From High School DJ to Event Empire

What does it really take to create memorable celebrations? In this revealing conversation, Trenton Anderson of Trebled Entertainment pulls back the curtain on the event services industry. With 20 years of experience transforming gatherings across Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska, Trenton shares the journey from his high school DJ days to building a comprehensive event services company.

Most people see only the final performance - the perfect photos, the seamless music, the fun photo booth - but Trenton reveals that roughly 30% of their work happens behind the scenes. "It's not even as much about the actual performance or the photo or the video," he explains. "It's everything that happens leading up to that." This dedication to preparation and client relationships has fueled their growth primarily through enthusiastic word-of-mouth referrals.

The Fort Collins-based company offers DJing, photography, videography, photo booths, and AV services, but their real product is the creation and capture of milestone memories. When planning your next celebration, Trenton emphasizes remembering two critical factors: the true purpose of your gathering and the importance of selecting vendors who genuinely understand your vision. "When you bring in vendors, you're really bringing together a team," he notes, explaining how these professionals become extensions of your brand or personal celebration.

Whether you're planning a wedding, corporate event, school dance, or activation, choosing the right partners makes all the difference. Connect with Trebled Entertainment through their website trebledentertainment.com or on social media as Trebled ENT to learn how their passionate team can help bring your next celebration to life. After all, as Trenton puts it, "We work for fun, and we have fun for work."

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Nick George.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Are you in need of amulti-event services company
that's really exciting and hassome new things to offer, that
has the full gambit that you canthink of for event services
here in Colorado?
Well, one might be closer thanyou think.
Today I have the great pleasureof introducing Trenton Anderson
with Trebled Entertainment,Trenton.

(00:33):
How's it going?
Hey, Nick, how?

Speaker 3 (00:34):
are you doing today?
Thanks so much for having us.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Great, we're excited to have you on the show and we
want to learn all about yourbusiness, so please tell us
about your multi-event servicescompany.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yeah, absolutely so.
We're located here in beautifulFort Collins, colorado, on the
west side of town, and we'vebeen a business for about 20
years.
I've been in Fort Collins forabout 18 of that.
We are a multi-services mobiletype service.
We started off originally Istarted as a DJ when I was in
high school.
We have a few other full-timeDJs on our team and we offer a

(01:06):
lot of a range of differenttypes of other services,
including photography,videography, photo booths, av
services and then again in DJing.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
So when it?

Speaker 3 (01:15):
comes to mobile events, all over Colorado, even
in Nebraska and Wyoming, whenpeople are putting together
events, we're kind of theirone-stop shop, when they're
looking for all type of servicesto make sure that their event
goes off smoothly and they havea great time what made you get
into this business?
oh, let's be honest, it's a tonof fun.
It's a lot of work too, butit's great.

(01:35):
I mean we work with so manyamazing people that we have had
connections with for years andyears.
When it comes to smallbusinesses, individuals, you
know, weddings, things like thatbeing a part, part of these
milestone journeys is just somuch fun, you know, between
creating them and capturing them, the memory of them years later
, and, of course, we get to havean amazing time too.
I don't want to hold that partout, you know.

(01:55):
When it comes to entertainmentand parties, you know people
think about all the amazingthings that happened during them
, but they don't think about thesmall things that happen in the
background.
And for us, early on, we were apart of these types of events as
guests and thought, well, Ithink I could do this better.
And of course, everybody kindof thinks that you don't realize
how hard it is.
But once you get really greatand people just tell you how
much fun they had and howexcited they are to see you at

(02:17):
future celebrations and futureevents, you know you really get
humbled and you realize that youreally get to be a part of some
of the biggest milestones inpeople's lives and you really
get to become integrated inother small businesses.
You know, around fort collinsin northern colorado, for years
and years we've been a part of aton of non-profits and a ton of
like schools and businesses,and so getting into that was

(02:37):
really just a labor of love andpassion and then it really
turned into being a part of thecommunity that I've been a part
of for so long, you know, beinga CSU grad and living in
Colorado as long as I have.
It really just kind ofsolidified that for me.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Trenton, what are some myths and misconceptions in
your industry?

Speaker 3 (02:55):
I don't know if we have enough time for that.
No, some of the big ones arethat it's easy and anybody who's
got a laptop or iPod has theability to play music.
Or if they have a you know aphone or a DSLR, that they can
take pictures or video.
You know, when it comes to theprofessionals that we work with,
you know they have years andyears of dedication, of
experience and education andpractice and you know a lot of

(03:17):
times they even work with orperform other you know
underneath.
You know top level performersand they've been able to kind of
be able to steward arelationship where they've been
learning for years and years.
And when you make a lot ofmistakes and you learn, you know
kind of firsthand, you don'tever want to make some of those
mistakes again, and so peoplethink that it's just a lot
easier than it really is.
And then the other thing that'skind of interesting is, I would

(03:40):
say 30% of what we do is thelegwork that no one ever even
sees.
It's not even as much about theactual performance or the
actual photo or the actual video.
It's everything that happensleading up to that.
You know people want to knowthat they're working with a
company that cares, someone wholoves what they do, someone who
is compassionate and dedicated,and so I think a misconception

(04:01):
is that you just show up and youdo whatever it is someone has
hired you to do and that's theend of it.
And from the day that you firsttalk to them to the final
delivering of that product orservice, it's a journey, and I
think there's a lot more timeand dedication and passion and
love and experience that goesinto that than a lot of people
think.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Trenton, we know that marketing is the heart of every
business.
Who are your target customersand how do you attract them?

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Our target customers are people who are looking to,
like I said before, create sometype of milestone event.
Whether that's a wedding or acorporate party or an activation
or a school dance, you know,anytime somebody is looking for
either the capturing of thatmemory or the creation of that
memory.
That is our target audit.
So anybody who's looking tohave fun and have a great time

(04:47):
and remember how much fun and agreat time they had later was
looking to have fun and have agreat time and remember how much
fun and a great time they hadlater.
When it comes to marketing tothose folks, you know there is a
ton of ways to be able to dothat.
You know, nowadays people arereally strong into social media.
People are really strong into,you know, online presence and
physical print and media, beingable just to kind of get their
name and spread it out there.
And for me, as the owner ofTrebled Entertainment, it was

(05:10):
always just about letting ourpassion shine through.
You know we would go to eventsand my mantra was always you do
the absolute best you can do atthis event and then a little bit
more, and what we ended uplearning was just word of mouth,
was an incredibly strong.
You know movement in where ourcompany went with people.
You know, when they found outthat they were working with

(05:30):
somebody and got an experiencethat they just didn't see, feel
or hear anywhere else, the phonewouldn't stop ringing, the
emails wouldn't stop coming in.
You know, people would live thatexperience and have that
experience at an event, during,an event, before, after, and
then they would tell theirfriends, they would tell their
family.
You know whatever type of eventwas going on.
I can't tell you how manybrothers and sisters and other

(05:51):
family members that we would doa wedding and then you know, six
months, a year later, we getanother call for another wedding
and it just kind of was thesame thing over and over.
We had so much fun, it was soamazing.
Your guys' customer service wasfantastic.
We wanted another opportunityto have an event like this or to
have a party like this.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
And it kind of just snowballed from there.
Have you ever thought aboutdoing your own podcast showing
highlights?

Speaker 3 (06:15):
We do a little bit of blogging.
You know.
We show quite a bit of thehighlights of our events on our
blogs and we do quite a bit ofsocial media.
We haven't gotten any of thepodcasting at this point.
Just being honest is kind of alimiting factor of time.
So much dedication goes intoTrebled Entertainment in these
live events.
But being on this and being ona couple other podcasts, it's
definitely fun and enjoyable.
So it's a great idea.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Outside of working for having fun, for a living.
What do you do for fun?

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, that's a trick question, because it is both.
I mean, I work for fun and Ihave fun for work.
But outside of that I'm kind ofyour typical Coloradoan.
I love outdoor snowboarding,mountain biking, camping,
boating you know really all thethings that Colorado has to
offer.
Originally, I'm a Texas native.
I know that can be kind of aterrible word for some people

(07:01):
with all the Californians andTexans coming out here, but I
really subscribe to the Coloradolifestyle.
I love everything NorthernColorado has to offer.
So I'm real big on having funand staying active outside.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Well, you must have been here for a while, because I
don't hear that accent.
I'm from Tennessee.
I lost mine too.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Well, when you grow up in inner city Houston, a lot
of times the accent peopleexpect is quite a bit different
than the one you actually have.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Tell our listeners one thing that they should
absolutely remember about yourmulti-event services company,
Trebled Entertainment.
I'd probably say two thingsthat they should absolutely
remember about your multi-eventservices company, trebled
Entertainment.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
I'd probably say two things that they should remember
.
The first one is is thatwhenever you're putting together
an event or a party or acelebration, it usually has to
do with the people that arethere or the people that are
hosting, and people can kind oflose sight of what is the point
of what we're doing.
If we're putting this eventtogether, if we're trying to
celebrate something, or if it'sa corporate event and maybe

(07:54):
they're celebrating somethinginternal or their customers.
Again, it's really important toremember why are you guys
putting together this time andthis energy and these funds to
put together an event like that?
It's really important toremember that.
It's also really important toremember who you're working with
.
Anytime you hire any type ofvendors or you work with any
third party or other companies,you really want somebody who is

(08:14):
subscribing to your vision,somebody who is subscribing to
what you're trying to do andwhat the event is for.
I always kind of joke around.
I say, when you bring in thesevendors, you're really bringing
together a team.
Whether it's everybodyinternally within my team or
we're working with other vendorsor venue staff or owners of the
other businesses, we are reallyall there to work together to
make sure that your event goesexactly the way that you're

(08:37):
looking to.
And if it's like a wedding,obviously it's a very special
moment in individuals andfamilies' lives.
Or if it's a corporation, wheresomebody in the companies that
you're working with kind ofbecome an extension of your
brand, your vision, who you are.
You know, even though thosecompanies may not be underneath
your umbrella, everybody's goingto remember the experience that
they had and those vendors arethe ones that came together to

(08:59):
put that together.
So I think those are two reallyimportant things to remember,
as people are kind of goingthrough the process and looking
for the people who match bestwith them.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Trenton, if you could tell our listeners where they
can learn more online aboutTrebled Entertainment and maybe
the old fashioned way with thephone number?

Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Like most businesses, you know,we're on all the social media
platforms Facebook, instagram,our website.
Basically, if you go TrebledEntertainment, you're going to
find us anywhere.
So it's Trebled ENT on Facebook.
On Instagram,trebledentertainmentcom is our
page and you.
The biggest things for us is werealize this is business and
everybody wants to earneveryone's business, but really

(09:52):
a big part of what we do iseducation.
We want to go through aconsultation process with any
potential person or client thatwe're looking to work with and
tell them about what we do andeducate them about what we do.
Because it is a lot morein-depth and there's a lot more
years and experience and trialand error and talent behind what
we do.
So we're really about kind ofgoing through learning, meeting

(10:14):
people, and then we would reallywant them to just make the best
choice for them.
You know, we know somecompetitors in our area who
we're friends with, we've knownfor a long time, and again, we
want you to kind of do thefootwork and do the research and
make sure that you are hiringthe best team for who you guys
are and the day that you'relooking to have, the celebration
you're typing to have and maybethe brand and vision that
you're putting out there.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Wow.
Well, trenton, I reallyappreciate you being on our show
and we definitely wish you andTrebled Entertainment the very
best moving forward.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Absolutely, Nick.
I really appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Thanks so much for having us us and we look forward
to running you again in thefuture.