September 26, 2024 • 27 mins
Join us on this inaugural episode of "Beyond the DJ Booth" as we share the unseen challenges and triumphs of the DJ world. From a breathtaking gig in the North Carolina mountains to the personal hurdles like recovering from hernia surgery, we promise you'll gain a new appreciation for the intricacies of being a professional DJ. Discover how to build indispensable relationships within the industry and explore the shifting trends in wedding DJ gigs where traditional formalities are fading, giving way to high-energy dance sets. We recount an unforgettable wedding that focused solely on an extended dance set. Learn how personalized music choices can create lasting connections with clients and hear about the creative use of tracks like a special blend of "Brick House" and "Expresso" by Sabrina Carpenter. Finally, understand the crucial role of professionalism and networking for DJs aiming to make a lasting impact on event planners and vendors. This episode is full of great info...and bad jokes.
RESOURCES & LINKS
Our website. Please leave a review! - https://www.beyondthedjbooth.com/
To book Joe Bunn: https://bunndjcompany.com/
To book Brian B: https://djbrianbofficial.com/
Joe’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djjoebunn
Brian’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djbrianbofficial
DJ Event Planner free demo: https://www.djeventplanner.com/signup.php
Brian B's Coaching Options: Https://www.thdjscreativeedge.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian B (00:15):
what's up everybody.
Welcome to beyond the dj booth,episode one numero uno.
Joe Bunn (00:22):
I don't even think we said the title in the trailer.
I think we pointed to thescreen and then that was it.
Nobody ever referred to thetitle beyond the DJ booth.
And what was inspiration foryou?
I mean, we kind of worked onthis together a little bit right
.
We came up with our own, wedefinitely chat GPT'd it.
I think this was on our own,though I don't think AI have
(00:44):
solved this for us.
The rationale or the reasoningfor the name was we're not
really talking about, likescratching, mixing, right, the
actual art or act of DJing.
It's more about the business ofDJing, I would say the behind
the scenes, like what happenswhen you're not behind the DJ
(01:04):
booth.
So, beyond the DJ booth, thatwas my rationale.
You agreed to the title, so whatare your thoughts on it?
Brian B (01:11):
Well, to your point, I think it I mean in a podcast
format without gear in front ofyou.
Joe Bunn (01:16):
It's hard to like show mixing techniques and all that
stuff.
Brian B (01:19):
So to me it was not just the business, but all the
things we talked about in thetrailer, which is music, all the
other things that we covertravel hacks, possibly war
stories, all these things thatyou hear outside of the booth
when you're coming home from agig or who knows.
Just just you know it wasall-encompassing, vague enough,
(01:44):
but also had a little bit offeel of the DJ booth being like
okay, we're doing DJing, so it'snot going to get lost.
Joe Bunn (01:51):
That's why I mean I definitely like the alliteration
of beyond the booth better.
Beyond the booth just kind ofrolls off the tongue, but I
didn't want people to overlookit.
I wanted to niche down andreally say, look, we're two DJs,
we're talking about DJ.
Stuff Like this isn't about Idon't know what a diner Like.
I didn't want them to be likewhat kind of booth.
(02:12):
You know what I mean.
So I think that, as much as Ireally loved Beyond the Booth, I
feel like adding the DJ partwas pretty essential for what
we're talking about.
I agree, All right, so let'stalk about last weekend.
So I'm, I'm, I'm here, I'mdoing work in the office.
Last weekend, off for a while.
Where are you?
You're you're, you're West?
Brian B (02:33):
bound.
I'm in state I was in which israre for you, right?
Joe Bunn (02:37):
Really rare.
Brian B (02:37):
I live in Raleigh.
I have yet to do a show inRaleigh.
I don't really market toRaleigh, right, you own this
market, so I don't.
I don't really, unless you wantto come work for me, which he
doesn't, yeah no well, I meanhonestly like I have enough
leads outside of the right ofthe triangle, as a traveling man
yeah so, but one market that Ihave been in frequently is
(02:59):
Asheville up in the mountains,yeah, and uh, specifically, I
think it's an hour morenorthwest yeah, right, because
it would.
I definitely was going up amountain like yeah that much,
yeah, yeah, yeah so highlands,specifically and randomly.
I'm on this vendor venue.
Randomly, I'm on this venuelist.
I've never played at this venuebefore first time, so the only
(03:20):
thing I I figured out after theevent was that somebody from
another venue, which I know howI got on that list and played
there.
They worked for this one venuethat I was at this weekend for
like literally two weeks, andput you on it and put me on the
list, wow.
So again it goes back torelationship building.
Why that's so crucial Becauseyou never know where people are
(03:41):
going to go and, who knows, Icould be on this list for six
months, six years, who knows?
You know, just but I haven'tbeen taken off.
Joe Bunn (03:50):
So I get this gig.
Brian B (03:51):
It's beautiful up there right Stunning.
Joe Bunn (03:53):
Dude.
Brian B (03:53):
I took some video posted on my Instagram.
It doesn't even do it justice,yeah.
Joe Bunn (03:57):
North Carolina mountains are next level man.
Totally amazing and you're,you're, you were a little early
for the leaf change, kind oftrue fall, but I mean you were
still there like prime time.
That's why I love this state,man.
I mean I remember when I wastalking to you you were living
in Manhattan.
You were going to Florida.
You were going you know pointswest and I was just like man,
(04:19):
you know you're having a kid,you've got to get out of the
city.
Man, like you should come toraleigh.
It's right in between florida,yeah, and new york.
And you're like, yeah, yeah,maybe I will.
The next thing, you know you'rebuying a house here, but you
see why I've never left.
Yeah, right, you've been to thebeaches here.
Yeah, amazing, you can walk formiles on the beach.
Totally, you can drive fourhours west and be in the
mountains, like there's not alot of states that are this no
(04:41):
unique, I guess yeah, anyway.
Brian B (04:43):
So this gig, I uh, yeah , a lot, of, a lot of things
happen at this event.
You know number one, uh, forthose that I haven't shared this
publicly, really but uh had tohave hernia surgery.
Zero out of five stars.
Do not recommend that in anyform or fashion.
You referenced him on thetrailer, but mike walter yes and
like an og in this industry yessir, your former podcast
(05:04):
partner, yeah, he had had herniasurgery.
Okay, okay.
So the day before the surgery Ifinally think about I should
call mike.
Yeah, give a little insight.
Insight, how's this recovery?
And I knew that I had a weddinglike.
So the surgery happened on atuesday.
Sunday was another wedding, notthis one I'm referencing, right
, uh, so I just want to makesure I'd be okay and I gotta fly
(05:26):
to it.
It was in florida, so I call upmike and in classic mike style
he goes.
I don't want to sound like ahero here, but he's like I did a
wedding the next day.
I'm like you bastard.
Joe Bunn (05:39):
Of course you did so you're like I'm gonna be okay
yeah, so I'm walking in thistotally overconfident, right?
Brian B (05:44):
uh, he didn't give me permission to disclose where his
hernia was, but just say youcan be in different parts of the
body, okay, all right, mine wasnear my stomach, okay, uh,
didn't realize how important thecore is to you yes, right, yes,
it is important the day afterthe surgery and the anesthesia
wears off, I'm like give me thelegal narcotics asap.
There's's no way.
I'm going to make this you knowyou were hurting.
(06:05):
Yeah and uh you literally justlike even if you wanted to lift
things it just doesn't feelcomfortable.
Joe Bunn (06:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brian B (06:13):
So travel hack, number one of this podcast.
I needed an assistant and sinceI don't live in the market, I
don't have assistants workingfor me here locally and I'm like
we got to go five hours.
I don't want to pay forsomeone's hotel.
The cool thing about ourindustry is that we're super
supportive of one another, so Iput out a little note on
Facebook.
(06:33):
Somebody reached out and saidhey, I live about a couple hours
from Asheville area.
I'll be glad to help you there,but I still needed to load the
gear in.
Joe Bunn (06:42):
Here in Raleigh, here in Raleigh, to take it up there,
right, yeah, I could havecalled you, but you would have
been $6 million.
Brian B (06:46):
I don't have that kind of budget, so I was like I was
actually mad.
Joe Bunn (06:49):
You didn't call me.
You came here and I was likebro.
Brian B (06:54):
I would have come over there and loaded your shit up
for you.
Come on, dude.
You would have held that overmy head for so long.
This is terrible, so anyway Igot a u-haul van.
Joe Bunn (07:09):
That's what I do when I don't have a vehicle to carry
everything, and I noticed theyalways try to upsell you.
Brian B (07:12):
They do, that's right.
Do you want boxes, blankets,all of it?
One of them is movers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I go.
Yeah, I do need some movers.
It's just to move it from myupstairs into the van, so they
helped me get everything in thatwas awesome it literally cost
me, I, I think, 175 bucks, butthat's for them to load in and
load out Right.
Joe Bunn (07:28):
So I still want to come home.
I would have taken that.
Yeah, call me next time.
Brian B (07:32):
I would have taken.
Joe Bunn (07:33):
I would have done it for 155.
Brian B (07:36):
And a couple of topos yes and a couple of topo chicas.
Joe Bunn (07:38):
Yes, so that is a humongous travel hack.
If you're not, um, if you'relooking in, you're out of the
area, hurt or just had surgeryor whatever.
Didn't know like you need help.
Yeah, and you know it's you allthey're gonna, and then, but
how did you get the person tohelp you there?
So that's when I did thefacebook uh post.
Right, somebody showed up.
Brian B (07:56):
They helped me out with all of that, um, but this was a
interesting wedding for, beyondthat, just the fact that there
was no formalities yeah, theonly formality was a toast, so
this.
What was weird for me as a djwas looking at the music and
going wait, there's no formalitysongs.
There's no grand entrance, no.
Joe Bunn (08:13):
First that is weird.
No family dances.
Yeah, no cake cut.
I mean a lot of stuff's beencut in the in years past, but
not everything and so you know,I have multiple backups of all
these formalities on differentdevices.
Brian B (08:24):
I'm like I'm not loading anything.
Joe Bunn (08:26):
Right, that's wild.
Brian B (08:27):
So bizarre and for an actual wedding.
Like I've been to cocktailparties and done those but not
for a gig.
Yeah, so that was the firstlike shocker for me is like man,
maybe we're getting to thatpoint soon.
I don't think it's going to goaway like tomorrow.
Joe Bunn (08:41):
No, right away, like tomorrow, no, right.
But I don't know if you've beenfeeling it.
I feel like the formalitieshave been getting cut more and
more.
Brian B (08:49):
Now it's like the cake cut isn't even happening these
days where they don't even wantto announce private, right,
right.
So it's like I'm okay with that.
Literally it's like first danceand two family dances yeah,
you're done, I'm okay with that.
Joe Bunn (08:56):
Yeah, I'm fine with it too sure, sure, yeah.
Brian B (08:57):
So, anyways, that was the first like aha moment for me
.
I'm like this is a differentwedding than I've ever been to
right it's 80 people, soliterally it's a three-hour
dance set um three to four hoursactually, because we finished
around 6 30, we went to about 11, so 10 30 that's long, it's
long.
Joe Bunn (09:17):
Yeah, there's no formalities and 80 people
nothing to break it up.
Brian B (09:20):
You know you lose 20 people.
It's a third of your crowd goneright right, so it's a fourth,
but go ahead you're gonna get meon that one um, but you just
have to be cognizant of uh flow.
You have to be cognizant of yousaid you ripped it.
Yeah, it's the best set I'veever played and I rarely.
Joe Bunn (09:41):
I've never heard you say that like I.
I hear a lot of DJs.
They'll get in line with it.
Brian B (09:46):
I'll rip that there's always sections where it's good
but this literally from start tofinish, was one of my best sets
that I've played that's magicalman that shit right there will
keep you doing it for another 10, 15, 20 years.
Joe Bunn (10:01):
Shows like that where you're just, like dude, I was
feeling it, they were feeling meand, like you said, it's a
smaller crowd, so you have tokeep them there.
Brian B (10:08):
Yeah, right, because it's important yes, right, like
if you hit them too hard wavesyes, you have to kind of mix it
and around and um, they didn'tgive me much to go off of either
.
That was the other thing.
Um, they gave me maybe 10 songs.
They were okay, yeah, nothinglike it was super shocking.
Yeah, yeah, um, but yeah it wasjust one of those things so
musically.
You know, I've been changing myflow on asking questions and one
(10:32):
of the things that I ask now isto tell their story through
music.
I want to find out what aresome songs that are like chapter
markers in your life and Idon't even ask for that many up
to 10 and those have had greatstories with them.
I've never thought that thatkind of a question would yeah,
you know, resonate with people,yeah and they don't have to even
(10:52):
be for the wedding, could bejust in general.
So the lady the bride goes uh,you know, she gave me one of 10.
The only song she gave me wasbrick house, which I haven't had
.
That on the request rightprobably in.
I mean, I literally I thinklast time I've seen on a request
list may have been 10 years agoI just don't get it.
Joe Bunn (11:11):
I don't either.
Brian B (11:12):
Um, not that there's a generation, I think, right yeah,
just I think maybe they're notinto it as much.
That's right.
Anyway, this one's on there andthe story goes that her mom
used to play this at the houseuh, no rhyme or reason, sure you
know, and that was just a songthat stuck in her head.
It was like that's my mom's, oneof my mom's favorite songs,
yeah, so I knew I needed to dropit at the right moment and try
(11:33):
to figure out a way to get outof it too, because I didn't want
to play the whole thing so Ihad a short edit and I guess
what I wanted to share witheverybody listening is that you
know, when you're downloadingtracks I'm always looking at it
like maybe I don't know whereI'm gonna place this track.
I'm gonna download becausemaybe it might be something I
could use, it might go right.
So I found this digs uh blendwhere he took expresso the song
(11:55):
by sabrina carpenter, which issuper hot.
That's super hot and he playedit over, uh, brick house.
Joe Bunn (12:23):
Let's look, can we hear this?
Let's, let's give it a little.
Brian B (12:28):
Let's hear this so what's cool about that is that,
like it, I went out of thechorus of brick house into this
little segue of this, I mean I'min it for like 30, 40 seconds,
pretty much as long as this clipthat we just played, and then
on to something else.
But it was enough where the momheard the chorus she loved it,
yeah and everyone else was likeoh man, we're going retro.
Joe Bunn (12:50):
God, I hope we're not in this set for too long and I
just moved right into this.
We're back into current youknow what I mean.
Oh, that's clean, I'll probablynever play that edit again.
Brian B (12:57):
Yeah, but it was there and I took it just because, who
knows, there might be a spotwhere I could use it, you know
dude, that that I mean I coulddefinitely see using that.
Joe Bunn (13:08):
I mean just again, cause you and I were talking off
air about like I haven't reallyfound the perfect edit of that
song.
Brian B (13:14):
I love that song.
Joe Bunn (13:15):
And it's super catchy and it was.
I mean it was definitelycontender for song of the summer
, but I haven't really foundlike the perfect edit of it
right.
So anything else about the gigyou want to.
Brian B (13:28):
You want to say, before we move on to the, to the meat
of the one, the one, uh, onemore story I'll give you.
This was toast, heavy fivetoasts.
Okay, and I don't know if theycome from a background of acting
or whatnot, but these peoplewere given incredible toast,
just hilarious.
One guy's like hey, you know, I, I think the guy was in tech
(13:49):
and so he's the groom.
You mean the groom, yeah, he'sin tech security, yeah, and so
two of his people from his crowd.
They weren't even groomsmen,they didn't even have groomsmen,
they were just like themessentially.
But they go, uh, uh, we hackedinto your gmail because you
don't have it secured down andeveryone laughed because this
guy's in like cyber security,sure, and they found like a
(14:10):
meyer briggs test of his fromlike back in high school because
he doesn't know how to use thearchive feature either
apparently right right and theybasically like, went through it
and just like, roasted him right, but it was great.
I mean, everyone's laughing,even the groom's laughing, right
.
So then the bride's parentscome up and I just thought this
was the most bold like speechever from the bride's mom.
(14:33):
She goes.
It's kind of a bittersweet daytoday.
She goes.
I spent the whole morning goingthrough my phone and deleting
out all of I think her name wasKyle Kyle's ex-boyfriends from
the list From the phone.
Joe Bunn (14:48):
Like her, contacts list or like the pictures.
Brian B (14:50):
No, from the list From the phone, Like her contacts
list or the pictures.
No, from the contacts listwithin her phone.
What?
And she goes, and I'm reallygoing to miss a few of them.
What is this?
Joe Bunn (14:58):
And I'm looking at the groom going this is such a dick
Like get your hand on the mic.
Do I need to kill?
Brian B (15:04):
this.
She's had a few and she triedto save it by saying his name
was Bart and she goes.
But Bart takes the cake and I'mjust like that's not a good
enough save Wow.
Joe Bunn (15:14):
But was she doing it intentionally or did it just get
away from her?
I?
Brian B (15:17):
think she had a few too many to drink, so this was like
real her.
She didn't think it wasoffensive at all, right at all,
right, right, but I it was.
It makes me cringe right nowlike I got my.
Yeah, that's gross, I don'tlike.
It was just funny when it wasthe sides, but uh, yeah, great
gig and yeah, it was awesome.
Joe Bunn (15:36):
Well, um, so we promise people you know value,
we I love to hear about the gigsand I love to hear tracks that
I don't have and probably don'thave the time to dig up like you
do.
But let's talk about.
Let's talk about a question,because what we are always going
to try and do and really Ithink kind of the backbone of
this podcast, if you will istrying to take questions from
(15:58):
the people that are listening toit and implement them into the
show and give our take on it.
And a friend of ours, we bothknowk, from cincinnati, ohio.
We kind of trickled out alittle google forms and, um, if
you, if you guys, ever see uslooking up like this, we have a
monitor up here where we kind ofreference things that we're
reading, kind of like a prompter.
(16:19):
Uh, we'll probably move it downlower later, um, but for now
it's up there because that'swhere it was screwed into a
concrete wall and, damn it, it.
I ran out of time.
So, anyway, let's read thequestion and then kind of go
through it.
It's kind of a lengthy question.
You know who hates a longquestion, jason.
Janai, yeah, you better be gladJK.
(16:40):
Be glad Janai's not on it.
Jk, be glad that Jason Janai isnot on this podcast, because he
would fillet you for writing along question We've been doing
this DJ collective mentoring fora couple of years now.
Brian B (16:56):
We switched up the format and now do this
membership thing this year right, yeah, yeah, yeah, and this is
kind of where we came up withthe idea, right.
Joe Bunn (17:02):
Absolutely yeah, we've been doing these calls.
We've done.
I mean, we committed to a yearand we've done 37.
How, yeah, we've been doingthese calls.
We've done.
I mean, we committed to a yearand we've done how many 37.
Trust me 37 of the 52.
We've gone live every Mondaynight since January 1 or
whatever.
I think you only missed one, Imissed a couple, you have missed
a couple.
I think I've missed one, yeah,and Jason's missed one or two,
(17:25):
yeah.
So, other than that, all threeof us have been on these mentor
calls.
But that's kind of where we gotthis idea.
Brian B (17:30):
So let's hear what he's talking about.
So the question is this what ismost important to planners when
considering what higher tier DJthey use?
Is it appearance of the gearand yourself?
Is it their availability tocommunicate throughout the
planning process?
Or the other option?
Is it them knowing your skilllevel and ability to provide
(17:52):
more than just a dope set?
Great question, and let me saythis too I think one of the cool
things about these questionsthat were getting submitted is
that we both sometimes thinkcompletely different.
Sometimes we're exactly spot onand I've loved kind of hearing
your takes on these things andto the what we've done in this
in the past, we've never reallypre-screened what our answers
(18:15):
are going to be.
Joe Bunn (18:16):
So why don't?
Brian B (18:16):
I open the floor to you .
What would you say to this?
Joe Bunn (18:19):
Yeah, I mean, I definitely think that you are
more in this event plannerluxury space, but I will say
that over the last let's call ituh five to ten years here at
bun dj company and I'm mainlyspeaking about the raleigh
office right now I don'tremember, and saquon will
probably back me up I don'tremember the last time we did a
(18:39):
show that didn't have aprofessional wedding planner at
it.
So you know, that alone justkind of shows you what happens
when you start to uh ascend inthe pricing world.
You don't have to be thewedding planner and the DJ, and
so I think you know, withoutgoing through each line of this
question, at the end of the dayit's all of these things right.
(18:59):
I mean, there is, there arecountless reasons why these
planners recommend us, and I'mnot even just speaking about Joe
Bunn in particular, I'mspeaking about any of the 23
guys that work here in theRaleigh office.
It's definitely the way theylook.
They dress well, they'redressed sharp, they look like
(19:19):
they're supposed to be thereEven when they show up to load
in.
They've got on a company poloand probably their slacks, their
gear.
Whether they have a bun gearcommand center or not, they've
at least got professional gear.
All the cables are taped down.
You're like I'll plug that.
Their communication, I mean, iscritical, like he says in this.
I mean, if they're sending us aPDF, we respond back to it.
(19:43):
Yes, that looks great.
Yep, we'll be there at fouro'clock.
Um, you know, it's immediate,it's not.
It's not two, three days later,it's if they get an email.
And again, all of my guys havea job like another job, but I
tell them look, I don't care ifit's six o'clock, when you get
home from your other job, checkyour bun dj company email so
they respond back to theplanners in time.
(20:03):
What was the other thing?
Um and Um and just being a, youknow, a great DJ, and then, at
the very core of it all is justbeing a good person.
How well do you communicatewith them?
The other people working thewedding, the catering staff, the
lady that runs the banquet hall, the bride, the groom, the
(20:24):
people that are coming up to youasking for requests it all
rolls into a giant ball of do Iwant to recommend this person
again?
And if you're an asshole, youknow.
Or if you're walking indemanding food or you know, hell
, no, I'm not setting up there,absolutely not.
Like.
Call whoever you need to like.
You know, if you're that kindof person or a no man is what I
(20:45):
call them instead of justbasically being a yes man, like
whatever you need, I'll get itdone, you know what I mean?
Then nobody's going torecommend you man.
And it just is it's.
It's sometimes that simple andI think people overcomplicate it
.
Anyway, I'm rambling, Go on.
What do you think about this?
Brian B (21:07):
No, I to your point.
Uh, in the florida market,where we built really our name
in the multi-op world, um, it'sa destination market.
You, you usually will be fedlike almost I don't want to
knock the knot or the weddingwire here, but like you almost
don't need those platformsbecause everything is still ran
through the planner first.
Yeah, it's a destination place.
They're going to hire theplanner who's going to help them
find all these people.
(21:28):
I learned that really quicklyearly on that the old school
method of referrals from not thevenue even, but literally the
planner controls that process.
So you got to learn how to planthat sandbox and as you ascend
kind of more on the pricingscale of going up to your point,
it's almost automatic You'regoing to have a planner who's
(21:51):
going to manage that stuff.
That's right as far as thevendor selection and even who's
being presented, sometimesthey'll send you two or three
different people within a pricerange, or maybe it's three
different price points, and yougot to be in their good graces,
right.
So to me I think the you kindof hit it already, but one is
being just a good human and justlike.
(22:12):
That doesn't mean necessarilythat, um, the answer is always
yes to certain things.
I mean to me when they asked melike what, what is your style?
What do you do?
What you don't want to say iswhatever you want me to do.
Yeah, right, because to me thatshows that you really don't have
it figured out.
Like you don't have a lane,like I don't know who that what
does that even mean?
Like you're just going to be achameleon and do whatever.
(22:32):
Like I don't want that.
I want to know what yourstrengths are yeah, what are,
and making both you know animalsout of balloons or are you just
going to mix?
Really great, like I need toknow.
Like what you do is really well.
And I think as you go up inprice, that becomes one of the
most important things.
(22:53):
To the last part of yourquestion about skillset and
stuff, it's not so much becausethat's objective, like there's
somebody, great, they don't know, they're not in the industry
from the standpoint of DJing,right, but what they do know is
this is what they focus on, thisis their calling card, whatever
that is for you.
So you first, before you evenstart kind of talking to
planners, is figure out who youare, figure out what it is that
(23:14):
you want to be doing and be ableto confidently say this is what
I'm looking to do.
Do you, do we mesh?
Does the clientele that youhave like what I do?
And hopefully there's moreyeses than noes in that regard,
right.
So I think that that's big.
And then the second thing Iwould say is it's a long game,
it's a long man's game, Like ifyou think this is going to turn
(23:36):
around quickly by just trying tolike get the sell.
At least my experience has beenthat that doesn't happen in the
next week.
No, so you have to build therelationship Like people want to
not feel like you're just usingthem for a gig, which maybe
that is the ultimate win is tobe working with them.
Yeah yeah.
But if you come in thirsty likeI, just want the gig, that's a
(23:56):
problem.
It's a long game.
Joe Bunn (23:58):
Right, not even a question, man.
I mean, this stuff has taken meyears and years.
I've talked about it ad nauseum.
You know, I still go to thenetworking meetings.
I still, you know, send outgifts I still.
You know, I'm in planning ataco luncheon for every planner
in town.
Like it is, it is long game andit's relentless.
(24:20):
And if you're not going to sitthere and be that guy and and or
girl and and have your foot onthe gas the whole time, you're
going to lose your footing andyou're going to lose your
traction and you're not going tobe the top of the market and
you're not going to get therecommendation from these people
.
And so I don't know, man, it'sjust one of those things where
it is so much more valuable andso much more, I guess, roi than
(24:48):
the not ads no offense to themor WeddingWire or whatever
online platform came out.
Brian B (24:53):
Even Instagram or whatever.
Joe Bunn (24:55):
Whatever Facebook ads it's just that network, the look
, the gear, being a good personand treating people well at the
event is so much more, has somuch more staying power, I guess
, than anything else.
Brian B (25:10):
He said it in there and you reference it too.
But also, just getting back topeople, yeah, I hear it from
planners all the time.
It's like, hey, I don't hearback from the DJ for, like you
know, two or three weeks Ourindustry looked bad, but if you
really, I mean, it's so simple,it's crazy.
It's like so simple.
Joe Bunn (25:26):
Even people do it to me Like I mean, it's just, it's
unbelievable sometimes, likeit's not that hard to respond.
You're not a celebrity.
Yeah, I get it, we're all busy,but I mean, and I'm getting
messaging, and so are the peoplelistening from DM on Instagram,
facebook Messenger, texting,phone calls, uh, website inquiry
(25:51):
.
I mean, I can, I can probablyname 10 different channels that
stuff is coming in to me, yeah,and other than the, the
inquiries about shows that cometo the website, which randy
handles.
I'm responding to all of thoselike you can't say you pinged me
on some channel and I didn'tget back to you, because it
might be a day, but I'm going toget back to you and that would
probably be as long as I let itlinger, unless some kind of spam
capture grabbed it or somethinglike that.
I got back to your ass.
(26:12):
There you go.
Anything else on this one man?
I mean I feel like this is agood stopping point.
I hope we help jk out, shoutout, cincinnati.
Brian B (26:21):
Um, yeah, good chili there I know it's random, but
they do.
They it's called, they're knownfor it.
Have you ever eaten?
Joe Bunn (26:29):
I've never been there.
You've never been oh dude.
Brian B (26:32):
Let's see, I think that's what it is.
My grandparents grew up closeto Cincinnati.
Okay, okay, so I went there foryears and they're known for ton
of cheese on it.
Joe Bunn (26:39):
Okay, it's like I love chili at the right time of year
, not in the summer.
Oh yeah, I'll smash that, okay,yeah, it's good to know, good
to know.
Well, everybody, beyond the djbooth, episode one is in the can
.
I hope you guys enjoyed it.
Stick around many more episodesto come, hopefully if brian
(27:00):
keeps uh showing up here at thestudio and, uh, you guys keep
showing up and listening thanky'all, see ya.
what's up everybody.
Welcome to beyond the dj booth,episode one numero uno.
Joe Bunn (00:22):
I don't even think we said the title in the trailer.
I think we pointed to thescreen and then that was it.
Nobody ever referred to thetitle beyond the DJ booth.
And what was inspiration foryou?
I mean, we kind of worked onthis together a little bit right
.
We came up with our own, wedefinitely chat GPT'd it.
I think this was on our own,though I don't think AI have
(00:44):
solved this for us.
The rationale or the reasoningfor the name was we're not
really talking about, likescratching, mixing, right, the
actual art or act of DJing.
It's more about the business ofDJing, I would say the behind
the scenes, like what happenswhen you're not behind the DJ
(01:04):
booth.
So, beyond the DJ booth, thatwas my rationale.
You agreed to the title, so whatare your thoughts on it?
Brian B (01:11):
Well, to your point, I think it I mean in a podcast
format without gear in front ofyou.
Joe Bunn (01:16):
It's hard to like show mixing techniques and all that
stuff.
Brian B (01:19):
So to me it was not just the business, but all the
things we talked about in thetrailer, which is music, all the
other things that we covertravel hacks, possibly war
stories, all these things thatyou hear outside of the booth
when you're coming home from agig or who knows.
Just just you know it wasall-encompassing, vague enough,
(01:44):
but also had a little bit offeel of the DJ booth being like
okay, we're doing DJing, so it'snot going to get lost.
Joe Bunn (01:51):
That's why I mean I definitely like the alliteration
of beyond the booth better.
Beyond the booth just kind ofrolls off the tongue, but I
didn't want people to overlookit.
I wanted to niche down andreally say, look, we're two DJs,
we're talking about DJ.
Stuff Like this isn't about Idon't know what a diner Like.
I didn't want them to be likewhat kind of booth.
(02:12):
You know what I mean.
So I think that, as much as Ireally loved Beyond the Booth, I
feel like adding the DJ partwas pretty essential for what
we're talking about.
I agree, All right, so let'stalk about last weekend.
So I'm, I'm, I'm here, I'mdoing work in the office.
Last weekend, off for a while.
Where are you?
You're you're, you're West?
Brian B (02:33):
bound.
I'm in state I was in which israre for you, right?
Joe Bunn (02:37):
Really rare.
Brian B (02:37):
I live in Raleigh.
I have yet to do a show inRaleigh.
I don't really market toRaleigh, right, you own this
market, so I don't.
I don't really, unless you wantto come work for me, which he
doesn't, yeah no well, I meanhonestly like I have enough
leads outside of the right ofthe triangle, as a traveling man
yeah so, but one market that Ihave been in frequently is
(02:59):
Asheville up in the mountains,yeah, and uh, specifically, I
think it's an hour morenorthwest yeah, right, because
it would.
I definitely was going up amountain like yeah that much,
yeah, yeah, yeah so highlands,specifically and randomly.
I'm on this vendor venue.
Randomly, I'm on this venuelist.
I've never played at this venuebefore first time, so the only
(03:20):
thing I I figured out after theevent was that somebody from
another venue, which I know howI got on that list and played
there.
They worked for this one venuethat I was at this weekend for
like literally two weeks, andput you on it and put me on the
list, wow.
So again it goes back torelationship building.
Why that's so crucial Becauseyou never know where people are
(03:41):
going to go and, who knows, Icould be on this list for six
months, six years, who knows?
You know, just but I haven'tbeen taken off.
Joe Bunn (03:50):
So I get this gig.
Brian B (03:51):
It's beautiful up there right Stunning.
Joe Bunn (03:53):
Dude.
Brian B (03:53):
I took some video posted on my Instagram.
It doesn't even do it justice,yeah.
Joe Bunn (03:57):
North Carolina mountains are next level man.
Totally amazing and you're,you're, you were a little early
for the leaf change, kind oftrue fall, but I mean you were
still there like prime time.
That's why I love this state,man.
I mean I remember when I wastalking to you you were living
in Manhattan.
You were going to Florida.
You were going you know pointswest and I was just like man,
(04:19):
you know you're having a kid,you've got to get out of the
city.
Man, like you should come toraleigh.
It's right in between florida,yeah, and new york.
And you're like, yeah, yeah,maybe I will.
The next thing, you know you'rebuying a house here, but you
see why I've never left.
Yeah, right, you've been to thebeaches here.
Yeah, amazing, you can walk formiles on the beach.
Totally, you can drive fourhours west and be in the
mountains, like there's not alot of states that are this no
(04:41):
unique, I guess yeah, anyway.
Brian B (04:43):
So this gig, I uh, yeah , a lot, of, a lot of things
happen at this event.
You know number one, uh, forthose that I haven't shared this
publicly, really but uh had tohave hernia surgery.
Zero out of five stars.
Do not recommend that in anyform or fashion.
You referenced him on thetrailer, but mike walter yes and
like an og in this industry yessir, your former podcast
(05:04):
partner, yeah, he had had herniasurgery.
Okay, okay.
So the day before the surgery Ifinally think about I should
call mike.
Yeah, give a little insight.
Insight, how's this recovery?
And I knew that I had a weddinglike.
So the surgery happened on atuesday.
Sunday was another wedding, notthis one I'm referencing, right
, uh, so I just want to makesure I'd be okay and I gotta fly
(05:26):
to it.
It was in florida, so I call upmike and in classic mike style
he goes.
I don't want to sound like ahero here, but he's like I did a
wedding the next day.
I'm like you bastard.
Joe Bunn (05:39):
Of course you did so you're like I'm gonna be okay
yeah, so I'm walking in thistotally overconfident, right?
Brian B (05:44):
uh, he didn't give me permission to disclose where his
hernia was, but just say youcan be in different parts of the
body, okay, all right, mine wasnear my stomach, okay, uh,
didn't realize how important thecore is to you yes, right, yes,
it is important the day afterthe surgery and the anesthesia
wears off, I'm like give me thelegal narcotics asap.
There's's no way.
I'm going to make this you knowyou were hurting.
(06:05):
Yeah and uh you literally justlike even if you wanted to lift
things it just doesn't feelcomfortable.
Joe Bunn (06:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brian B (06:13):
So travel hack, number one of this podcast.
I needed an assistant and sinceI don't live in the market, I
don't have assistants workingfor me here locally and I'm like
we got to go five hours.
I don't want to pay forsomeone's hotel.
The cool thing about ourindustry is that we're super
supportive of one another, so Iput out a little note on
Facebook.
(06:33):
Somebody reached out and saidhey, I live about a couple hours
from Asheville area.
I'll be glad to help you there,but I still needed to load the
gear in.
Joe Bunn (06:42):
Here in Raleigh, here in Raleigh, to take it up there,
right, yeah, I could havecalled you, but you would have
been $6 million.
Brian B (06:46):
I don't have that kind of budget, so I was like I was
actually mad.
Joe Bunn (06:49):
You didn't call me.
You came here and I was likebro.
Brian B (06:54):
I would have come over there and loaded your shit up
for you.
Come on, dude.
You would have held that overmy head for so long.
This is terrible, so anyway Igot a u-haul van.
Joe Bunn (07:09):
That's what I do when I don't have a vehicle to carry
everything, and I noticed theyalways try to upsell you.
Brian B (07:12):
They do, that's right.
Do you want boxes, blankets,all of it?
One of them is movers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I go.
Yeah, I do need some movers.
It's just to move it from myupstairs into the van, so they
helped me get everything in thatwas awesome it literally cost
me, I, I think, 175 bucks, butthat's for them to load in and
load out Right.
Joe Bunn (07:28):
So I still want to come home.
I would have taken that.
Yeah, call me next time.
Brian B (07:32):
I would have taken.
Joe Bunn (07:33):
I would have done it for 155.
Brian B (07:36):
And a couple of topos yes and a couple of topo chicas.
Joe Bunn (07:38):
Yes, so that is a humongous travel hack.
If you're not, um, if you'relooking in, you're out of the
area, hurt or just had surgeryor whatever.
Didn't know like you need help.
Yeah, and you know it's you allthey're gonna, and then, but
how did you get the person tohelp you there?
So that's when I did thefacebook uh post.
Right, somebody showed up.
Brian B (07:56):
They helped me out with all of that, um, but this was a
interesting wedding for, beyondthat, just the fact that there
was no formalities yeah, theonly formality was a toast, so
this.
What was weird for me as a djwas looking at the music and
going wait, there's no formalitysongs.
There's no grand entrance, no.
Joe Bunn (08:13):
First that is weird.
No family dances.
Yeah, no cake cut.
I mean a lot of stuff's beencut in the in years past, but
not everything and so you know,I have multiple backups of all
these formalities on differentdevices.
Brian B (08:24):
I'm like I'm not loading anything.
Joe Bunn (08:26):
Right, that's wild.
Brian B (08:27):
So bizarre and for an actual wedding.
Like I've been to cocktailparties and done those but not
for a gig.
Yeah, so that was the firstlike shocker for me is like man,
maybe we're getting to thatpoint soon.
I don't think it's going to goaway like tomorrow.
Joe Bunn (08:41):
No, right away, like tomorrow, no, right.
But I don't know if you've beenfeeling it.
I feel like the formalitieshave been getting cut more and
more.
Brian B (08:49):
Now it's like the cake cut isn't even happening these
days where they don't even wantto announce private, right,
right.
So it's like I'm okay with that.
Literally it's like first danceand two family dances yeah,
you're done, I'm okay with that.
Joe Bunn (08:56):
Yeah, I'm fine with it too sure, sure, yeah.
Brian B (08:57):
So, anyways, that was the first like aha moment for me
.
I'm like this is a differentwedding than I've ever been to
right it's 80 people, soliterally it's a three-hour
dance set um three to four hoursactually, because we finished
around 6 30, we went to about 11, so 10 30 that's long, it's
long.
Joe Bunn (09:17):
Yeah, there's no formalities and 80 people
nothing to break it up.
Brian B (09:20):
You know you lose 20 people.
It's a third of your crowd goneright right, so it's a fourth,
but go ahead you're gonna get meon that one um, but you just
have to be cognizant of uh flow.
You have to be cognizant of yousaid you ripped it.
Yeah, it's the best set I'veever played and I rarely.
Joe Bunn (09:41):
I've never heard you say that like I.
I hear a lot of DJs.
They'll get in line with it.
Brian B (09:46):
I'll rip that there's always sections where it's good
but this literally from start tofinish, was one of my best sets
that I've played that's magicalman that shit right there will
keep you doing it for another 10, 15, 20 years.
Joe Bunn (10:01):
Shows like that where you're just, like dude, I was
feeling it, they were feeling meand, like you said, it's a
smaller crowd, so you have tokeep them there.
Brian B (10:08):
Yeah, right, because it's important yes, right, like
if you hit them too hard wavesyes, you have to kind of mix it
and around and um, they didn'tgive me much to go off of either
.
That was the other thing.
Um, they gave me maybe 10 songs.
They were okay, yeah, nothinglike it was super shocking.
Yeah, yeah, um, but yeah it wasjust one of those things so
musically.
You know, I've been changing myflow on asking questions and one
(10:32):
of the things that I ask now isto tell their story through
music.
I want to find out what aresome songs that are like chapter
markers in your life and Idon't even ask for that many up
to 10 and those have had greatstories with them.
I've never thought that thatkind of a question would yeah,
you know, resonate with people,yeah and they don't have to even
(10:52):
be for the wedding, could bejust in general.
So the lady the bride goes uh,you know, she gave me one of 10.
The only song she gave me wasbrick house, which I haven't had
.
That on the request rightprobably in.
I mean, I literally I thinklast time I've seen on a request
list may have been 10 years agoI just don't get it.
Joe Bunn (11:11):
I don't either.
Brian B (11:12):
Um, not that there's a generation, I think, right yeah,
just I think maybe they're notinto it as much.
That's right.
Anyway, this one's on there andthe story goes that her mom
used to play this at the houseuh, no rhyme or reason, sure you
know, and that was just a songthat stuck in her head.
It was like that's my mom's, oneof my mom's favorite songs,
yeah, so I knew I needed to dropit at the right moment and try
(11:33):
to figure out a way to get outof it too, because I didn't want
to play the whole thing so Ihad a short edit and I guess
what I wanted to share witheverybody listening is that you
know, when you're downloadingtracks I'm always looking at it
like maybe I don't know whereI'm gonna place this track.
I'm gonna download becausemaybe it might be something I
could use, it might go right.
So I found this digs uh blendwhere he took expresso the song
(11:55):
by sabrina carpenter, which issuper hot.
That's super hot and he playedit over, uh, brick house.
Joe Bunn (12:23):
Let's look, can we hear this?
Let's, let's give it a little.
Brian B (12:28):
Let's hear this so what's cool about that is that,
like it, I went out of thechorus of brick house into this
little segue of this, I mean I'min it for like 30, 40 seconds,
pretty much as long as this clipthat we just played, and then
on to something else.
But it was enough where the momheard the chorus she loved it,
yeah and everyone else was likeoh man, we're going retro.
Joe Bunn (12:50):
God, I hope we're not in this set for too long and I
just moved right into this.
We're back into current youknow what I mean.
Oh, that's clean, I'll probablynever play that edit again.
Brian B (12:57):
Yeah, but it was there and I took it just because, who
knows, there might be a spotwhere I could use it, you know
dude, that that I mean I coulddefinitely see using that.
Joe Bunn (13:08):
I mean just again, cause you and I were talking off
air about like I haven't reallyfound the perfect edit of that
song.
Brian B (13:14):
I love that song.
Joe Bunn (13:15):
And it's super catchy and it was.
I mean it was definitelycontender for song of the summer
, but I haven't really foundlike the perfect edit of it
right.
So anything else about the gigyou want to.
Brian B (13:28):
You want to say, before we move on to the, to the meat
of the one, the one, uh, onemore story I'll give you.
This was toast, heavy fivetoasts.
Okay, and I don't know if theycome from a background of acting
or whatnot, but these peoplewere given incredible toast,
just hilarious.
One guy's like hey, you know, I, I think the guy was in tech
(13:49):
and so he's the groom.
You mean the groom, yeah, he'sin tech security, yeah, and so
two of his people from his crowd.
They weren't even groomsmen,they didn't even have groomsmen,
they were just like themessentially.
But they go, uh, uh, we hackedinto your gmail because you
don't have it secured down andeveryone laughed because this
guy's in like cyber security,sure, and they found like a
(14:10):
meyer briggs test of his fromlike back in high school because
he doesn't know how to use thearchive feature either
apparently right right and theybasically like, went through it
and just like, roasted him right, but it was great.
I mean, everyone's laughing,even the groom's laughing, right
.
So then the bride's parentscome up and I just thought this
was the most bold like speechever from the bride's mom.
(14:33):
She goes.
It's kind of a bittersweet daytoday.
She goes.
I spent the whole morning goingthrough my phone and deleting
out all of I think her name wasKyle Kyle's ex-boyfriends from
the list From the phone.
Joe Bunn (14:48):
Like her, contacts list or like the pictures.
Brian B (14:50):
No, from the list From the phone, Like her contacts
list or the pictures.
No, from the contacts listwithin her phone.
What?
And she goes, and I'm reallygoing to miss a few of them.
What is this?
Joe Bunn (14:58):
And I'm looking at the groom going this is such a dick
Like get your hand on the mic.
Do I need to kill?
Brian B (15:04):
this.
She's had a few and she triedto save it by saying his name
was Bart and she goes.
But Bart takes the cake and I'mjust like that's not a good
enough save Wow.
Joe Bunn (15:14):
But was she doing it intentionally or did it just get
away from her?
I?
Brian B (15:17):
think she had a few too many to drink, so this was like
real her.
She didn't think it wasoffensive at all, right at all,
right, right, but I it was.
It makes me cringe right nowlike I got my.
Yeah, that's gross, I don'tlike.
It was just funny when it wasthe sides, but uh, yeah, great
gig and yeah, it was awesome.
Joe Bunn (15:36):
Well, um, so we promise people you know value,
we I love to hear about the gigsand I love to hear tracks that
I don't have and probably don'thave the time to dig up like you
do.
But let's talk about.
Let's talk about a question,because what we are always going
to try and do and really Ithink kind of the backbone of
this podcast, if you will istrying to take questions from
(15:58):
the people that are listening toit and implement them into the
show and give our take on it.
And a friend of ours, we bothknowk, from cincinnati, ohio.
We kind of trickled out alittle google forms and, um, if
you, if you guys, ever see uslooking up like this, we have a
monitor up here where we kind ofreference things that we're
reading, kind of like a prompter.
(16:19):
Uh, we'll probably move it downlower later, um, but for now
it's up there because that'swhere it was screwed into a
concrete wall and, damn it, it.
I ran out of time.
So, anyway, let's read thequestion and then kind of go
through it.
It's kind of a lengthy question.
You know who hates a longquestion, jason.
Janai, yeah, you better be gladJK.
(16:40):
Be glad Janai's not on it.
Jk, be glad that Jason Janai isnot on this podcast, because he
would fillet you for writing along question We've been doing
this DJ collective mentoring fora couple of years now.
Brian B (16:56):
We switched up the format and now do this
membership thing this year right, yeah, yeah, yeah, and this is
kind of where we came up withthe idea, right.
Joe Bunn (17:02):
Absolutely yeah, we've been doing these calls.
We've done.
I mean, we committed to a yearand we've done 37.
How, yeah, we've been doingthese calls.
We've done.
I mean, we committed to a yearand we've done how many 37.
Trust me 37 of the 52.
We've gone live every Mondaynight since January 1 or
whatever.
I think you only missed one, Imissed a couple, you have missed
a couple.
I think I've missed one, yeah,and Jason's missed one or two,
(17:25):
yeah.
So, other than that, all threeof us have been on these mentor
calls.
But that's kind of where we gotthis idea.
Brian B (17:30):
So let's hear what he's talking about.
So the question is this what ismost important to planners when
considering what higher tier DJthey use?
Is it appearance of the gearand yourself?
Is it their availability tocommunicate throughout the
planning process?
Or the other option?
Is it them knowing your skilllevel and ability to provide
(17:52):
more than just a dope set?
Great question, and let me saythis too I think one of the cool
things about these questionsthat were getting submitted is
that we both sometimes thinkcompletely different.
Sometimes we're exactly spot onand I've loved kind of hearing
your takes on these things andto the what we've done in this
in the past, we've never reallypre-screened what our answers
(18:15):
are going to be.
Joe Bunn (18:16):
So why don't?
Brian B (18:16):
I open the floor to you .
What would you say to this?
Joe Bunn (18:19):
Yeah, I mean, I definitely think that you are
more in this event plannerluxury space, but I will say
that over the last let's call ituh five to ten years here at
bun dj company and I'm mainlyspeaking about the raleigh
office right now I don'tremember, and saquon will
probably back me up I don'tremember the last time we did a
(18:39):
show that didn't have aprofessional wedding planner at
it.
So you know, that alone justkind of shows you what happens
when you start to uh ascend inthe pricing world.
You don't have to be thewedding planner and the DJ, and
so I think you know, withoutgoing through each line of this
question, at the end of the dayit's all of these things right.
(18:59):
I mean, there is, there arecountless reasons why these
planners recommend us, and I'mnot even just speaking about Joe
Bunn in particular, I'mspeaking about any of the 23
guys that work here in theRaleigh office.
It's definitely the way theylook.
They dress well, they'redressed sharp, they look like
(19:19):
they're supposed to be thereEven when they show up to load
in.
They've got on a company poloand probably their slacks, their
gear.
Whether they have a bun gearcommand center or not, they've
at least got professional gear.
All the cables are taped down.
You're like I'll plug that.
Their communication, I mean, iscritical, like he says in this.
I mean, if they're sending us aPDF, we respond back to it.
(19:43):
Yes, that looks great.
Yep, we'll be there at fouro'clock.
Um, you know, it's immediate,it's not.
It's not two, three days later,it's if they get an email.
And again, all of my guys havea job like another job, but I
tell them look, I don't care ifit's six o'clock, when you get
home from your other job, checkyour bun dj company email so
they respond back to theplanners in time.
(20:03):
What was the other thing?
Um and Um and just being a, youknow, a great DJ, and then, at
the very core of it all is justbeing a good person.
How well do you communicatewith them?
The other people working thewedding, the catering staff, the
lady that runs the banquet hall, the bride, the groom, the
(20:24):
people that are coming up to youasking for requests it all
rolls into a giant ball of do Iwant to recommend this person
again?
And if you're an asshole, youknow.
Or if you're walking indemanding food or you know, hell
, no, I'm not setting up there,absolutely not.
Like.
Call whoever you need to like.
You know, if you're that kindof person or a no man is what I
(20:45):
call them instead of justbasically being a yes man, like
whatever you need, I'll get itdone, you know what I mean?
Then nobody's going torecommend you man.
And it just is it's.
It's sometimes that simple andI think people overcomplicate it
.
Anyway, I'm rambling, Go on.
What do you think about this?
Brian B (21:07):
No, I to your point.
Uh, in the florida market,where we built really our name
in the multi-op world, um, it'sa destination market.
You, you usually will be fedlike almost I don't want to
knock the knot or the weddingwire here, but like you almost
don't need those platformsbecause everything is still ran
through the planner first.
Yeah, it's a destination place.
They're going to hire theplanner who's going to help them
find all these people.
(21:28):
I learned that really quicklyearly on that the old school
method of referrals from not thevenue even, but literally the
planner controls that process.
So you got to learn how to planthat sandbox and as you ascend
kind of more on the pricingscale of going up to your point,
it's almost automatic You'regoing to have a planner who's
(21:51):
going to manage that stuff.
That's right as far as thevendor selection and even who's
being presented, sometimesthey'll send you two or three
different people within a pricerange, or maybe it's three
different price points, and yougot to be in their good graces,
right.
So to me I think the you kindof hit it already, but one is
being just a good human and justlike.
(22:12):
That doesn't mean necessarilythat, um, the answer is always
yes to certain things.
I mean to me when they asked melike what, what is your style?
What do you do?
What you don't want to say iswhatever you want me to do.
Yeah, right, because to me thatshows that you really don't have
it figured out.
Like you don't have a lane,like I don't know who that what
does that even mean?
Like you're just going to be achameleon and do whatever.
(22:32):
Like I don't want that.
I want to know what yourstrengths are yeah, what are,
and making both you know animalsout of balloons or are you just
going to mix?
Really great, like I need toknow.
Like what you do is really well.
And I think as you go up inprice, that becomes one of the
most important things.
(22:53):
To the last part of yourquestion about skillset and
stuff, it's not so much becausethat's objective, like there's
somebody, great, they don't know, they're not in the industry
from the standpoint of DJing,right, but what they do know is
this is what they focus on, thisis their calling card, whatever
that is for you.
So you first, before you evenstart kind of talking to
planners, is figure out who youare, figure out what it is that
(23:14):
you want to be doing and be ableto confidently say this is what
I'm looking to do.
Do you, do we mesh?
Does the clientele that youhave like what I do?
And hopefully there's moreyeses than noes in that regard,
right.
So I think that that's big.
And then the second thing Iwould say is it's a long game,
it's a long man's game, Like ifyou think this is going to turn
(23:36):
around quickly by just trying tolike get the sell.
At least my experience has beenthat that doesn't happen in the
next week.
No, so you have to build therelationship Like people want to
not feel like you're just usingthem for a gig, which maybe
that is the ultimate win is tobe working with them.
Yeah yeah.
But if you come in thirsty likeI, just want the gig, that's a
(23:56):
problem.
It's a long game.
Joe Bunn (23:58):
Right, not even a question, man.
I mean, this stuff has taken meyears and years.
I've talked about it ad nauseum.
You know, I still go to thenetworking meetings.
I still, you know, send outgifts I still.
You know, I'm in planning ataco luncheon for every planner
in town.
Like it is, it is long game andit's relentless.
(24:20):
And if you're not going to sitthere and be that guy and and or
girl and and have your foot onthe gas the whole time, you're
going to lose your footing andyou're going to lose your
traction and you're not going tobe the top of the market and
you're not going to get therecommendation from these people
.
And so I don't know, man, it'sjust one of those things where
it is so much more valuable andso much more, I guess, roi than
(24:48):
the not ads no offense to themor WeddingWire or whatever
online platform came out.
Brian B (24:53):
Even Instagram or whatever.
Joe Bunn (24:55):
Whatever Facebook ads it's just that network, the look
, the gear, being a good personand treating people well at the
event is so much more, has somuch more staying power, I guess
, than anything else.
Brian B (25:10):
He said it in there and you reference it too.
But also, just getting back topeople, yeah, I hear it from
planners all the time.
It's like, hey, I don't hearback from the DJ for, like you
know, two or three weeks Ourindustry looked bad, but if you
really, I mean, it's so simple,it's crazy.
It's like so simple.
Joe Bunn (25:26):
Even people do it to me Like I mean, it's just, it's
unbelievable sometimes, likeit's not that hard to respond.
You're not a celebrity.
Yeah, I get it, we're all busy,but I mean, and I'm getting
messaging, and so are the peoplelistening from DM on Instagram,
facebook Messenger, texting,phone calls, uh, website inquiry
(25:51):
.
I mean, I can, I can probablyname 10 different channels that
stuff is coming in to me, yeah,and other than the, the
inquiries about shows that cometo the website, which randy
handles.
I'm responding to all of thoselike you can't say you pinged me
on some channel and I didn'tget back to you, because it
might be a day, but I'm going toget back to you and that would
probably be as long as I let itlinger, unless some kind of spam
capture grabbed it or somethinglike that.
I got back to your ass.
(26:12):
There you go.
Anything else on this one man?
I mean I feel like this is agood stopping point.
I hope we help jk out, shoutout, cincinnati.
Brian B (26:21):
Um, yeah, good chili there I know it's random, but
they do.
They it's called, they're knownfor it.
Have you ever eaten?
Joe Bunn (26:29):
I've never been there.
You've never been oh dude.
Brian B (26:32):
Let's see, I think that's what it is.
My grandparents grew up closeto Cincinnati.
Okay, okay, so I went there foryears and they're known for ton
of cheese on it.
Joe Bunn (26:39):
Okay, it's like I love chili at the right time of year
, not in the summer.
Oh yeah, I'll smash that, okay,yeah, it's good to know, good
to know.
Well, everybody, beyond the djbooth, episode one is in the can
.
I hope you guys enjoyed it.
Stick around many more episodesto come, hopefully if brian
(27:00):
keeps uh showing up here at thestudio and, uh, you guys keep
showing up and listening thanky'all, see ya.
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