today. I'm calling it the Shazam Five. Did I make this up? You made it up, but I made the video. You ready? Jesus. Here you go.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

What's that song? What's that sound? Five little tracks that we had to track down. Brian and Joe, what you recognize. Time to repeat.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

So the concept. The AI King. We were gonna come up with look in our Shazam on our phones, see what tracks were the last five that we shazamed. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

I guess the first question I have is why? Is do do y'all like the do the listeners still Shazam? Or is it just me we're boom? All the time. But you're a boomer. Oh. Are you my 57?

unknown 17:18

No problem.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

I'm not even close. Damn.

unknown 17:23

Damn.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Uh well, let me open it up. Let me open up the Shazam. Okay. Oh, you okay. Yeah. Gotcha. You got a hard wire. I'm Bluetooth. Okay. Bluetooth. So, first one on mine is the song. I heard this in a um, I think it was a store.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

And I I recognized the track, but I couldn't figure out where it came from. I was like, what is this? So here, I'll play a little sample. I just thought it was kind of vibey. Like for me, I was thinking of a corporate walk-in. Yeah. Songs called uh Come With Me, Nora Impura.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

That's the name of the group, Nora, or is it a person?

SPEAKER_02 18:13

I think it's just one girl.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

It might be. I follow her. She's pretty good. She's got a lot of good stuff. Like anything you see that is, you know, put in your corporate crate.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Oh, is it instrumental? We weren't no vocal. Uh no, it's a vocal.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

There are some vocals in there, but it's very he also or she does a bunch of like non-vocal stuff. Okay. Then uh let's see what else I got in here. I was going to I was in New Orleans. I'm doing a New Orleans wedding this weekend style. They want that vibe. I was in the airport. I'm doing it in Florida, but they are from or they want a New Orleans style sound. Okay. I happened to be last week in New Orleans actually doing a wedding there. I'm at the airport. The soundtrack was fire. And I was like, oh, what is this song that I'm listening to in the airport? And that there's like three of them. So like my last three Shazams are all gonna be like New Orleans stuff. All right. I thought this was fire. I'm actually gonna use it for doors open. See what you think. This is blasting in the airport as everyone's walking off the bridge. Really? I'm like, oh, this is Nora. Isn't that funky? I just thought for doors open. I have a bunch of horn players coming. I was like, this feels New Orleans to me, you know? I love it. So the song is called I Wish You Would. It's by Dumpster Funk. Dempster Funk. Dumpstafunk. Dempster Funk. So I'm waiting for my Uber out there. The speakers are blaring with all these songs. So this is another New Orleans one I hadn't heard of before. Uh hit it. Let's let me hit it. I'm just like, dude, New Orleans is like they've curated it really well at the airport. This is uh a song called Unnecessarily Mercenary by John Cleary. Never heard of this guy. Clearly. Clearly? Oh, I think it's a misspelled, clearly.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

It's kind of vocal, but it just sounds New Orleans. And I was just aggregating these because I thought I don't know if I'm gonna use them at this wedding, but I just want to see if any of them are in there. And then the the last two here, this is uh a whole lot of soul. This is by um Tab Bignet Benoit Benoit, I don't know. Airport with soundtrack with fire. I actually know this guy. Never heard of him.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

What's the matter with the place we live in?

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Now I'm gonna use all these for the gig though. I'm just trying to get a feel. Yeah. So as I'm doing research, I can put these into Spotify. Right, right. And just like see if they if if that makes sense. And the last one, I hadn't heard this one either. This is by the Isley brothers. This is take me to the next phase. You know this song? Never heard of it either. Isley's oh yeah. The keyboard bass. So those are the five I got. I don't know if I'm gonna use them all, but I was. Trying to get some inspiration while I was there in town to use for this wedding that I knew was coming up. Feeling it. What do you got?

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Uh I my concept was a little more raw. I I was just saying, like, you just have to pull it up and you can't curate it like you did. Because like I have a feeling you had like tampon commercial songs.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

No, these are these are my last five. These are the last five I've done. I don't use this all the time. I don't use it regularly. I don't either.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Uh listen. Had to be uh hopefully these play. Is this play? Take one. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 22:36

Oh, yes I very similar style.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Yeah. Who is this? Les Paul. I think the guy that makes the guitars with Eric Clapton and Sam Cook. Sam Cook's one of my favorite singers of all time.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Where'd you hear this? Do you remember where you were? It's in a store.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

He's definitely in a store. All these are usually stores. Where at City were you? Any idea?

SPEAKER_00 22:59

I probably should show you the date. I was in New York.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

I was in New York going to see Harry's. Random. I wouldn't expect that.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Me neither. At a store. In New York. I feel like they're a little bit more sophisticated.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

No offense. Okay, no, I take that back. I take that back. October 2nd. Give me a sec. Now it's it's oh, I was in Zurich. I was in Zurich. They're playing that in another country. Yes. Interesting. The most American song there can possibly be. Uh this one, September 23rd, two days before my birthday, was definitely in. And I I know this song. I love this group, and I just spaced on this, but I love uh Rufus DeSol. Oh, I love Rufus. The Inner Bloom.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

What remix is this? Is this the song? This is the original? Yeah. Yeah, the song goes. It just it's so like it just takes forever to get into it.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

It does, but it's just But if you have the right crowd, I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

It's a great listening one, too.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I just ride in the car. Yeah. Or in the morning when I don't want to be like overloaded. You don't want popping. Then this one, I was like, man, again, New York, it looks like. And I was in a store, and I then I'm like halfway into the Shazam, and I'm like, I feel like Brian B already put me on. Oh, Cienna Lee. No, CNN Spiro.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

I think you put us on to that like a few weeks ago.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Yes. Great vocal.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

I step by side and I see what's happening. She's so good. Uh, from the Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack, Material Lover.

unknown 24:34

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Next one. Uh, Leon Thomas, the guy that does that song Mutt. Yeah. This one's called Yes It Is. Also at a store. This was in August Saturday, August 8th. Where was it? Jeez, you yeah, you aren't using it much. No, I I'm not a power user. Oh, I was with uh Saquon down in Hilton Head doing a gig at uh You just pulled out the phone. You're just like I don't know. We must have been in the lobby or something. Interesting. No, we were at a restaurant. We went to a restaurant, I think. And then the last one, number five, is this one. Alma and Brent Fayez need it back. Never heard of it. When did it come out? Any idea? So Brent Fias is fire. Yeah, I like that guy.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

So I like it. Yeah, we have a nice little selection there. We'll put it up on the Patreon. Well, Patreon action. If you're not a member of the Patreon, patreon.com slash beyond the DJ Booth Podcast.

unknown 25:44

What the fuck are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Dude, get in the Patreon. Let's move into story time.

Hurricane Reschedules Refunds And Contracts

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Story time.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

So man, I've had a doozy of a of a of a travel schedule, but then also what I did not want to have happen hurricane. Hurricane. My dad used to call them hurricane. Hurricane. Dude, the area that we service out in Florida, uh, I mean, they're prone to them, but we haven't ever had one. When I lived there, we had zero. Wow. I had just missed it. And uh, I guess that you had an oil spill, though. Oh, we had an oil spill, yeah. That was nasty. So shout out Exxon. I'm this is happening October 10th. Okay. Our bit one of our busiest weekends. Of course, as it should be. Yeah. So we had six events going on that weekend. I'm in Miami with you at Malik's thing. And uh I get pinged that, hey, storm's coming our way. And uh you probably should change a flight because um they are shutting. I was gonna I was scheduled to like sleep in, enjoy Miami, hang out with you for a little bit longer, go get some lunch. And they were like, airport's shutting down at like six o'clock at night. So you need to be here before then. And I think I was scheduled to come in at seven. I'm like, well, clearly they're not gonna keep my flight, they're not gonna like cancel it. And uh got canceled while I'm at Malik's thing. Yeah, I'm like, that's my sign, gotta get out of here. Yeah. So, anyways, went back to the hotel, called the airport. I'm sorry, the airlines, and boy, that's a if you don't have status, you're host because it's uh the hour-long wait to finally talk to somebody because did you even have an hour? Oh, yeah, because I wasn't on Delta, I was on some other airlines. You have status. I do, and usually that's why having it makes a difference, right? So change my flight, leave at like 5 30 in the morning. I gotta go up to freaking Baltimore from Miami to come back to Florida. It's like just the route southwest. Thank you, thank you very much. Anyway, um, while I was at Malik's thing, one of the wedding planners calls me on the business line, which isn't my cell phone, it's actually like an actual line. She does ring my cell phone, but anyway, uh, and she leaves a message saying, Hey, um storm's not looking great. We're thinking of rescheduling to a different day. Uh, we'll have to talk through some options. Well, by the time I left Malik's thing, actually, I stayed pretty late. I stayed to like midnight, and then I bounced. And I'm like, I call her. You were there that late? Yeah, right when we went inside. Okay. You were blabbing with a bunch of other people and refilling the drink, man. Refilling refilling the cup. That's what I do. So I go, so I uh so I'm not gonna call her at midnight, you know, it's like too late. Yeah. Now I'm on a 5 30 a.m. flight. I'm like, I can't call her in the morning. I'll just deal with it when I get to Florida. Okay. So we're in Baltimore, it's like eight o'clock in the morning. I'm like, yeah, it's still too early. It's like seven central, which is where they're at, you know, where she's at. So I get on the plane and uh they have a like a countywide meeting to make the determination of whether they're gonna have mandatory evacuations. Wow. While I'm on the plane. And uh my phone blows up. Everybody they they they have the emergency evacuation, which means that any venue, any business can't operate. They basically shut you down. And it you can get severe fines or whatever, who knows?

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Shut down.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

Yeah. All hell breaks loose. So um they uh I get a text from or I'm sorry, the the planner leaves me a voicemail who's and she says, Hey, we've moved the wedding to Monday. Not consulting me. Not this is what we're doing. And I'm like, I can't do it on Monday. I have to be somewhere else. Like, what are you thinking? Um, I'm just shocked that it was somebody who's a little green, so I think that's part of it. Anyway, get in and my other weddings have issues, um, all of them. So my my Friday wedding decides to reschedule. They may even make it an anniversary party. Who knows? We don't know when that's gonna happen. But that was on my Friday. That was my Friday one. My Saturday one, personally, the one that I was doing, well, they decided they were gonna do it anyways. And they're not gonna do it at the venue, they're gonna do it at a beach house and they're just gonna make it whatever. Now, the problem I was facing was I was staying in a place that has a bridge. And the problem is when you have hurricanes in the water and the wind, especially, they shut those bridges off. So you I probably couldn't even get there. But I'm like, hey, I tell the planner, if I'm here, I'll figure it out. I'll try to get there as best I can unless I get stuck. You know what I mean? Take a boat, yeah, swim it out. Yeah, versus eight on your back. And then um, we had one on Sunday, and the Sunday one punted to December.

unknown 30:39

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

So I have no reason to really stay because my Friday one has punted, my Sunday one is. I was this is the weekend I was doing a triple bro, and the Saturday one's doing one at a house. And I'm just like, I don't even know if I can get there, anyways. So I call a planner and say, hey, I know I said I was in, but I'm like, this weather's changing by the minute. So I think I'm gonna uh not be able to make it because I I just don't know what's gonna happen and I gotta be safe and I have to be somewhere on Monday. The airport's shutting, I don't know when it's gonna reopen. And if it has significant damage, I'm hosed. Yeah. So um she goes, I totally get it, no worries. So what ends up happening is the guy who they scheduled it for Monday, that was actually Jamie Perez's event that she was coming out to work for me. Well, she has an event on Tuesday morning as well. But you dragged her ass all the way down there. And I told her I was like, hey, it's not gonna happen. It's happened on Monday. She's like, I can't do Monday. I have an event at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. I'm like, there's no flights. I'm gonna get me in time. So I tell the planner, hey, listen, unfortunately, you scheduled this without checking with us. We don't have availability. Now I'm happy to make them a playlist, I'm happy to like um pump this or whatever. She communicates this to the client directly. So this is my squeaky wheel. He calls me while I'm at the airport that same day because now I've I've already been I left at 5:30 in the morning. It's now like three o'clock, and I've made a flight to go back home at this point because I know I'm not gonna stick around. And same with Jamie. So we both make flights to go back. And while I'm at the airport, this groom calls me and he basically gives me the right act while Oh shit. Because the planner told her, told him this isn't gonna be a problem. Uh just get Brian to do it on a Monday. Totally. And I had made the disclosure to the planner, like, listen, I have an event on Tuesday. Well, this guy, you know, he's emotional, right? Obviously. Uh weddings on Monday, you've had to move it, all the things changing. And he goes, Well, it's not my fault that you have a wedding or something else going on on a Tuesday. Like, you it's your it's your problem to figure out how to get there. Like, came at me like that. Wow. Damn. And I'm at the airport and there's like, you know, chaos because everyone's trying to get out. Absolutely. And I'm trying to talk over the freaking gate agent who's making all these announcements. So I'm just like, I can't get upset with this guy right now because that will just escalate the situation. So I go, hey, listen, I know emotions are crazy right now. I said, I'm trying to get back, but you know, this isn't because, you know, yes, we have an event on Tuesday, but that doesn't have anything to do with this. Like, if I'm not available on Monday, I'm not available. I just gave you the disclosure just to be completely transparent.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

But I have to be there on Monday. Like, I can't be there on Tuesday at 7 a.m. And so basically he's like, Well, I want a full refund. This is on the call. So I'm like, well, I need to look at what our expenses are. I need to look at what our contract says because I haven't looked at it in a while with all the stuff. Well, it's buttoned up, very buttoned up. So I don't owe him a thing. Even force majeure doesn't matter. Like it's it's it's in there that we don't anything. So, anyways, I go home, I send him an email after looking at the expenses, and I'm upside down because now I've had to spend almost $1,500 in margin that I wasn't expecting to buy another flight to go get another Uber. So basically there's nothing in there, and I pay Jamie on top of that her money because it's not her fault. Yeah, this happens. Yeah. So I go take her money out of it. I'm still like a little bit under. So I said, I'll um I said, here's the margin. 300 bucks is what I have to work with. I'm happy to send you $300 as a refund. I don't have to, but I'm willing to do it. Yeah. Wasn't having it. Oh. So he said, I want the full, so he I can tell he chat GPT this, sent me this response. I've checked with my attorney, da da da. And we want the full refund. $3,000 was what the charge was. So I said, not gonna happen. Um I said, I will up it from $300 to $500. That's my final offer. Because I feel pretty good about my contract. Yeah, yeah. He's gotta fight it in Florida. By the way, the contract also says you have to do mediation before you even get to a court. Right. So I've got a lot of layers between now and then, and all you're gonna do is waste your money for what? And time. Yeah. And I'm like, well, let's just see what he comes back with. So then he said, absolutely not. 1,500 is where I want to be. And I said, not gonna happen. So where is it now? So we settled for a thousand bucks.

unknown 35:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Which not not what I wanted, but I'm like, I don't want to be going to court or deal with this. And it's gonna come with some terms of like an agreement that says you can't disparage us, a bunch of other things in there to make sure that this doesn't get brought up and whatever. And I felt like it was a small enough price to pay, even though I'm gonna be underwater on it at a thousand dollar refund, whatever. Yeah. Two other scenarios. My Saturday that did it in the house, they had event insurance. Thank God. Everybody should get it.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

And I'm telling I'm gonna tell every client who books in October there was a new thing I'm gonna start doing. If your event is in October, yeah, get invent insurance. Yeah. The problem is I don't know how event insurance works. I don't either. Exactly. So they tell me, hey, we need to submit paperwork for the claim. What are you gonna be giving us back? And I'm thinking to myself, well, wait a minute. If you have event insurance, you don't need anything back. That's what the insurance is for. Right. You should be getting a full refund.

SPEAKER_03 35:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

But then I'm thinking, okay, well, maybe they have to ask legally what the company is willing to do because they're gonna make up the difference. I'm just guessing. I have no idea. So let's say like the bill was $5,000, right? If I say I'm giving you half, they're not gonna give you the full refund because you've already gotten half. They're gonna cover the difference. But if I give you nothing, yeah, they should make up the difference. Right. The planner tells me they're not interested in a credit because that could derail their claim because I'm actually giving them something back. Something back. So it's actually better than I say, I'm not giving you anything. Yeah. You know what I mean? Right, right. But I don't want to be a jerk about it either. Right. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, you know, so, anyways, that one's ongoing. Then the third scenario was we had an efficient service booked. And they the the planner reads sends me an email saying the venue has decided to give them a complete refund due to force majeure. So the client is asking what you're willing to do, which is such a jerk move because we don't have the same business as a venue. They're not counting on this revenue. I mean, they're counting on it, but like they make their the venue make is a hotel. They're making their money on rooms. You know what I mean? To have a wedding, yes, it's a hurt, it hurts them a bit, but their whole business model is not the same as mine. No, right? So I'm like, why are you painting me against the venue now to be the jerk who's not going to give them anything or potentially not give them anything because of this, you know? And our margins are pretty thin on on efficient services, anyways. We don't really make a lot of that. And so we paid the guy, you know, already. And I said, listen, there's no margins there. Yeah. I'm sorry, you know, but that's just how we roll. We don't have that available to you to to give. And you know, it is what it is. Now, out of all those six events, one of them decided to still go. I don't know how they got this through the venue and all that. Our DJ was a rock star, he's a local guy. Yeah, he didn't know this coming in that they had no power at the venue. Oh he doesn't have Jackeries. Oh no. So he's got battery-powered speakers. I'm guessing Everse 8's. I don't know what he was using. Oh Lord. So he comes to the venue, the venue tells him, Hey, listen, uh, we're moving it outside because it comes six o'clock, you won't be able to see anything inside. We don't have any way to like, we have hot boxes. We're having to bring the food in. Like, there's nothing for us to we we can't do it inside. So he's like, Listen, I have my my computer fully charged. I guess his controller is battery powered. I don't I don't really know how he did that part of it. He's like, I'll let it go as long as it will go. And that's what happened. They ran it for four hours, and they had the time of their life out there, and they used for lighting because there's no light, there's no power. You had DJ lights, up lights or something like that. He had a little bit of that, and they had glow stack glow wands that he gave out. Holy shit. And they gave us a glowing review. Great. A tip to the DJ. Yeah. And I go, dude, you just like did something that I you didn't have to do. No. Like he him even getting there was gonna be an issue. Absolutely. But they he did it, he ran it until it was core memory. It it dry bled dry. Yeah. There was nothing left. He made it in core memory. So, anyways, hurricane weekend beyond us. But I guess the lesson is make sure your contract's buttoned up. I think the other thing I learned through this, Joe, is that every situation, you can't have a blanket policy for all of these. These are all individual events that you have to treat individually with what happened, what the expenses are, what you're dealing with, who you're dealing with in terms of that. Yes, you're and and your contract can be like a hard line, but it allows you to be the hero if you need to be.

SPEAKER_03 39:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

And I was just like, I can't treat all of these the same. There's a different scenarios happening here. And that's what I learned through this was like, hey, listen, I gotta treat these as individual events. Yes, my contract's you know buttoned up, but sometimes you have to make concessions because it's in the best interest for both parties.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

Damn, dude.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Anyway, I hate that you had to go through that, especially in October of all the months when all this other shit's going on. Right. Trying to prepare for the collective. That's when, yeah, that's when I hate being a business owner. Totally.

SPEAKER_00 40:04

What about you? What did you

Venue Updates And CO2 Bans

SPEAKER_00 40:05

have going on? This uh you did a wedding at the carriage farm, yeah, allegedly.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

Yeah. Uh pavilion at carriage farm was weekend before the last one. So that was like October 17th. And weird spot. No, I mean, I they always set you up in a weird spot because they want the head table in front of the big fireplace that's in this building. And I kind of was sleeping on it. I had not been there in a little bit. And come to find out, I pull up and now the patio, which is where the cocktails are, is completely covered. So, like it's more of an open-air pavilion. Uh and it was kind of rainy that day. And then in the last, I guess, year, I think they just opened it in May or June. They built a little chapel for the ceremonies. Where is this, Raleigh? Um it is on the very outskirts of Rock. Okay. It's 30 minutes from this office. Got it. And man, gorgeous little chapel. A little boomy, a little echo inside because it's just, you know, concrete floor and wood wood walls. But like after I got there, I was like, and the load-in's super simple. It's all one level. All those three things, the chapel's there, the patio's here, the the barn or whatever, the pavilion is here. I mean, I was like, man, I kind of like I I gotta walk my words back because I can I shit on this place, and it's actually really nice. Yeah. And wedding went great. I for whatever reason, they've banned CO2 there. And along with a handful, a very small handful of places in North Carolina or in Raleigh now are banning CO2. I wonder if they've had a problem. I I don't know. I tried to, you know, one of my DJs plays there all the time. He's really friendly with the owner. I said, just go out there and just ask her if you can fire off a cannon on a Wednesday and just show her that nothing's gonna happen. Like, and he just could not sell her on it. I don't know what I don't know what dissuaded her, but CO2 was banned. That was the only really negative of that wedding. It was a good time. It was a really good time. Yeah. They had custom hats and t-shirts they threw out to the crowd. I thought that was kind of a fun little touch. The merch thing's blowing up. It is. It really is. It said something like the I can't remember, they were Kirkpatrick's, or it said something like the Kirks or something like that. All I got was this lousy t-shirt. I went to the wedding, all I got was this lousy shirt or something. It was fun. It was fun. We had a good time. Let's hit

USB-C Charging Hub For DJs

SPEAKER_01 42:19

the gear segment. All right. The gear's here. The gear is here.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Is here is here, is here, is here, is here, is here, is here, is here.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

So I'm doing these corporates and I need to use a lot of things that are USB-C. Okay. And I was frustrated with the fact that you get like a strip. Like I'm I'm rolling into these gigs, they're providing all the gear. The problem is, so they give me a power strip. I'm like, I'm plugging ten things that are USB-C into the power in here. I need a hub. Yeah. Like a legit hub that actually powers the computers, everything, so I can get rid of all this cable. So I was on the hunt and found this hub here that has 12 charging USB, C, and A. Yeah. And as you can see, the orange, I'll show it on the camera here if you're watching it, are the fast charging ones. Okay. Um, I got it late because this was somehow like took it was through Amazon too. And um it didn't, it's by SAP Kiggs, I guess. Anyway, I'll let you. It's heavy. Got a little weight to it. Uh the one thing I didn't bring the power cable with me, but it's it's not a three-prong, it's a two-prong, which is nice. Yeah. Um but they didn't come in time. And so I ordered a secondary one that doesn't have as many fast charging, um, but it actually has and it has less like that has 12 ports. This has 10. And um, I actually like the one on your left hand better because it's thinner than the other, personally, to travel with. Yeah. So I started using that one first, and the other one I now use on my nightstand. To plug everything in. Eliminates the need. You can plug in your computer, your phone, multiple laptops, and it's going to power it up fast charge.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

They are substantial, man. They've got some weight to them. They don't feel like cheap or chintzy or whatever. So I bought the one foot USB cables.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

Yeah. And I'm going to put them in those. Yeah. Any thoughts on what this would be price-wise? Um $79.95? No. Way less. Way off on that one. Really? $29.95. That's a little bit more fun. Okay. $49. Okay. For the big board. $44.

unknown 44:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 44:37

$5 difference for four X, or what is it? Uh two extra ports. Wow. I think you should get one of these. Yeah. Because even having it like in my DJ booth, I'm plugging all this stuff in. Do you ever?

SPEAKER_01 44:49

I thought it was going to be this thing that I'm getting targeted by. It's a little box and it actually has the little retractable cables, kind of like a like you pull it out and then you click it and it like a seatbelt. Right. I get it. Um all USB-C in a row. But that thing is expensive.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Yeah. The other reason I don't like that is I have something like that, and one of those cables has gone bad on me. Right. This, I don't have to worry about that. As long as I got those little three footers or one footers. That's what I have, those one footers. Plug it in. Yeah. You're good to go. I mean, you're charged like even at the gig, I'm charging my in ear stuff. Like all of that's being charged all the time.

SPEAKER_01 45:23

My phone, my tablets say the the pack the thing that powers that is one of those kind of funny shaped, almost like a figure eight cord. That's not a super common cord on the back of that thing.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

Mine's a uh well, it's yes, this.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

That guy.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

It's not common in the sense that um I mean I have a IEC cable or something.

SPEAKER_01 45:40

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

You gotta have a special thing. But you can get it at no, they they have them everywhere. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

That's five, whatever. You can get them anywhere. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 45:47

But they're the same for both. Right. I did notice that. Yeah. Um, but I like the fact that it's also a double and not a three-prong, a two-prong. Because then you're not stuck trying to fit it into something that's already, you know, yeah, thick. Right. Thick. Thick. Pause. Pause. Let's hit the question of the

Taking A DJ Company Next Level

SPEAKER_00 46:07

day and get out of here. All right.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

Question of the day. Once a DJ company is established and booking consistently, what should the owner focus on next to actually take the business to the next level? From Matthew White, Fresno, California, via the Beyond the DJ Booth Facebook listener group. If you're not a member, find it and join.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

Yeah, this is an interesting one because I feel like every business is so unique. To give you a blanket answer, I don't know this guy's business. Like, is he a volume-driven business? Is he more quality? Yeah. I mean, what is next level to the next level? What does that even mean?

SPEAKER_01 46:50

I don't know. I mean, I think the I mean, yeah, what is the next level? The only next level is more shows or more offices. Or more money.

SPEAKER_00 47:00

Or more money. Right? Most people let me ask you this question. If I could tell you that you could 5x your business without booking more shows, would you do it? And would you consider that next level? 100%. See, most people don't think like that. They think I gotta book more shows to get to that number. And what I'm saying is you change your price, you know. Yeah. You're doing the same thing, right?

SPEAKER_01 47:25

No, doing more shows is never the answer, in my in my opinion. Right. Personally, or adding more DJs or whatever the case may be. I mean, I guess that was gonna be my other thing. That I guess that could be considered next level as well. But then it's just more liability, more bodies on the street, more shit that can go wrong. Right.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

And more ads. More ads. I mean, my my initial thought, if you're thinking of next level, if you're already successful, you say you're established, you're booking consistently, the first thing I like to look at is customer experience. What can I level up there? I love that. Because that doesn't cost you hardly anything. Yep. It's just a matter of re-looking at the stuff. And then the second thing, I'm assuming this guy's a multi-op. I'm just guessing. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_00 48:05

Um, would be how can I, as the owner, get out of the business? Meaning, like limit my stuff of the day to day, and that might mean hiring a salesperson, that might mean an operations guy or a VA of some sort, so that you can focus on like the growing the business stuff and less of the task work. So to me, those would be like the next, and this is just a generic across the board. I don't know this guy's business, you know. And then the third thing would be um pricing. Yeah. Looking at pricing. If I had to say that would be the next level moves for 99% of the businesses out there, those are the things I would focus on. That's what I usually talk to when I've talked to people in the coaching group. They're like, what's the next move? I look at those three things. Price, yeah. Price, experience, and how do you get yourself out of the business so you're not having to do it?

SPEAKER_01 48:58

Yeah, for me, I mean, I guess it would be just because I've had success with it, you know. Do do you want to open more offices? And do you want to run those offices or you know, or do you want to sell those offices and take a percentage of their income? You know, do you have a rock star that wants to move to another market and open whatever Matthew White's DJ service in um San Francisco or whatever?

SPEAKER_04 49:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:23

But again, you know, it's just liability, not you, different person, different set of DJs, more, more, more feet on the street. I mean, I guess looking at it from Brian's standpoint, it's always like if if when you when you lay it out so simply as that, like if I could five extra business and you don't have to do any more shows or hire any more DJs, would you be interested? You know, it's like one of those late night infomercials or like one of those emails you get from a spammer in India. Yeah. I I mean, if it wasn't a spammer in India and it's Brian B, I'd be like, fuck yeah, I'd be interested. Tell me how, you know what I mean? That's what we're gonna work on in the offseason. That's what we're working on. Yeah, sounds good to me.

CRM Sponsor And Closing Thoughts

SPEAKER_01 50:00

Sounds good. Well, it's like uh DJ Event Planer. Yeah, DJ Event Planner is the other one of our uh key lead sponsors. They're really uh great to us. We both use it. Yep. It's been the CRM I've been on for probably a decade now. Uh DJEventplanner.com. If you're running your business wild and and wild and rogue, and you don't have all your leads in one place, you need to look at the DJ Event Planner. Yeah. If you're raw dogging it. Raw dogging it is crazy. You got to get a CRM, guys. What are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 50:34

We'll see you guys next week.