Mastering the DJ Business & Who Can Be Trusted To Work With? - Ep #37 - The Clever DJ

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome back, welcome back to another episode of the
Clever DJ.
Before we begin today, allow meto introduce myself and tell
you what this podcast is allabout and inform you of some
news, because if you're tuningin on YouTube you can tell it
looks rather different today.
Now, since the beginning ofthis podcast, it's always been a

(00:34):
banter podcast between two DJs.
I, ilya, was considered thebeginner and my co-host, nino,
who's been doing this a whilelonger, was the pro.
We would carry funconversations and share stories
which all tied into DJing in oneway or another.
Additionally, every episode wewould introduce a new topic

(00:55):
which we found would beinteresting to DJs, whether they
were experienced or juststarting out, and we just
discussed it together and justhad fun with it.
Now, due to personal reasons,nino had to step away from the
podcast, at least for the timebeing.
We each really enjoyed doingthis, so it is definitely in the

(01:17):
plans to continue as we were,but going forward it will be a
solo project, a solo podcast,and it will be just me, unless
something changes, unlesssomething else comes up.
But, uh, I'll try to keep it asconsistent as possible.
Uh, now, we started this podcastas a passion project.
Uh, really, it was a veryrandom thought.

(01:42):
We were Nino is the one whoreally taught me how to DJ and
took me to gigs with him, and ifyou listen to the or watch the
first episodes, you'll see howit really started.
But on one of the drives to oneof the gigs and it was a
faraway gig we just we had areally interesting discussion

(02:04):
about DJing and you know certainthings that I brought up.
Uh, nino did not see the sameway and he said you know what?
I didn't see it like that andand and it was interesting to
him, even though he's been doingthis for 20 years plus and we
were just discussing it from thepoint of point of view of a
beginner and a pro, and it wasjust, we really dissected a

(02:26):
couple topics and it was justreally cool to see how, uh, like
how I brought in pretty much adifferent point of view which
interested him and uh, he couldtell that you know, maybe when
he's teaching his um crew, maybethere's a beginner DJ he's
bringing on to his team, maybethis would be a better way to

(02:48):
explain something to them.
So we said, you know what Itold him, let's start a podcast,
let's start a podcast and justhelp people, help beginner DJs
and a lot of the stuff we weresaying was also really funny, so
the more experienced ones willjust have a good laugh.
So that's really what it wasjust a passion project and we
wanted a lot of people to tunein and listen, but we weren't

(03:11):
really after any specific goalother than just having a good
time and hopefully people wouldtrinkle in and just listen and
view our podcast.
Now, we valued each person fromthe beginning.
We had a handful of listenersand viewers and we really valued
each person from the beginning.
We had a handful of listenersand viewers and we we valued,
really valued, each person whoactually took the time to tune
in wherever it was, especiallyif they went on YouTube and

(03:32):
actually watched the whole thing, cause it was a lot of work to
do some video and, yeah, it wasjust awesome to see that there
are some people who arelistening and viewing from the
from the start, from the firstmonth, and then it significantly
grew at least it's significantto us with every week to the

(03:55):
point where now, just over halfa year later right, because we
started January 1st of 2024 andwe are now on October 9th yes,
sorry, september 9th, september9th, I jumped a month by
accident, so just over half ayear and we're already standing

(04:17):
at 50 devoted monthly listeners,slash viewers.
So if you put everyone togetherfrom all the platforms.
So if you put everyone togetherfrom all the platforms,
websites, youtube and I'm notsharing, I'm not considering
TikTok and YouTube shorts justbecause there's hundreds per
video there, but they are morerandom, right, it's really the

(04:39):
ones who are coming in to listento the episodes and view the
episodes.
And I can't tell you howgrateful I am, because it's it's
just an incredible feeling tocreate something and then have a
complete stranger, or even afamily member or a friend,
sitting from the computer ordrive somewhere and listen to
the podcast or watch it, if, ifit's safe to do so.

(05:00):
So we had so many fun thingsplanned, so many fun things to
do and, uh, other than just, youknow, sitting here, um, in my
apartment and recording theepisodes, uh, you know we were
going to go outdoors, we'regoing to do contests and
competitions like um prizes, allthe all kinds of stuff.

(05:22):
So there were many fun thingsplanned and I promise to
continue keeping it fun andinteresting and, even though
it's a solo project.
Now, at least for the timebeing, nothing changes.
It's still going to be what itwas, other than the banter,
because I'm going to be here bymyself Now.
For now, we will remain aweekly podcast, so there's going

(05:44):
to be a new episode, availableevery week on Monday at 12 pm on
all the platforms exceptYouTube and TikTok.
Youtube and TikTok will be 9.30am, so 12 pm.
Everywhere else, 9.30 am,youtube and TikTok, and that's
Eastern time because we are inor I'm saying we, I am in

(06:06):
Toronto, Canada.
So exclusively on YouTube andTikTok it's going to be almost
three hours earlier, buteverywhere else 12 PM.
So that's just how it alwayswas and I'm going to try and
keep it like that.
Now a little bit about myselfjust a bit before we jump into
the topic here and keep it likethat.
Now a little bit about myselfjust a bit before we jump into

(06:27):
the topic here.
I was always into music.
I always enjoyed singing, sincea very young age playing the
piano.
Then I got into guitar.
I tried the saxophone, theviolin.
I, just, I always loved music.
I was always fascinated by it.
I did some theory, I did thesaxophone, the violin.
I, I, just, I always lovedmusic.
I was always fascinated by it.
I did some theory, I did, Ipicked up some things on my own,

(06:49):
um, I started teaching, um I'mI'm already at a level where
where I'm uh, teaching umabsolute beginner DJs.
So, yeah, it's funny, uh, we,we, we planned this podcast to
to planned this podcast to kindof show the contrast between an
absolute beginner and a pro.
But you know, it's been acouple of years already and I

(07:11):
guess I'm not that much abeginner anymore.
But, yes, comparing to somebodywho's been doing this for 20
years, definitely a beginnerstill.
But yeah, so how did it start?
I was a bartender for about ayear, year and a half.
I was working.
Yeah, a year and a half I wasworking.
Yeah, about a year and a half.
I was working as a bartender,uh, mostly in um wedding, like

(07:32):
venues, uh big wedding, uh bighalls.
But, um, you know, I also did,uh, I also did some, uh some
chains and uh some privateevents.
But during the weddingbartending gigs I loved it.
I still bartend, I still enjoyit from time to time, but I

(07:53):
would always look at the DJs andI was thinking I could do this.
I mean, I love music.
I'm a pretty technical guy.
I can learn this.
I have the money to start, liketo buy the gear, and actually I
already had my ddj sb2 bypioneer, which is right over
there.
But, um, I went and got myselfa ddj sr2 because I was like,

(08:17):
let's upgrade um.
So I spoke to a couple djs whowere right.
Whenever I found the time tokind of chat with them and, um,
uh, I w, I w.
I would say something like hey,um, I love music, I, I want to
get into DJing.

(08:38):
It's a bit complicated for mecause I'm just not getting it
yet.
I don't understand how to likeI don't understand what I'm
doing.
It's just it's getting awayfrom me.
It's so fast, right, Cause yougotta start and and and and do
it.
Like you gotta plan and executeright away because the track
keeps going right, like youdon't have time to to think too

(08:59):
much.
Depending on the, on the genre,but especially open format, you
have like a few seconds to toto transition.
So I wasn't getting it and I waswatching some, some tutorials
and it was hard.
I needed somebody to show me inperson, um, and and the schools
were really expensive, right.
So I was and I was thinkingmaybe they're just money grab,

(09:19):
like just a money grab, uh, andit's, there's no way it should
cost as much money, right?
So one of the guys I spoke towas Nino.
Um, it was yeah, it was towardsthe last half a year or maybe
even, yeah, last four to sixmonths of me bartending Um, so

(09:41):
what happened was he was DJingand I would always kind of
compare between the DJs and Iwould say, if it sounds good to
me, if I would hire this guy,I'll go and ask to you know, ask
that that DJ to let me shadowthem.
Um, and actually there were.
There was only one female DJ.

(10:03):
So I'm saying guy, cause it wasmostly DJ, male DJs.
Funny thing, I actually endedup working with that female DJ
two years later, recently.
So small world.
But yeah, I approached Nino andI told him listen, I, I
approached a few DJs but Ireally like the way you're DJing

(10:24):
and I would love it if youcould teach me.
And I told him I'm a beginner,like I'm a hobbyist producer.
That's how I called it, youknow, I didn't want him to think
that I'm telling him oh, I'm apro producer.
You know, I'm going to createthis and this for you.
I told him the truth, I dabblein it, I enjoy it, I compose

(10:46):
here and there.
So I'm sure you could use thatskill, I'm sure I could bring
something to the table.
And he didn't really have muchtime to talk, but he said you
know what?
Give me your phone number andwe'll discuss it.
So that wasn't enough for me.
I wanted to make sure heremembers me Right.
So I, I would, um, I was abartender, so I would keep on

(11:12):
bringing him drinks.
Well, I, I would ask him whathe wants to drink and then he
would say that, um, he, hedoesn't drink.
Uh, he does, but he didn't thatnight, um, and normally he
doesn't drink on the during agig, which is something really
nobody should do.
Um, some of you guys somehowmanage to still stay focused.
I, I don't.
I don't drink.

(11:33):
When I, uh, when I dj, I mayhave a small drink, one drink,
but that's it, um, so I justbrought him cokes, the whole,
the whole, uh, the whole event.
I brought him like close to 10,10 Cokes and you could see it
already piling up there, um, youknow, like a bit in each cup,

(11:58):
um and uh, every time I wouldcome in.
I would like, I would, I wouldtalk to him about something.
Anyway, I love, I made animpression, um, kind of hit it
off right away, and but thenthere was nothing right.
He, he never called or messaged.
And then a few months later hecalls me and tells me hey, I
would.
I don't know if you remember,but my name is so-and-so DJ,

(12:21):
so-and-so Uh, I, um, I'm one.
I I wonder, are you stillinterested in DJing?
Because you spoke to me backthen.
I stopped him at his tracks.
I said yes, I am.
Thank you for calling me back.
Uh, so that's really how itstarted.
Now, if you want the full storyand whatever, uh, the very
first episode actually has that,but we spoke about it a few

(12:41):
times.
Um, now, ever since then, I, Iwas stubborn, I, I thought, you
know, I'm going to learn it acertain way.
I'm going to, I'm going to doit much quicker than the, the
regular person.
It's gonna.
You know, I'm going to be readyto to DJ weddings, like in two

(13:01):
or three months.
Now it's possible if you, youknow, at least have somewhat of
what it takes.
You know, you're not lackingany major skills when it comes
to DJing.
You're kind of like an average,you know, potential DJ.
You could do it in two to threemonths if you really put in the

(13:24):
work six to eight hours a day,research practice, you know.
But you know I had a full-timejob, I was bartending, I had
some other things on the side,so that was not happening.
But I, I started learning anduh got into, uh, got into, uh,
got into, you know, just DJingat home.

(13:44):
And then Nino pushed me to dogigs, um, actual gigs.
He said you know what, like,you'll never be ready until you
actually go and do a gig byyourself.
Now I was terrified of itbecause not only did I feel not
ready, cause I really wasn't, um, and later he agreed with me

(14:05):
but he said you know what, itwould have still been a great
experience for you, and I agree,but I'm happy I waited a bit
longer, um, but I could have.
I could have waited less,considering.
You know how I felt.
When I finally actually wentand did it, I was like, wow, I
was ready.
Like at least six months ago Uh, maybe not a year before that,
but at least six months prior tothat gig I was already good to

(14:26):
go.
Now I really care about theclient, their event.
So whether it's a wedding, abirthday, it doesn't matter what
it is.
I'm really particular when itcomes to hiring someone and I
want them to do a fantastic job.
I'll pay them, I'll tip them,I'll you know, I'll treat them
right, everything, but they needto do what I paid them to do.

(14:48):
So that's also how I saw myself.
I was like there's no way Iwould take a gig and not be
ready for it.
I'm not going to ruin someone'sevent, right, and plus, it's
you know who knows how they'llreact.
I don't want to deal with it,right.

(15:10):
So every beginner has that ormost beginners have that fear,
right, and that's not just inDJing.
But we are discussing DJingtoday.
Um, now, my very first gig thatI got by myself was a corporate
event and I told Nino that thereis no way I'm doing this by
myself because, um, they saidthe kind of music that we're
looking for, and back then I waslistening to it.

(15:33):
Like I w, I was barelylistening to that type of music
and, um, maybe here and there,but like it was hip hop, it was
R and B and I w, I wouldn'tlisten to that too much.
I would mostly listen toelectronic dance music, some top
40s right, which of course hadsome hip-hop and R&B, but just a
mix of everything.

(15:53):
But mostly I would listen tolike I play guitar, so I would
listen to like Ed Sheeran, or Iwould like play some Sam Smith
on the piano.
You know wasn't really into hiphop and R&B, especially not hip
hop and I was like you gottacome and help me.
There's no way I'm doing thatgig by myself because I'm gonna

(16:14):
crash and burn Now.
He agreed that he'll come butI'll have to do most of the work
, so it ended up being me doinglike 40, 50% and then he did the
rest.
Uh, I remember splitting thatgig with him because I was
really grateful that he actuallycame and did this with me,
right?
Um, and that was my very firstgig and I I feel like I really

(16:37):
did need his help.
I was, I was not ready yet but,um, I was getting there.
I was getting there and it wasjust.
What was missing was just a bitof practice, a bit of
consistent practice, like amonth or two of like consistent
practice.
And I would be fine for thenext gig by myself Maybe not a
wedding, maybe not something toointricate, but something simple

(16:58):
, definitely.
So what happened was I got, oh,I took a break.
Yeah, that's what happened.
I took a break from taking gigs.
I just it scared me that firstgig.
I was like, wow, if he wasn'tthere I don't know what I would
do, right?
So, but then I was a part ofthis community.

(17:22):
I started this EDM community ofbeginner DJs, we all cause.
I went to school, right, I wentto like, I did a course of, like
a three month course, and Ithought you know what this
course is going to be great forme?
It's going to show Nino, whoback then we weren't that close,
like such close friends backthen.
So I was still trying to provemyself.
I didn't want him to drop me asas like apprentice, right.

(17:51):
So I want to show him.
Hey, I'm doing things on theside, I'm, I'm trying, I'm
learning, I'm gonna get this and, um, I decided to, uh, you know
, take that course.
It wasn't cheap, but there was,there was, there was a sale, so
I decided to go for it.
I knew I'm gonna meet somepeople, you know, and and that's
really the name of the game inthis industry you, you got to
really network, which we'll getto, uh, in this episode.
Now, um, I know I said it'sgoing to be a little bit about

(18:14):
myself, but this actually tiesin a lot into everything.
So I'll continue if I may, ifyou're still listening and
watching.
Um, if you're still listeningand watching.
Once we were done that gig sorrythat course or towards the end
of it, yeah, we decided let'sstart a community.

(18:34):
So I would still perform with abunch of beginners.
A few of them, a few people whojoined were like friends of
friends and they were eitherlike intermediate level DJs or
even pro djs who have, like youknow, a team and like weddings
and all that stuff.
But most of the people therewere beginners and it was nice.
So I felt way more comfortablethere, uh, and we kind of grew

(18:57):
together.
So between that first gig andmy next gig, which I did by
myself, there were all.
There was this experience I hadwith those people I studied
with for those three months.
Now, the next gig, nino actuallycame again.

(19:19):
It was, but he didn't doanything other than help me set
up on time because I was rathernervous.
It was a sweet 16 and it was ata large banquet hall.
It.
Honestly, with all the detailsthat the client threw at me and

(19:41):
the venue and how many guestswere there, this could have
pretty much been a wedding.
That was my first gig reallythat I did by myself other than,
you know, came there for moralsupport.
That's what he wanted to do atthe first gig, like at the very
first one, the corporate one,but I wasn't ready yet.
I did some, I did a lot ofstuff by myself, but he needed

(20:03):
to jump in and kind of likeliven things up.
I was like in the screen.
I was hardly watching the crowd, like the people dancing, like
maybe 50-50, but still lookingat the screen half the time.
That's a long time to look atthe screen.
But then the second gig, whichwas my first gig that I did

(20:24):
pretty much by myself,completely.
He'd never touched the deck andI did it all by myself.
Um, it was incredible.
It was incredible and and Ireally saw that, hey, I can do
this, I'm ready.
I was ready Like I've I've beenwasting time.
So a lot of beginner DJs willrelate to this story.
A lot, a lot, and I spoke to alot of DJs and, whether they're

(20:48):
beginners or pro at this time,everyone's been through this, or
95% of people have been throughthis, and this is true to any
industry really.
But yeah, going forward, Istarted getting gigs, one after
another.
It was incredible.

(21:08):
I'm pretty sure that one was myfirst gig on my own.
And then there was another onewhich was like a birthday 30th
birthday and I retained thatclient actually for more gigs.
And then there was a schoolHalloween.
That was actually Nino's client, who he passed on to me.

(21:29):
There were a couple other gigsand then I had a corporate
Christmas party in December oflast year.
So I was like you know what?
There we go, my business hasstarted, I'm getting clients,
I'm getting phone calls, I'mgetting messages online and you

(21:50):
know I actually have a businessthat's starting up.
And then we started the podcastand it slowed down a little bit
, but then it picked back uponce.
I started promoting myselfagain, which is again something
we're going to talk about today.
Why am I telling you all of this?
First of all, I wanted to tellyou a bit of a story about
myself, if you've never beenhere before.

(22:12):
Second, because this is a quitea special episode where you
know I'm taking over thispodcast completely by myself and
I wanted you to kind of get alittle refresher about who I am
and what this is all about.
And third, because this episodeand I really tried to come of
get a little refresher about whoI am and what this is all about
.
And third, because this episodeand I really tried to come up
with a good title and right nowall I have is how to build a

(22:32):
successful DJ business as abeginner, aka also known as how
to not devalue yourself and workwith the right people, whether
it's clients or a team peopleyou work with.
Work with the right people,whether it's clients or or a
team people you work with.
Um, this is important because,even though we spoke about in
the past, when we were heretogether, we spoke about this

(22:56):
topic, this exact topic.
It can be dissected in so manyways and there's always
something new to say about it.
And with my recent experiencesworking with some like high
caliber djs and you know from,like you know, professional to
like extremely high caliber djsin the area I learned quite a

(23:17):
bit.
I learned a lot about my value,about how to value yourself and
how to remain true to yourself,and also how to, of course, uh
respect the relationships, uh,that you develop along the way.
Now I I would love to go intodetail with every point that I'm

(23:43):
going to bring up.
There's 15 points, and thenthere's some something that I
want to say towards the end,which is, I believe, very
important for everyone to listento.
If you're a beginner, and Ithink if you're a pro, you
already know this.
But that's going to cometowards the end.
Now here's the thing If I gointo each point in detail, it's

(24:07):
going to take like three to fourto five hours, and we're
already at 24 minutes.
So if there's something youwant to know, if there's
something that maybe I did notcover enough in depth, then just
message, message on, you know,if you're on YouTube and you're
watching this episode, messageright there and be and tell me

(24:27):
hey, can you, can you go intomore detail when it comes to
this topic?
Or, you know, email us.
Our email is on just below thevideo and also it's on our
website, so you can alwayscontact us and I'll help as much
as I can.

(24:47):
Now let's start with the firstpoint starting your business,
your DJ business, from scratch.
So I want to break down theessential steps to start a DJ
business and really it's like alot of other businesses.
It will be the same like otherbusinesses, but particularly

(25:10):
when it comes to DJing,legalities are very important,
because you're dealing with thepublic and you're dealing with
music, which is often copyrightmusic, and you're dealing with
venues, and it's just if youdon't do things correctly in
this industry and you startgrowing, that whole business can

(25:35):
collapse on you, even if you'rea beginner and you started and
it just goes so well from thestart.
It's been six months and andyou're you're just extremely
happy with how things are going,but you're cutting corners.
It's not a good idea in this,in this industry, it's
definitely not a good idea.
So, when it comes to startingyour dj business, make sure that

(26:02):
I know it sounds silly to to dothis right from the beginning.
Make sure that I know it soundssilly to do this right from the
beginning, but make sure you'relicensed.
Make sure that you havecontracts, make sure that, um,
you are protecting yourself whenyou work with other people.
Now I'll get into into it inmore detail.
Um, let's let's get into thesecond point budgeting, uh, for

(26:25):
your first year as a DJ.
That's something that I myselfexperienced, um, in so many
different ways.
At first I thought, hey, I'mgoing to save, I'm not going to
spend too much money.
But then I started gigging andI was like, hey, but if I, if I
get these lights, it's going tolook better.
Or if I do this, it's going to.
I'm going to look so much moreprofessional.

(26:46):
And I would look at gear tomake me more professional, which
is, again, a very beginnermistake.
Nobody really cares what deckyou have, or if you have CDJs,
if you don't know how to usethem, so you might impress
someone and then it'll all comecrashing down because they'll be

(27:10):
like oh, I guess he just has alot of money, but he, or maybe
he had a lot of money, hedoesn't have it anymore.
Um, but he doesn't know how toDJ.
So that's why it's important to.
So that's why it's important tofocus on the actual skill.
Get yourself, especially in thebeginning, if you're not
planning to DJ in front ofpeople and you're just trying to

(27:34):
learn it get yourself a basiccontroller.
The FLX4 is probably one of thebest controllers out there
right now, but anything aroundthat class, that's not a toy.
Honestly, even those tiny onesI forget what they're called
those mini controllers.
You can do some incrediblestuff with them, but for many

(27:56):
reasons, you know, kind of getthat control, the FLX4 or
anything that's within thatrange.
It's 400 Canadian dollars or Ithink, like two something, 300
US.
You need a pair of headphones, adecent laptop, because if the

(28:16):
laptop crashes and that's it,the event is done.
So a decent laptop, somethingthat is not too old, and
preferably it's just for DJing,but again, you know, is not too
old and and preferably it's justfor DJing.
But again, if you're just doingit from home just to learn that
, whatever you have, uh, acouple of cables that you might
need to connect to the speakersthat you probably already have

(28:36):
at home, and you're, like I said, you already have the, the
entry-level DJ uh controller.
You already have theentry-level DJ controller.
Now, other than that, you don'tneed anything else.
Did I skip something?
I said headphones, controller,speakers, a few cables.
Well, obviously you need music.

(28:57):
Now, in the beginning, a lot ofpeople will download stuff.
They'll find a way to downloadit and not pay for it and I'll
be realistic, I'm not going tocondone this here on the podcast
, say, yeah, go ahead and piratemusic, but if you're just doing

(29:19):
this to learn, and Nino and Isaid that before you're just
doing this to learn, you're justdoing this to see if you like
it and you know and how you knowyou're trying to understand the
concept of djing, then I guessit's okay.
Again, I'm not gonna kind ofget into the rules and laws.
I mean really legally it's notokay, but, um, I know all of you

(29:40):
will be doing this.
That's why I'm saying this.
So really, that's what I to say.
I was buying my music from dayone, because I don't remember
for how many years, even since,before I became an adult, I was
already buying my games and mysoftware and everything.
So when it came to music, itwas no different to me.

(30:00):
I was like you know what I want?
To become a DJ, let me purchasemy music.
It was no different to me.
I was like you know what I wantto get become a DJ, let me
purchase my music.
So I would uh, go on um.
I would go on um the rightchannel, so DJ record pools and
just really anywhere where you'dpay for the music and you get
good quality tracks, remixes andacapellas.

(30:24):
And I was like you know whatBetter this way no viruses and I
know what I'm getting and it'sall high quality.
So, honestly, if you have $30 amonth, $60 a month, you can
subscribe to one or two of thoseDJ record pools.
That's what I would recommend.
But really, that's all you need.
That's all you need.

(30:45):
That's all you need and,honestly, one month you get all
the music you need and that's it.
You don't have to get any more.
Learn it, understand it,practice for a few months.
You don't need to spend anymoney.
Once you get your first gig,whatever you need for that gig,
get it.
If you need up lights, if youneed look, if you need moving

(31:05):
heads, you just start it out.
Maybe don't buy them, mayberent them, because they're we're
talking like fifteen hundreddollars per per moving head, per
light, and then you got to getthe actual stands and it just,
and also to set them up.
You probably won't know whatyou're doing.
So even pros sometimes get allkind of confused during the

(31:27):
setup process and something isnot working the way it was
working at home.
So now they have to reprogramit.
So think logically and if it'ssomething affordable and you
know you need it for the gig,get it.
Don't return it.
Get it, keep it for the nextgig, um, but yeah, within reason

(31:48):
, right, if you need a projector, again, I'm sure you can rent
that because you'll likely won'tneed one need one for every gig
.
But certain things like lights,you'll need a microphone you'll
need.
Right, I didn't say microphoneat first because when you're
home, if you want to practice,you know, talking on microphone
you can just like act like youhave a microphone, but you know

(32:11):
that's a wired microphone.
Then you can go wireless.
You know it's a bit moreexpensive.
So just budget, don't spend alot of money because, first of
all, you don't know if you'regoing to actually stick to it
and, second, even if you'regoing to stick to it, trust me,
you're going to stick to it.
Trust me, you're probably notgoing to listen.
Half of you are probably notgoing to listen.
But trust me, I've done thesame thing.
I spent money I wasn't supposedto spend and stuff was just

(32:34):
sitting there collecting dust orI was just using it for like,
like, house parties and stuff,like really I was not making my
money back on the stuff that Ipurchased until I started
gigging and using those, uh,that gear.
Right, luckily I didn't go too.
I didn't go too crazy, so Iended up using everything I got.
Um, like, I'll give you anexample right now I'm I'm

(32:57):
upgrading my lights.
It's been a year or so thatI've been gigging consistently
and it's time to upgrade mylights, that I've been gigging
consistently and it's time toupgrade my lights.
I need better lights.
Now.
Lights are expensive, so I waswaiting until I really had no
choice.
Right, I wouldn't get to thepoint where somebody complained,
but I knew the gigs I'm takingand if I needed to rent

(33:18):
something, I would, and at thispoint I need to purchase a
certain type of lights.
So I'm going to do that, andthat is budgeting.
And it's not just that, it's.
Think about a lot of stuff.
Think about your car You'regoing to be driving a lot.
Think about pricing yourservices, handling unexpected

(33:40):
costs like travel and repairsAll that stuff.
You need to really become yourown accountant.
A DJ is more than just somebodywho plays music.
You're a digital marketer,you're an accountant, you're a
coordinator, you do everything.
So one of the things you got todo is become your own
accountant.
And if you're not good withmoney, make sure somebody who is

(34:02):
good with money is going tohelp you out, help you, help you
grasp that concept.
Um, now going forward, numberthree we're moving through these
pretty slowly.
It might be an hour episode orlonger, who knows but it's
definitely not going to be uh,no, four or five, six hours of

(34:22):
me going into every point inextreme detail.
Like, for example, I would loveto talk to you more about
marketing and get into extremedetail.
But we'll talk about it a bitmore, but definitely not in
detail on this episode.
But if you'd like to hear moreabout marketing, I can teach you
quite a bit.
I have some experience.
I've worked with someincredible digital marketers, so

(34:46):
I learned enough about this tobe able to do it myself.
But I still hire people.
Because one thing I learned isif you can do something yourself
, it doesn't mean you have.
You should focus on your niche,focus on your business.
Don, and you know, try to savemoney everywhere and um and

(35:07):
think, oh, I saved money, sothis was a good decision.
Sometimes it's not about that.
Sometimes you're losing moneywhen you do that.
But again, if you don't thinkso, keep going and see what
happens.
I'm telling you, I know thatfrom experience.
So, number three branding 101for DJs.
You need to create a strong,recognizable brand.

(35:28):
Choose again this is not themost important part.
A lot of people just get stuckin this for like a year or two
years before they start, andthat's obviously ridiculous.
But choose a proper DJ name.
I went with my personal firstname.
It's not extremely common inNorth America.
I mean, yeah, you hear it fromtime to time, but to me it

(35:52):
sounds regular.
But others are like oh, DJ Ilya, oh, that sounds, that sounds
cool, that's unique.
Oh, I love your name and Ialways liked my name and what it
stood for, what I represented,and I said you know what that's
going to be my DJ name.
If one day I come up with likean alias, cool, I'll do that.
I'll do it as a, as a project,and I'll continue.

(36:15):
So, come up with a name.
Create a logo, something thatwill represent you, because
going, because the next thingI'm going to say is create an
online presence.
So, wherever you are onlinewhether it's your website, your
Instagram, your YouTube, likeanywhere you are put that logo
there, something that will belike.
People will see it and be likeoh, it's this guy or it's this

(36:35):
girl, right?
So definitely do that.
Now.
You need to find a way to makeyour personal brand stand out in
this extremely competitivemarket.
Now, how is it going to standout?

(36:59):
I, for example, I sing.
I'm not this like extremelyprofessional singer, but I'm
definitely better than theaverage person who just sings in
the shower, excuse me.
And um, I play the guitar, Iplay the piano, um, I can dance,
you know, and just entertainthe crowd.

(37:19):
So what, what do you see here?
What do you hear here?
What do you hear here?
I entertain and I haveexperience with instruments,
musical instruments, so I wouldintroduce that to my DJing, for
example.
So right now I'm working onthat, and that also goes towards
expanding your business.
So we're going to get to thatpoint.

(37:39):
I don't need to do that rightnow.
My business is going well as itis, but if there's an
opportunity for example, therewas one with one gig where they
said hey, do you know somebodywho could sing the song when we
walked down the aisle?
Or, uh, when the birthday cake,uh, will be wheeled in, can you

(38:00):
can do?
You know somebody who couldsing?
This isn't that?
So that's when it was anopportunity and you know, I
offered my services.
So I'm not pushing it yet, butit's something that is already
there.
I'm already using it and I'mmaking it different.
I mean, there's somebody whoplays the saxophone, a dj who
plays a saxophone, somebody whoplays, uh, the harmonica,

(38:22):
somebody, somebody who plays theharmonica, somebody who who
plays the.
There's just, there's just somany different.
There's the electric electricviolin.
I believe it's, yeah, electricviolin.
That is a show on its own andand they incorporate it together
.
And there there's the, the pads.
You know, the DJs who use those, those, those, those drum pads,

(38:42):
those drum pads.
And, aside from using yourskills like that, there is a
different way of being thereduring the show.
And for me, I'm veryextroverted and I like to, if
it's appropriate, get on thedance floor and really liven up
the party and really get thereand really, just, you know,

(39:04):
entertain everyone.
Again, some places it's notreally, in some venues, some,
some cultures, some some events,it's not appropriate at all.
Or, you know, it might be okaywith some, but not with everyone
.
Only do it if you're absolutelysure.
But you got to really stand out,you got to be so different that

(39:25):
people will say, oh, you knowwhat You're looking for, that
kind of an act.
You got to contact this guy.
He did my birthday, or like ourwedding, and it was so
different, he was soentertaining.
Or like he plays the guitarphenomenally, like he has
phenomenal guitar skills.
You got to do something that'sdifferent.
Or, if you don't do any ofthose things, you got to do

(39:45):
something that's different.
Or if you don't do any of thosethings, maybe you mix a certain
way.
You just have to stand out.
Now there is also other thingsyou can do to stand out.
You can spend more money onmarketing.
You can spend more money on,you know, an online presence In
one way or another.
You have to and not just assumethat you're going to get

(40:07):
discovered by someone becausethere's another 10,000 like you
in the small area where you liveor trying to make it as DJs in
one way or another.
So definitely build a strongbrand.

(40:27):
Number four how to marketyourself as a beginner dj.
So we kind of, kind of just Ikind of just went over that.
But first of all, build a.
Build a website.
It's not that hard, it's.
It's.
It's nowadays, a child canbuild their own website.
Build a website just forpresence.

(40:48):
I can't tell you how many timespeople said, hey, can we see
something that you can.
We see you, dj.
Or like, hey, did you ever dosomething like this before?
So I have all of my stuffcategorized.
So it's like almost like acatalog where you can find all
my stuff on this website.

(41:09):
It's down now I'm revamping itbut, um, I can still send them
the videos because I have themright, um, but it's extremely
important.
Now you'll say, oh well, I havemy instagram.
It's fine if you have yourinstagram, great, but your
website, you are in full controlof this.
This is your platform.
So I would still say, get awebsite and social media,

(41:34):
instagram, tiktok.
There are courses.
If you don't know how to use it, get a course 25 bucks, 50
bucks, 100 bucks, 500 bucks.
It's worth it.
Go on Reddit, find out if it'sa scam or a decent course.
It's not that hard.
Be resourceful, right and toughlove.
You know I'm telling you whatyou have to do.

(41:55):
Network Networking is extremelyimportant, just like how I
networked with Nino and otherDJs and I made friends and made
myself a mentor and, hey, Ihelped him a lot too.
He was very grateful for allthe stuff I did for him.
Like again, I'm not trying tobrag, but like the way I took

(42:17):
videos and photos for him.
It really elevated his socialmedia.
I was pretty much the humangimbal, the way I would take the
videos.
You would think it's done witha gimbal or a drone and it just
I have a feel for it.
One more thing I could suggestto people during the event.

(42:37):
I actually do that because Idon't have a ton of clients yet
like 15, 30 gigs per week, Icould still do that.
I literally take videos andphotos during the event.
I spend more money on, you know, like a nice camera, you can
get a 360, whatever, whatevermakes more sense for you.

(42:58):
You edit the footage and thenyou can literally sell it to the
customer, to the client.
Now, I don't sell it, I give itas a bonus.
Like, hey, I know you didn'thave a videographer, you only
had a photographer.
Here's a video from yourwedding, right, or from your
birthday or whatever event I'vebeen to.
I took a few photos right.
Well, after I transitioned thesong, I went on the on the dance

(43:20):
floor and I took a few photosand, hey, I grabbed this really
awesome shot of you and yourgirlfriend, or you and your
family, and I would share itwith them.
So I did that for Nino and,amongst other things and that's
also really important to be ableto actually capture the moment

(43:44):
so you could actually show itonline after and win over a
certain gig.
You know, when the client istrying to decide between you and
another DJ, you can say hey,you know what.
You should pick me because,check this out.
So and got to network withevent organizers, with

(44:08):
coordinators All these peopleare your bread and butter.
They will get you the gigs.
Now you got to know how tonetwork and it's not something I
could teach you right now, ormaybe ever really how to network
, because you got to have somecharisma.
You got to know how to kind ofbutter someone up but not kiss

(44:29):
ass at the same time.
You got to kind of know thehappy what do you call it?
The happy medium, and the bestthing you can do is to take it
easy.
That's like, don't think aboutit.
As you know, you're going outthere to network and to be an
entrepreneur.
Just go and chat.

(44:50):
Oh're, you're the coordinator.
Oh yeah, I've been djing forsix months now.
Oh, I'm.
You know, I'm shadowing this,uh, this dj.
Um, just strike up aconversation.
Learned to talk to people thatyou don't know, who you don't
know, and slowly you understandwhat it's like to network.
Networking is just you makingfriends, like you're going to

(45:11):
the sandbox as a kid and, hey,you want to be my friend, you
know.
Like, hey, I have this truck,let's play with my truck
together.
It's just going back to being akid and just not feeling afraid
to talk to people, right?
Well, some kids might be shy,but you know what I'm saying and
you know.
Create a press kit to show yourskills, show something that is

(45:32):
unique about yourself.
And there are so many templatesand cool things you can find
online nowadays that would costyou hundreds and thousands of
dollars thousands of dollars tocreate that kind of edit, and
you can do that yourselfnowadays.
So you put all that stuffonline.
You pay 50 to a hundred bucks amonth for some ads.
Whatever it is you're doing,whatever your venue is, whatever

(45:55):
your niche is, and it's goingto work out.
It's going to work.
People are going to startnoticing you.
Now, number five setting your DJrates.
That's really important.
Pricing your services that'ssomething that up until my

(46:17):
second gig or third gig, I didnot understand very well, or I
didn't understand at all.
Like you know what, I'm justgonna do it for free or I'm just
gonna do it for whatever pricethey say.
I just want to get experience.
Now it's the right approachtechnically.
But if you can, if you canreally really um, stand behind

(46:44):
your skill and you know, hey,you know what, I'm good at this.
I know I'm worth this muchmoney for this gig.
I know a pro charges 1500 bucksfor this gig and I can easily
charge a thousand dollars.
You know what.
Let's take 900.
You know let's.
Let's, let's make it easier,easier on me to actually get
this gig.
So, 900 bucks, I'm sure I cando this.
Hey, will you do it for 500?

(47:05):
No, I won.
You do it for 500?
No, I won't do it for 500.
Now you can maybe find, like,luckily, I'm good at sales, so
I've always find a way to kindof dance around that dance
around with a client.
You know what.
You want to dance with me?
Let's go.
You want to do it for?
Why do you think I should do itfor 500?
And we actually have an episodeabout that.
Nino and I did a skit.

(47:31):
I don't know what episodenumber it is, but it's there.
I think it was about notdevaluing yourself.
I think that was like literallyhow the episode started.
So it's easy to find and peoplewould generally say I want to
pay this much.
Now a lot of them will just say,okay, well, whatever, i'm'm
gonna keep on looking.
But if you educate them in kindof a fun and respectful manner

(47:55):
and you gotta be quick there'sno they, they're gonna, you're
gonna lose them within like aminute or less, probably
probably 15 to 30 seconds.
So if you are going to, ifyou're going to speak to someone
who was devaluing you by like50% or so or like, like, really
like is asking you for somethingyou just can't do, look, if

(48:17):
they said 800 bucks and you want900, you kind of went to 900,
down from one, like up from 1000to 900.
Now they want 800.
Look, if, if, if you barelyhave any clients go for it,
right, like, that's, that's howI look at it.
But if they're going lower thanthat and lower and you and
you're thinking you know what,like this is not worth it to me,
um, then do your best toactually uh, try to get a better

(48:44):
, a better deal out of it.
Now you might lose that client.
I'm not gonna lie, you mightlose.
There's a good chance you'regoing to lose them if you don't
know what you're doing.
But if you don't know whatyou're doing and you don't know
how to haggle with someone, thenyou'll never know if you never
try.
You got to develop that skill.
So if it's a ridiculous offer,take that opportunity.

(49:04):
Take that opportunity and usethat as your school of life.
Let's learn how to how tohaggle um, and there are so many
things you gotta actuallyfactor into the price.
I used to think, oh, this gig isfour, four hours long, 350
bucks, 400 bucks, let's say 400bucks, 100 bucks an hour, that's

(49:25):
amazing, let's do it.
100 bucks an hour, I can dothis.
This is a really good, reallygood gig for me.
It's a really good deal for me.
Now, if I were ready out thebox, just ready, I don't have to
um to plan, I don't have topractice, I don't have to
prepare anything.

(49:46):
Everything's already in the car.
The car is teleported into thevenue, like beside the venue,
into the parking lot.
Fine, 400 bucks sounds prettygood.
100 bucks an hour, I'm notgonna lie, it sounds pretty good
to me.
I'm gonna go play some music.
Fine, let's do it, um,especially if it's not like a
wedding or something like thatwhere you can really like, uh,

(50:06):
charge more, but it's not thecase.
You're going to have to practice.
You're going to have to set up,especially as a beginner, set
up literally a mock setup ofyour setup at the gig when you
get to the actual performance,and you're going to have to make

(50:27):
sure everything works.
Because if you don't know howto set up quickly and if you set
up and you're like, oh shoot, Idon't have that one cable, well
it's because you never checkedat home, when you never tried to
set it up at first.
Right, you, you're not a pro,you haven't been doing this for
for very long, so you probablyneed to.
You probably need to practiceeven setting up.

(50:47):
And you know what?
At first it took me like twohours to set up properly two to
two and a half hours, and I waslike nitpicking everything and
or maybe I would set up thespeakers.
I was like you know what?
No, it's better there.
And then I would like work onthings that really I shouldn't
be working on and I would justspend time on things I shouldn't
be spending time on or do thesame thing over and over again

(51:11):
until it was perfect.
And after two, three gigs, youknow you kind of catch on, you
understand how you shouldcontinue.
It kind of becomes natural.
If you care about it it'llbecome natural, it'll just come
to you because you don't want tobe there for two, three hours
setting up.
It doesn't take more than halfan hour to an hour to set up and
an hour usually is a very bigsetup, like you have an SUV full

(51:36):
of gear and if it's just youknow, a minor setup speakers, um
, you know your gear, your basicgear, your deck, your like your
controller, um, headphones, uh,microphone no, you gotta.
You gotta maybe tape some ofthe cables and stuff like that
Shouldn't take you more thanhalf an hour, 45 minutes at most

(51:59):
.
So, but that's what I'm saying.
Like people don't think aboutthat.
They're thinking, oh, it's afour hour gig for 400 bucks, a
hundred bucks an hour.
Um, how about all the work youput into marketing yourself?
How about all the money you putinto marketing yourself?
How about all the time youspoke to the clients on the
phone?
Or you know you did a lot ofresearch, a lot of work, all

(52:22):
that side work that you're doing.
Think about it.
Whatever job you have, this isgoing to be a good analogy for
most professions, most careersand stuff.
There's a lot of busy work andstuff.
You do a work besides the maintask in order to make the main
task happen.
Right?
You're still getting paid forit, right?

(52:44):
You get paid for your time.
So value your time.
So value your time.
Price your services in a waythat it's fair to you, not just
the client.
Again, be realistic.
If you're just starting out wealready spoke about it a few
months ago you can easily figureout if it makes sense or not.

(53:05):
I won't be able to nitpick onthe price.
You should.
You should, uh, accept.
So I'm going to leave it atthat.
Just have it make sense withwhat I said.
And uh, there's so much more.
You can uh research online inregards to this.
Now, number six.
Number six securing your firstDJ gig.
Um, there are so manystrategies you can that can help

(53:28):
you land your first gig.
You got to build relationshipswith venues, event organizers,
promoters, as well as leveragesmall opportunities to get
bigger bookings, and it'ssomething that I discussed a
couple points ago and I think wecan move on.

(53:50):
But all I'll say is if you'renot getting at least one gig a
month, or at least one gig everytwo months, you're doing
something wrong.
You either did not practiceenough so you don't really know
what you're doing, you're notputting yourself out there
enough, you're you know, maybeyou need to work on your um,
like your soft skills, like youryour just like the way you

(54:14):
communicate um, maybe yourappearance maybe.
Maybe you need to look moreprofessional, maybe you need to
look more the part.
It could be so many differentthings, but there are so many
people in most cities who wouldneed a DJ at some point of time.
There's weddings happening,there's birthday parties,

(54:34):
there's impromptu house parties,there's events like Halloween
or Christmas, there's so manydifferent corporate events and,
yeah, sure, there's also so manyDJs out there.
I get it.
But if you stand out from yourcompetition at least by a bit,

(55:01):
now 50% of them don't evenmatter, because now you're
definitely going to be the firstpick.
And let me tell you something assimple as posting an ad online
works for me 80% of the time.
A few times, for like a monthand a half, I got nothing, or
two months, I think I gotnothing.
I would post and post and postand nothing, and then suddenly
one after another.
You know, because people saw it, maybe they were planning and

(55:24):
they never contacted me first,right, that's why it was quiet
during that month, even thoughit wasn't supposed to be a quiet
month.
Point is, it's an average.
So during that year I still gotmy average of gigs that I get
every year.
I still got at least two tothree gigs a month, even though
for two months it was prettymuch there was nothing going on.
Now that's what I'm going tosay about securing, securing dj

(55:50):
gigs.
Um number seven creating andmanaging dj contracts.
That's something I'm going toget into a bit of detail.
I feel like it's extremelyimportant.
Um, talk about talking aboutcontracts.
Um, could stress some peopleout.

(56:11):
They'll think, well, I don'thave money for a lawyer, or like
, I don't understand this jargon.
You know this legal jargon.
It's not that hard.
Staples has some ready-madecontracts online.
You can buy a contract.
You know you won't make itofficial, purchase it, purchase
that contract.
A lot of them are very cheapunder 50 bucks, under 100 bucks,
depending what it is you'regetting.

(56:32):
Um, get a contract that'salready written online and for
free and and worded however youlike right, whatever makes sense
for you.
Um, I had contracts fromprevious things I was doing,
when I was building websites andwhen I was doing like
bartending gigs and I would takethat and change it up.

(56:53):
Also, you know, from myexperience with working with
some more reputable DJs, Ilearned what to say.
I looked at their contracts.
I learned how to protect myselfand the client everyone really
in that contract, but mostlymyself, because it's my contract

(57:14):
for me to make sure that Icover my ass.
So, um, I will show you, I willtell you, uh, some stuff that I
have in my contract.
So it's not that.
It's not that difficult Ifyou're a beginner and you don't
know what to have in my contract.
So it's not that difficult Ifyou're a beginner and you don't
know what to put in yourcontract.
Well, here goes You're going towrite down contract or agreement

(57:38):
or booking agreement at the top, and then you're going to write
down kind of like an intro likethat this is an agreement made
on a certain date between thisperson and this person and
yourself.
You can refer to yourself asthe dj and then you can uh
continue referring to yourselfas a dj and the and as the

(58:00):
contract as the text continuesand you'll see what I'm talking
about.
When you see certain contracts,they, a lot of them, have the
same kind of template,especially the simpler ones.
You don't need anything toointricate and you know.
After that intro paragraph youcan go into writing pretty much
the point form of the details ofthe event.

(58:22):
So the venue, location, theoccasion, the approximate number
of guests, the date ofappearance, the time you arrive,
guests, the date of appearance,the time you arrive by the time
you're going to be set up byand the fee you're going to be
charging.
Then you're going to write downthe equipment that you're
bringing, if there's anyadditional equipment that you're
getting specifically for thatevent, and write down anything

(58:49):
about the time of performance.
If they want to extend the time, then write down that it's
going to potentially, uh, be ata cost, uh, and it's subject to
the DJ at a DJ's decision, uh,at a time.
Um.
Now write down if there was anadvanced payment you received

(59:10):
and it's very important Alwaystake a payment, take a deposit.
A lot of people say take 50%.
Well, if you're a beginner,probably nobody's going to give
you 50%.
Take something that you knowthey're not going to walk away
from 150 bucks, 200 bucks.
Nobody wants to just lose 150bucks or $200, unless they're
rich, and even then theyprobably value money more than a

(59:33):
poor person.
So they wouldn't want to loseit.
Have something that willreserve you exclusively for that
client on that date, Because ifthey decide to walk away from
that deal, you know what fine,you may have missed another gig,
but at least you made somemoney and you can still maybe
get the other gig and try to getback to it.

(59:57):
One great pointer I'll tell youan honorable mention when it
comes to that stuff what Ilearned from what you can do if
a gig does get canceled.
You're not going to tell themoh, you know what, you're never
getting your money back.
I'm sorry, that was thecontract.
No, be cool about it.
Say no, I'm sorry that yourevent got canceled, especially
if it's something like reallysad that happened, anything like

(01:00:20):
that.
I am running a business afterall.
You're probably going to redothis event.
I'm going to keep your depositfor a year or two years, or
don't even give them a time.
I'm going to keep your deposit.
You can come back to me whenyou're ready, and we will.
We will find a different datefor you and we will, uh, already
count this as money paidtowards that event.

(01:00:43):
So that's something you can do.
And then you can write downwhen the total is due and the
kind of music you're going to beplaying, and then the terms and
conditions, which is veryimportant, and you're going to
write down pretty much that thepayment has to come to your

(01:01:05):
hands or your bank accountbefore you press play on the
decks, because what's going tohappen?
Um, and I've seen that happenbefore many times you would, you
will, you will finish the eventand everyone's drunk or tired

(01:01:27):
and that, and you don't.
You don't get paid and I got tochase them.
Now it looks unprofessional.
Go and get your money beforethe event starts, if you're very
confident that they're going topay you.
Some people do it at the end ofthe event.
I say you get it before theevent starts and that's the best
thing you could do.
Some people say I'm not settingup until I get my money.

(01:01:48):
That's I set up, I set up.
I tell them listen, I set upeverything.
I did my sound check.
Let's settle the remaining feeand then we can continue and
yeah, and just cover the mostimportant parts in the contract.
What happens if you become ill?

(01:02:09):
What happens if something elsecomes up right and you can't go
into the gig?
Write it all out.
And again, I'm not going to getinto the jargon of everything,
but definitely you can find thatinformation if you look for it
online.
It's not hard to find and ifyou guys have any questions,

(01:02:32):
definitely contact me and I'lldo my best to answer as quick as
possible.
So that was contracts Numbereight managing your DJ business
as a side hustle.
That is something important alot of people don't understand.
That is something important alot of people don't understand.
Nobody is going to wake you upand say, hey, you got to go to

(01:02:53):
work, you got to go DJ, you gotto go, you got to go, you got to
practice.
Or it's a business, it's yourbusiness, it's a sole venture
proprietorship and you're goingto have to be responsible.
You're going to have to beresponsible.
You're going to have to bedisciplined and that's not just

(01:03:16):
by actually going and doing thework, even though nobody's
managing you, but also otherthan time management and, you
know, managing clientrelationships because, like
these, people are paying you andthey're looking at you in a
certain light.
You got to maintain that andthen you got to grow your DJ
business right While jugglingother commitments.

(01:03:39):
You can't let your job suffer,because your job is what allows
you to do this.
It allows you to do thisbecause now you're able to have
this fun business and maybewe'll turn into a dream which is
doing that full time Right.
But if, um, if you tank yourjob, then you can't do this

(01:04:02):
anymore.
Or maybe your personalrelationships.
It's hard In the beginning.
It was hard for me me, um,maintaining my relationship with
my girlfriend and my djing uhresponsibilities and my family
events and my uh, my work and myspecial projects.
And, oh, you know what, I wantto go to the beach that day and,
like you know, it's my personalwants and needs.

(01:04:23):
And you're gonna have to learn.
You're gonna have to slowlybuild that kind of life where
you know that, hey, hey, I havethis responsibility and it has
to work with everything else.
So, balance your life and I'vedone too much of one thing.
I tried in every which way andsomething always suffered.

(01:04:44):
Balance is the name of the gamehere.
Of course, sometimes you gottapush, it happens.
There's no black and white here, but for the most part, balance
number nine.
We're getting there.
Six more points, uh.
Networking for djs okay, wespoke about this already.
I I wrote a bunch of points andI guess some of them are kind

(01:05:05):
of redundant, but let's see ifthere's anything new here.
It's extremely important tobuild relationships we already
spoke about it because they leadto more bookings and
friendships lots of friendshipsbut there are certain events you
can go to, like you know what.
I need to speak to you guysabout this, because I wrote that

(01:05:26):
down specifically in this point.
Some DJs will need you tocollaborate with them, for
whatever reason.
Maybe you're good at a certaingenre, maybe you have a certain
you know crowd that follows you.
Maybe they just need someone togo to an event with them, for
whatever reason.
Or maybe they need you to comeand be one of the people who

(01:05:48):
supports them, or maybe theyneed you to come and be one of
the people who supports them.
Now I did listen to anotherpodcast where they were talking
about it for like an hour and ahalf and, wow, we are over an
hour already.
This turned out to be a muchlonger episode than I expected,
but this is a special episode.
I know we always said it's aspecial episode, but this is
definitely a unique episodetoday, so I'm going to allow

(01:06:08):
this.
Hopefully you guys are stillokay with it.
But what was I saying?
Yeah, so it's extremelyimportant to.
I was talking actually aboutthe podcast.
Yeah, they were speaking aboutthe same thing.
So it's extremely important togo and support your fellow DJs.

(01:06:33):
But I forget the name of thatpodcast and I mentioned hey, I
gave them credit.
I mentioned you know what?
I think they're called thepassionate DJ.
I think that's what they'recalled Great podcast.
I really like it.
I've listened to them before Ieven became a DJ Similar to ours

(01:06:54):
, I think.
Like it.
Uh, I've listened to thembefore I even became a DJ.
Uh, similar to ours, I think.
Uh, the only one that I foundthat's kind of like like ours
and I really like it Um, kind ofbanter and they cover like
similar topics.
So, on that podcast, I believeit was called the passionate DJ
and I'm sorry if I'm saying thewrong name, but I'm pretty sure
that's what it was.
Um, they said something that Ireally agreed um, with you're

(01:07:14):
gonna get a lot of.
You're going to create a lot ofrelationships.
Um, as a beginner DJ a lot ofrelationships, a lot of people
that you know you kind ofstarted with.
All of those people are goingto have gigs.
All of them are going to inviteyou to gigs and you're going to
want to please everyone.
Right now you might actually befree sometimes, but then it's

(01:07:37):
your own free time.
Now, while it's fun to go and,you know, support your fellow
DJs and party, it's gonnaoverwhelm you.
At some point, you'll see it's.
You know, especially if you'rea little older than you know,
your mid-20s, it's gonna becometoo much and it is highly
recommended to pick the fewpeople that you follow regularly

(01:08:01):
and you support regularly.
And then the rest, you know, benice about it.
Tell them, you know, be up withthem.
Tell them, hey, I actuallydon't have time, but I swear to
you that I'll come and see youat the first opportunity I have.
But, hey, is there another wayI could help you?
Hey, how about I share yourevent details on my Instagram?

(01:08:21):
Do what you can.
Don't make someone feel likethey're this small and they're
not worth your time, because youknow what.
You were there at some pointand even if you weren't, it's
all about helping each other.
I'm going to become spiritualhere for a second.
It's all about moving the wheeltogether.

(01:08:45):
I'll tell you a quick littlefact about someone that I met,
high caliber DJ from Philly, andI can't tell you how we like
sorry, I didn't meet him inperson, but he's on my Instagram
and I had him on my Instagramfor about yeah, about seven

(01:09:07):
years or so, maybe longer, Ican't tell at this point.
It was several years before Imoved to this apartment and I
remember that from the start hewas always very helpful.
I don't remember how weconnected.
Maybe he watched one of mystories and and I, and then I I

(01:09:30):
was like who is this guy?
And I went on and I liked hisInstagram.
I was like, oh, wow, that's apretty decent DJ.
I like you know, I like hisvibe, like stories, stuff like
that.
Um, and I added him.
Maybe he messaged me something.
I can't tell.
I don't, I didn't see thehistory back then.
But point is, I don't evenremember how we really connected

(01:09:51):
.
It was something like you know,like a regular kind of like oh,
maybe maybe I'll add that person.
Probably that's what it was.
And guess what, someone likethat normally would never look
at you twice, especially ifthey're you, you know very good
at their job, but you knowthey're very advanced, uh, in
their career, um, and he's beenso helpful, um, I I chatted with

(01:10:20):
him a couple times because I Isent him a couple messages, um,
about you know, like his stories.
I was like, oh, like, good job,oh, that's pretty cool,
whatever, right, like I likedsomething that he posted and he
just like, he gave me the timeof day.
Right, you can't compare betweenus.
Like, this guy is so out of myleague as a DJ and an

(01:10:46):
entrepreneur that there's no wayto even compare it.
Right, like he's so much moreadvanced but he's always, you
know, spoken to me with respect.
He told me, hey, I'll, I'llreach that level myself someday.
You know, I just need to workfor it and I believe it.
Right, like, I've reached a lotof things that that a lot of
people didn't think werereachable within a pretty short

(01:11:06):
period of time.
Because I'm stubborn, I wantsomething, I get it.
And when you have the passionand when you have the skill, you
work towards something, you canget it.
You can get whatever you want.
And the point is I wasn't afraidto message him Like what's
going to happen, so he's goingto ignore me.

(01:11:27):
Or maybe he could say something, message him like, like, what's
gonna happen, so he's gonnaignore me?
Or uh, maybe you know, maybemaybe he I don't know could say
something that I may not like,maybe no big deal, right.
So I just, you know, I justdecided to reach out, whatever,
whatever it is, I said, and then, you know, I remember the more
recent interactions we had andnow I would tell him, hey, like,
do you remember how we likeconnected, like when we started

(01:11:47):
talking a bit more more?
And he said he doesn't remember, but I was planning an event
and he helped me quite a bit.
He gave me lots of, like youknow, wisdom, like lots of
really good pointers thatsomeone like myself would not

(01:12:10):
even think about before.
I actually obtained thatexperience.
So he was there and he's like,listen, just FYI, do this, this,
this, this.
And that he spent like half anhour on the phone with me.
I mean like on you know, Ithink it was on WhatsApp.
We did like a video call, avideo chat.

(01:12:32):
It's just incredible, right,like the level of support you'll
get from the most random people, right, people who are not your
friends, people who are notreally, don't really have any
reason to help you.
They're just good people, right, and that's also the reason why
I help others whenever I can.

(01:12:52):
What goes around comes around.
So, you know, be good to yourfellow DJs, fellow humans.
It's really important,especially in this industry, and
people get really frustrated inthis industry.
A lot of people, you know theydon't show it but it's hard,
it's hard to make it and peoplemight give up.
It's their dream, you know,it's um it.

(01:13:16):
It becomes personal.
So what?
What I learned was when and Ididn't do it to get anything, I
was just that's just mypersonality.
But like, uh, what I learnedwas when I did certain things
that others told me was a wasteof time, like, oh, why are you
going to all these events?
He's a no one or she's a she.
You know, you know why are yougoing to her events?

(01:13:38):
She's, she's never going tomake it as a DJ or whatever it
is.
I, I didn't listen to thatstuff.
I continued to support peoplewithout expecting anything in
return, and it was justincredible how much I benefited

(01:14:05):
from that.
I can't even tell you what itwas exactly.
There was always something.
It was just such good energythat I benefited from that.
Uh, I can't even tell you whatit was exactly.
There was always something likeit was just such good energy
that I got from it.
Uh, first of all, I felt goodthat I helped someone.
I, I saw them happy.
I, you know, I contributed tothat.
Some of them, some of thesepeople we build relationships
with, like you know, we becamefriends and, like you know, like
you can never have too manyfriends, right, um, um, but, um,

(01:14:30):
yeah, like I, I got gigs fromsome of these people.
Um, I had some of them cover mygigs when I couldn't do
something, uh, you know, and Iknew that they were like good
enough to do it or vice versa,right, and networking is very
important.
Uh, for so many reasons.
Some of them, you know, offeredme other business ventures,

(01:14:54):
other opportunities that havenothing to do with DJing that
I'm considering.
So there are so many thingsthat you can obtain through
proper networking other thanbeing a decent human being, you
know, and treating others withrespect.
You will benefit from it in morethan one way.
It's going to happen, and don'tsit there waiting for it.

(01:15:14):
Whoa, I did something nice forsomeone.
Why did nothing happen for meyet.
Don't wait for that.
It doesn't work like that.
But once you're genuine aboutit and you really care and
you're just doing it becauseit's the right thing to do,
you'll see Mark my words you'llsee Things will start changing
for you.
If it's not, if it hasn'tstarted yet.

(01:15:36):
Now I want to get into taxes andfinancial management for
beginner DJs.
That's point number 10.
We're still doing numbers right.
So number 10, taxes andfinancial management for
beginner djs.
Now, if you're just doing thisfor fun, guys like I, I should
have said it from the start.
If this is just for fun, a lotof this doesn't matter.

(01:16:00):
You're just doing this as ahobby, whatever right like it's,
you don't care if it becomesanything.
You're just doing this becauseyou just want to do it.
But this is really more for theones who want to set up a
successful business, um and I'mnot saying you know I'm
operating this mega dj business,but I've done quite a bit for

(01:16:20):
myself in the couple years thatI've been doing this um, and I
learned a lot from people whoare way higher caliber than
myself.
So at this point at least, so Iknow what I'm talking about
learned a lot from people whoare way higher caliber than
myself.
So, at this point at least, soI know what I'm talking about.
A lot of this advice is also notcoming directly from me.
It was advice that was given tome and I practiced what I was

(01:16:40):
told and I saw that it works.
And my friends, my colleagues,practiced it as well when I
tried to help them and sharethat advice with them.
And it worked.
It worked for everyone, foreveryone, you know, in different
levels.
Right, it's not always going tobe the same, um, but yeah, if,
if you're doing like this for abusiness, uh, career like

(01:17:02):
part-time, at least, casualpayment, you're gonna have to
start thinking about how are yougoing to register your business
?
Are you going to be a soleproprietor?
Are you going to be?
Is it going to be like anincorporated, like a corporation
?
Right, and that's what we callit here in Canada, in the US
they have different names for it, in Europe they have different

(01:17:23):
names for it.
Everyone has differentlegalities around businesses in
different countries, but it'scalled different things.
But you know what I'm talkingabout and it's it's it's nice to
get cash and, you know, neverhave to.
You know a lot of people dothat they, they get cash and
they never, never, declare it.

(01:17:43):
But then you don't really havea history for your business.
You don't really have.
You don't really have a historyfor your business.
You don't really have.
When you want to go, whenyou're going to want to go what
did I just say Going to want togo?
Let's say you want to get aloan or something you know you
want to declare something foryour business.
Nobody really knows you have abusiness and now you're going to

(01:18:03):
declare it.
They're going to be like oh, sowhere were you like for the
last five years?
Or going to be like they'regoing to be like, oh, so where
were you like for the last fiveyears?
Or like, oh, so is that whereyou're getting your money?
Like it's just going to becomecomplicated?
Declare your earnings, um anduh, it's worth it.
Build, like you know, a properum like credit credit score,

(01:18:25):
with, with, with your business,um, like a history where it
shows how much you made andeverything.
I'm not a finance guy, but youknow what I'm talking about.
I have people who do that forme.
But no, you have to understandit on some level.
And yeah, it's, it's.

(01:18:46):
I think it's for the better.
Again, if you have a differentway of doing things, then go
ahead.
But also one thing I'll saydon't jump into starting like a
corporation before you're readyfor it.
Oh, you want to sound and lookprofessional.
What are you going to write off?
Right?
So start small.
Also, to do the taxes for acorporation is way more work and

(01:19:10):
a lot more expensive, so startsmall.
And also, you don't have toregister right away.
But you know, have a plan.
Have a plan.
It depends on you know whereyou are, how much money you made
in whatever span of time, butat some point you're going to
have to register, or it'spreferred that you do Now.

(01:19:33):
Number 11, scaling your DJbusiness from part-time to
full-time or from casual topart-time to full-time.
I'd like to provide a bunch ofinsights into, like, how to grow
your DJ business into afull-time career and expand.
You know, know, like all yourservices.
But really we've been speakingabout it.
All these points were aboutthis, right?

(01:19:55):
Um, I kind of like left myselfpointers and a small little tiny
like short paragraph about eachpoint, and I can see that we
already spoke about this.
But, um, you know, just becauseit's there, let's, let's
discuss in a different way for amoment before we move to point
number 12.
Um, at some point you're goingto have to hire people, uh, to

(01:20:23):
do gigs for you, because you gotto a point where you, uh, where
you have more than one one gigper day and that is expanding.
Now how do you hire someone?
You can't just take anyone.
Oh, you're a dj, fine, come domy gig.
Your name is behind that, thatperson's work, right.

(01:20:47):
So if you are doing thispart-time, you have like a
couple gigs a week they're noton the same day, fine, cool.
But at some point, let's say,you want to grow, you put more
money into your marketing.
You, you sign up to, uh,certain catalogs where you can
like present your business, andyou know it costs costs to be a

(01:21:07):
part of that website for like500 bucks or a thousand bucks a
year, depending the package youyou're paying for.
And, um, you know like, you doall kinds of things to, to, to
expand you, you, you get bettergear maybe because, while I said
not to do that before, you havea certain gig, maybe you're

(01:21:29):
trying to get into a certainkind of industry within DJing
and certain kind of niche withinDJing, right and you're already
like you already have an inwith someone, so you're like you
know what I got to get this now.
Or maybe you want to startrenting some of your gear that
you already have.
Whatever it is, you want toexpand your business.
You want your DJing venture tobecome more profitable.

(01:21:51):
One of the things you have to dois hire people, because you can
only be in one place at onetime and while I actually
managed to DJ and bartend at thesame time, cause you have a few
, you have, you know, a fewseconds to do something in
between the transitions and likethen there's like a minute
where you have to.
You can do something.
That was fun.
I did it a few times, but um,it's, it's not going to be the

(01:22:16):
same when when you're going tohave to be in one city and
another city at the same time.
So how do you really getsomeone you can trust?
Because you have to get someoneyou trust, because if you get a
terrible DJ, then guess what?
You lost that client and likelyanyone related to them.

(01:22:36):
And if they're really crashedand burned, then who knows,
maybe it's going to kind ofcreate a ripple effect towards
the rest of your business.
The other thing that can happenit could be great DJs, but maybe
steal your business and dothings that are not ethical.
So what I recommend?

(01:22:57):
If you're a beginner,especially, start working with
people who are a bit morebeginners than you.
So I've been doing this forlike three years almost I'm.
I'm working with people who I'mteaching right now.
I'm teaching them from scratch.
I see which ones are like theyreally get it and who has the
passion and who just wants to doit for fun.

(01:23:19):
And you know I offer them.
Hey, you want to come to a gigwith me?
You want to come and assist meat the gig?
Right, if I get a tip, I'llgive you the tip and then I'll
give you a percentage of what Imake, regardless of the tip.
Just do a good job.
You know, be there to help me,take some photos, videos for me
and stuff like that.
And I'm checking out howdiligent they are, how much they

(01:23:41):
care, and you know I'll takethem to a few gigs and if I see
that I can trust them, you know,continue to train them Now.
I'm not charging them now.
Now I'm not charging themanymore.
I'm just training them.
Training them, making surethey're, they're decent djs, and
then I can send them to my gig.
I can send them to another gigI can.
I can start booking more gigson the same day because I know I

(01:24:02):
have one person that I can send.
But it's still risky.
It's one person right, and youdidn't give them consistent work
yet, so who knows if they'reready?
So at first you got to becareful with that stuff, right,
double check that you know theirschedule and discuss with them
before you take anotheropportunity.
But you definitely need to scaleyour business at some point and

(01:24:22):
you got to do it carefully.
It's always important to do itcarefully.
You can't just grow justbecause you decide, okay, that's
it Starting tomorrow, I'm doingthis, it.
You have to have a strategy.
Now.
This is a huge topic and, um,there's far better people to
explain to you how to scale abusiness than myself.
Uh, while I do have a businessand uh, you know I'm I do have

(01:24:51):
some experience.
There's proper entrepreneursout there who who have triple,
quadruple amount of uh years ofexperience than I do, and that's
who I learned from.
I learned from gurus, online,people who really understand
business, people who explain howto scale Uh, and then I, you
know, I I take that informationand and kind of uh, put it

(01:25:13):
together with information fromthe music industry.
You gotta be resourceful.
I'm saying that again.
You gotta look for things, yougotta learn, um, um, how to be
independent and and and findwhat you need.
Uh 12, licensing and legalaspects for DJs.

(01:25:33):
Now there's something I want totalk about in just a little bit
, but maybe we'll jump to thatpoint right now.
I'll have to scroll down alittle bit.
But there are legalrequirements that DJs might
overlook when they're startingout, such as music licensing,
liability insurance and eventpermits.
So event permits here intoronto you won't be able to go

(01:25:56):
to most places without an eventpermit, and it's a pain to get
that sometimes, either becauseit's hard to get and the
availability is not really whereyou want it to be, the level
you want you like it to be at,or because it's just a lot of
red tape to go through andyou're just like, wow, what's
the point?
But you got to go through itanyway.
And then liability insuranceyou need insurance.

(01:26:20):
Sometimes In some situationsI'm like there's no way I'm
taking that gig withoutinsurance, so it's not that
expensive.
Look into that.
Insure yourself, insure the gig, insure like what if somebody
else gets hurt because of you?
So you got to get that.

(01:26:41):
And also for your own gear, ifyou care enough about your gear
and yourself.
And then there's also musiclicensing.
So that's what I was going totalk about.
There is the CanadianProfessional Disc Jockey
Association, cpdja that's oneorganization that you could

(01:27:02):
choose to join and it's prettymuch like a family of DJs that
wants to see the industrysucceed together.
So it's a community like afamily of DJs, uh, that wants to
see the industry succeedtogether.
So it's a community like aforum kind of thing, but not a
lot more than just a forum.
And you get so much from them.
You get a really good deal on,um, I believe it's called
Connect Music I'm not forgetting, uh, the name and uh, yes,

(01:27:26):
connect Music licenses, uh,which is different from the
SoCan license.
And again, guys, I'm talkingabout Canada right now.
I don't know what you have inthe States or in the UK or you
know anywhere else.
In Australia we have listenersfrom everywhere, viewers from
everywhere.
So, by the way, thanks againfor being there for us and
following us and listening to us, watching us.

(01:27:46):
But, yeah, do your due diligence, do your research, um, and find
out what organization you havein your, in your city, in your
country, and you know you canget gigs from them, like from
this one, for example.
You uh, you can get gigs.
You can get a insurance.
Uh.
It says, uh, insurance combined.
What does it say here?
The cost of your membership andinsurance combined is about

(01:28:09):
half the price of the insuranceelsewhere.
It's like a one package deal tojoin them.
It's a few hundred dollars ayear, depending on what you want
to get.
It's just worth it.
It even says receive news fromassociation, industry, special
events, educational materials,music charts and much more in

(01:28:30):
our bi-monthly member newsletter.
So it's definitely somethingthat is worth the money,
especially when you've beendoing this for a year and you're
not just doing this as a hobby.
You're trying to already becomemore professional, more serious
about this.
This is definitely somethingyou want to look into.
So, okay, I jumped ahead, sowe're not going to talk about

(01:28:50):
the CPDJ after like anymore onthis episode, but at some point
I want to create one episodejust about that, because I
overlooked it.
I heard about it, I was like,oh, maybe later.
And then I looked more into it.
I was like, wow, I definitelyshould join.
So, yeah, I would highlyrecommend that.

(01:29:12):
Um, now, number 13, clientcommunication how to sell
yourself.
We spoke about that.
But at the same time, you knowwhen you just you can tell that
if you ask for that extra 50 or100 bucks, can tell that if you
ask for that extra 50 or 100bucks, you're gonna, you're

(01:29:33):
gonna get hung up on or it justit's not gonna be worth it.
You want to, you want that gig,it's it's.
You know you should take it forother than monetary reasons.
You want to like kind of breakthrough a certain like club or
like a certain scene.
Sometimes you should just knowyour place, pay your dues, bite
your tongue, take the gig Right.

(01:29:53):
I'm not saying you know, but,ilya, you said not to do that.
Again, I said use common sense,practice common sense.
So sometimes you need to knowthat they'll just go for someone
else and you should have knowthat they'll just go for someone
else.
And and you, you should havetaken that gig now.
But what?
What happens when you you knowthat you deserve more and you're

(01:30:17):
trying to sell yourself?
That's why I said create thatentire kit that shows, hey, this
is what I can do.
These are all the events I did.
This is like how I create, howI bring 50 people onto an empty
dance floor after the previousDJ.
You know, like, like, create,like, have a handful of videos

(01:30:40):
of material that shows,showcases your skills.
Have you know, I learned thatit's really good to kind of
create like your own PDF or likeWord file where you're going to
go.
It's like almost like.
It's almost like.
It's pretty much like a funnel.
You're going to go through allof this with a client and
towards the end is the call toaction kind of thing.

(01:31:02):
You know, you're going to kindof tempt them with all these
things that you're showing themand then you're going to seal
the deal impossible.
Talk about this in just a fewminutes.
But, um, again, that'ssomething I'd like to, uh, I'd
like to cover as a separate uhpointer at some point, a
separate topic at some point.

(01:31:23):
But, um, what I'll say is yougot to sell your value, you got
to negotiate your terms, you gotto.
Really, they have to respect you, but they also need to feel
respected.
Right, everyone wants to feelrespected.
It doesn't matter who you, whothey are, they want to feel
respect, and if they don't feelyou respect them and if they

(01:31:44):
feel that you're insulting theirintelligence, they're not going
to talk to you Most likely.
You got to build trust.
You just you know it's not onlyabout being charismatic.
Some people just don't have it.
Some people are not verycharismatic, but you know they
have something else that's goingfor them and you really have to
put honestly if I could say itin one sentence look at the

(01:32:07):
client, put yourself in theirshoes and think about what they
want you to tell them, but whatyou would want to hear from them
if they were the DJ the DJ,right?
Hopefully I said it correctly.
It's very early in the morning,so it's not that hard, right.
Like, think about it.

(01:32:27):
If you were in that situation,what would you want to hear?
And if at some point it soundsillogical and it sounds
unreasonable, then you'll know.
You don't need me to tell youthat.
Right, it will make sense toyou.
So that's number 13.
Number 14, investing in your DJbusiness smart equipment

(01:32:47):
upgrades.
Do you remember how I told youI'm getting the lights soon?
So only get stuff that youabsolutely need and things that
can also save you time.
So, for example, I had adifferent set of lights which I
could use as up lights, or Icould put them in a T-bar and
like create the exact kind oflight setup, uh, setup that I

(01:33:10):
wanted, but it took like 20minutes to put together,
sometimes 15 minutes, let's say.
If I did it quicker, now I gotsomething that's already coming
ready.
It's it's uh, it comes, it comes, built it, kind of like folds
out of a bag and it's, it'ssuper cool.
It's, uh, it wasn't tooexpensive, it wasn't cheap,
that's for sure, um, but uh, it,it wasn't.

(01:33:32):
It's incredible.
Like, I have all these lightsand they're way better quality
lights, they have way morefeatures.
They have a pedal, they have,they have a, they have a remote
control, uh, and there'sdifferent kinds.
You can get, like I, I chosethe setup that I liked, like the
, the kind of set of lights thatI liked, but you can get
different ones.
It depends, right, uh, whatyou're looking for.

(01:33:54):
But hey, that saves me at least15 to 20 minutes of setup,
which really is half the time ora third of the time it should
take you to set up and, um,that's quite a bit, and then, on
top of that, I'm less tired.
It takes forever to set thoselights, and it was just so much
work and I was like, what am Idoing?
Like I did enough gigs to beable to afford these lights and

(01:34:17):
to get them for the next gig.
So that's what I did, right?
That was a smart investment forme, something small, right, but
keep in mind, I am not, youknow, operating a huge dj
business, but that's why maybeyou'd relate to me, because
you're probably also notoperating a huge dj business.
So that's something I would,you know.

(01:34:40):
That's where I would startlater.
You know, we're talking aboutthings we already actually
covered, uh, and it's, you know,joining a certain catalog.
That's investing in yourbusiness, right, but let's say,
equipment upgrade maybe you'regetting a dry ice like a machine
, like a smoke machine, but withdry ice, right, hologram, stuff

(01:35:03):
like that, but again, only ifyou absolutely need it, if you
know you're going to use it,right, or if you have an in with
someone and you know that, hey,I'm going to be able to rent
this, rent this to someone, um,something like that, right?
So, going forward, number 15,we're there.
We made it about an hour and ahalf.
I had no idea.

(01:35:24):
I had no idea this episode isgoing to be this long, and it's
probably going to be a littlelonger because we have a few
more things to talk about, butit was.
It's a special episode.
I'm doing this by myself forthe first time and I thought,
hey, let's, let's take it adifferent direction, let's see,
let's see how long I can keepyou guys entertained.
And, um, I just I never thoughtit would take this long to go

(01:35:46):
through all these points.
But, hey, I hope you're, I hopeyou're enjoying it.
So, yes, let's finish this up.
So, number 15, the power ofreferrals building your DJ
business through word of mouth.
Nino is at that point where hebuilds his business through word

(01:36:06):
of mouth.
Now, I can't tell you how manyweddings we've been to, not just
weddings, birthdays, privateevents, but mostly weddings
where people are like hey Nino,hey Nino, hey Nino, and, and
from all across, for it's like,it's like a ripple effect.
Oh, they said, you know, oh,it's Nino, oh know, oh.
And there we go.

(01:36:29):
You have like five clients whoyou either you worked with or
you're going to work with, andI'm like, oh, who are they?
Oh, I signed them for 2025.
Oh, oh, they, I just did theirwedding last last week, or like
and you can tell that the personknows what they're doing,
because the way that people talkabout him and the way how

(01:36:49):
everyone knows him and onewedding there's like, somehow
this guy's friend or thisperson's like, uh, like her
fiance, or something, it justsomehow several people that he
dj'd for were in the same eventand all the phone calls people
like that get oh, I heard that,uh, you do this.

(01:37:12):
Or like, uh, uh, I was toldthat, uh, you know you're a
great DJ, are you available formy wedding?
Um, and often word of mouth likeit's, it's the best way, it's
the best way to expand, it meansthat you really made it, that's
it, like you don't even need topromote anymore.
But I know that he stoppedpromoting for some time and even

(01:37:36):
for him there was a decline andI'm not going to talk too much
about his business.
But even for someone like that,with word of mouth, it's still,
it's not going to be the same.
So when he went back topromoting, it exploded again,
because now it's all the word ofmouth and the promotion and it
just, and then, because of hiscaliber already like people want
him to to join their catalog orpromote with them and stuff

(01:37:59):
like that.
So you want to have areputation and the way you build
a reputation.
The reason why this is number15 and not number one, three or
ten is because all the stuff Isaid before will bring you to
this point.
Number 15.
Now, something I do want to talkabout before we leave uh, this
podcast, something I believe isvery important, um, and I did

(01:38:22):
say that I'm going to discuss it, uh, and here it is.
This is this.
I'm speaking to the Ilya ofseveral years ago, when I just
started this and I was, you know, super, super, green and like,
super, you know, like naive andinnocent and thinking.
You know like, oh, like I canmake this and like I can make it

(01:38:44):
in like a few months.
And again, you can, but itrequires but it requires a set
of things to be there to be ableto make it in a few months.
And, hey, maybe I could get toa certain level within a few
months right now if I dosomething.
But you know it works for me.
I have a balance with my job,with my personal life, my

(01:39:06):
professional life.
So I found the balance.
If I want to improve, and Ifeel that I'm ready to, like I
said, expand or, you know, goharder into this business
because I feel like I'm ready tolike elevate I'm sure I'm going
to be.
I'll do it when I'm ready.

(01:39:27):
Now still, beginners beginners,listen to me.
I know that you want someone tohelp you, to help, and I know
you want someone to help you.
I know you want someone to showyou the ropes.
I know you want to proveyourself to someone.
Beginners tend to try topiggyback on someone else's

(01:39:49):
success, not because beginnersare just, you know, like they
don't respect that person's likeefforts and they don't care
about their business.
They just want to use thatperson.
No, it just comes out like that.
It's come.
It comes off like that becausethis person is super successful.
So you're like, oh, let me pairup with this person and I'll

(01:40:12):
get all these gigs from thisperson, because you know we'll
become friends and this and thatit's not how it works.
These people they saw peoplelike you over and over again.
Every time somebody comes to theDJ booth and things, I'll
become friends with the DJ, andit happens from time to time.
Look, I became friends with thedj.
And it happens from time totime.
Look, I became friends withnino, right, but again it's,

(01:40:33):
there needs to be some sort oflike chemistry there.
There needs to be something,some transaction there, right,
you give and you take and forhim.
And he used to say that thebiggest part was that I told him
I'm a producer.
He needed that skill in hisentourage, in his you know,
ensemble, right.
Um, so that's one of thereasons he contacted me and then

(01:40:59):
one of the reasons, one of themany reasons he stayed was
because of, like, all the thingsI brought in, like the social
media work I did for him all thetechnology knowledge that I
have, the entertainment justcoming with him and making it.
I did for him all thetechnology knowledge that I have
, the entertainment just comingwith him and making it more fun
for him.
Right, taking some gigs that heneeded someone to take because
they wouldn't maybe pay enough.
But I was a brand new DJ backthen and I would take pretty

(01:41:20):
much anything right Before Iunderstood how to value myself,
because first I still needed theexperience.
So for some time I understand ifyou're doing that, but don't
get sucked into doing that.
Value yourself, don't devalueyourself.
So people will try to callwhatever you want piggyback on

(01:41:41):
someone, get a mentor.
But keep in mind it's great tohave someone to show you the
ropes, but make sure you don'tget taken advantage of.
I've been taken advantage ofseveral times by several DJs,
and I know that because theywould either know each other or

(01:42:03):
I would tell them the story andthey would, and they would tell
me what they think, and I waslike nah, like no, but, and they
would say no, that's not how itworks.
And then I would speak tosomeone else and they would say,
yeah, I side with this DJ.
They shouldn't have done that,and so on and so forth.
Right, some things I brought upto people that you know.
I spoke about them and I said,hey, you know what?
Like, I thought about it andI'd like to bring something up.

(01:42:25):
I know it's not the mostcomfortable topic to talk about,
but hey, we're friends andwe've been working together for
a little while now.
I'd like to talk to you aboutsomething, and normally people
would be fine with it.
It's not going to burn a bridgeif, let's say they don't agree
with you, but at least youapproached it from a respectful

(01:42:49):
point of view.
You did not just, you know,kind of lash at them like, hey,
you should have done this for me.
I found out, right, um, at theend of the day, whoever you
worked with was there to helpyou learn, but at some point it
it turns from helping you learnto using you, because now you're
good at what you're doing, oryou're becoming useful, but

(01:43:11):
they're still not paying you, ornot paying you enough, or not
giving you the gigs that theypromised they'll give you life,

(01:43:33):
uh, as a young entrepreneur, asa, as a beginner slash, almost,
I would say, intermediate DJ.
At this point, um is, unlessyou're absolutely sure, do not
work with a partner.
Uh, it's, it's gonna, it's,it's going to backfire at some
point.
If you're like putting in allyour eggs in that basket or this

(01:43:55):
person, I'll trust them, right.
I'll give you an example.
Like Nino and I thought thatthis podcast is going to, we're
going to do this podcasttogether for however many years.
And I told him hey, I don'tthink you will.
I don't think you will becauseyou have all these
responsibilities, and hehonestly wanted to.
He wanted to, but severalthings came up and and he just

(01:44:17):
he couldn't anymore.
Right, and maybe he'll comeback in the future and we don't
know that.
But, um, you know, thefriendship is still there,
everything's still okay.
But it's just.
You know, I thought it's goingto work right, at first at least
.
Then I realized it probablywon't.
But you know, I still thoughtmaybe it will.
But at the end of the day,whoever you work with, in most

(01:44:40):
cases they won't think about you.
They will think aboutthemselves first and foremost.
I'm not exactly like that, butstill, you know, I believe I'm
way more fair than most people Iworked with.
That's just who I am.
I'm a giver.
I don't usually take, I usuallygive.
But still, you know, I'm notnaive.
I'll think about my businessand my family first.

(01:45:02):
So, but you know I'll, if Ineed to kind of let someone down
, I think I will let someonedown in a way better way than
most people let me down.
And that's some people, justyou know, don't have the concept
of respect.
They don't understand it orsomething is wrong with them.
I don't know the way they'rethinking or whatever.

(01:45:22):
You can't fix people.
You can't change people likethat.
It's not your responsibility.
Plus, they're probably wayeither way older than you or
just too old to be given alecture.
So if you're going to work withsomeone, I would suggest you
either pay them so they dance toyour beat and do what you say

(01:45:46):
because you know better.
Dance to your beat and do whatyou say because you know better
and you need them to do the workexactly how it needs to be done
, or get someone who knowsbetter than you and someone who
has good references, and thentell them that you need them to
manage you because you know thatthey know better and you want
to elevate your game.
You want to one-up your entirebusiness or project, whatever it

(01:46:07):
is you're doing, either or it'spaid, it's professional,
there's rules, there's terms,everything.
Now you'll be like, well, whatif I just pair up with a friend
and we have a contract?
No, it could work.
I've had stuff like that workfor me.
But whether it's a podcast orsomeone who's a successful DJ

(01:46:31):
and you're working with them andyou're hoping they'll give you
work and stuff, at the end ofthe day listen, guys, this is
their baby, this is theirbusiness.
They're not going to pity youand just give you work and then
potentially tank their businesswith you, along with you.
Right, you got to respect wherethey're coming from.
You got to respect the business.

(01:46:53):
You got to respect the industry, you got to respect the fact
that this person is 30, 40, 50years old and has grown their
business to this point and youjust showed up like who are you
Right?
So, unless you're going to givethem something and really
honestly believe that youdeserve something in return
because you have contributed,you added to the value of their

(01:47:15):
business or their lives, don'texpect anything in return.
Work on improving your business, work on being what you need to
be for yourself, and then theright partner will come along.
Don't actively search for apartner.

(01:47:36):
I used to like doing things withsomeone all the time, not by
myself, and as the years, youknow, as time progressed, I
learned that you should dothings on your own if possible
and, and, like I said, if youneed to, you hire someone,
either to do as you say orsomeone who you know will tell
you how to do better, right,like, for example, there's

(01:47:57):
agencies, there's for podcasts,for YouTube, for there's life
coaches right, you hire them,but they're telling you what to
do, right, so it depends.
Or let's say, you, you go onfiverr, you go on whatever
service, and you decide to get afreelancer, you tell them
exactly what to do, but theymight still offer you hey,

(01:48:18):
listen, I have experience withthis.
If you'll give me some creativefreedom, I think I'll I'll make
you happy.
So again, dance the dance.
See, see what's the balance inthe kind of like delegating
versus like trusting them andletting them kind of like lead
you with certain things.

(01:48:38):
Like when I worked with our youknow, our like animator that
created the intro.
I gave him a lot of ideas andthen, you know, together we
decided what we're going to doand then we got that, that intro
that we have in the beginning.
Right, it was lots of a lot ofit was my idea, but then, like,
he added a couple of things thatI didn't think about and I

(01:48:59):
loved it.
So that, just you know.
Hopefully that's a good example, but yeah, yeah.
So let me see what I wrote here, because I wrote quite a bit
about this.
It's very important to mebecause it's personal.
Over the last few years I'vebeen cheated out certain gigs,

(01:49:19):
I've been spoken.
People spoke about me in amanner that was not truthful,
just to kind of, you know,trying to get me out of a
certain situation, happy to saythat did not work.
Just to kind of, you know,trying to get me out of a
certain situation, happy to saythat did not work out very well
for them.
And it's good when you have alot of friends and people who
can vouch for you, or people whopromised me certain things and
they never delivered, whether itwas gigs or people who were

(01:49:43):
supposed to pay me when I didn'tknow they were supposed to pay
me all along and I thought, hey,they're doing me such a service
by, like, taking me to theirgigs.
But, like you know, it's beenalready months and months into
the process and I already reallyhelped them benefit from their
business from me being there.

(01:50:04):
And I still did not understandthat I'm devaluing myself.
I'm not, I'm not, I'm nottreating myself with respect.
At some point, if you've been tofive, six, seven, ten gigs with
someone you know, if, let's sayyou've never done this, you
know I'm not gonna tell you, oh,you devalue yourself.
Fine, like you did your five,six, seven, ten gigs a couple

(01:50:26):
months.
You learned quite a bit fromthat right.
You don't need to go anymore.
You, a couple months.
You learned quite a bit fromthat right.
You don't need to go anymore.
You're ready and you're asready as you're gonna be as long
as you practice along with it.
That's a good balance.
You're ready.
You don't need to go to anymore gigs.
If they're not giving you gigs,if they're not paying you, if
they're not valuing you, leave.
You'll find a better mentor orbetter, whatever it is, yeah,

(01:50:46):
that you think you have.
Once you have more respect foryourself and once you show your
value because even the personwho wasn't paying you probably
stereotype you can stigmatizeyou as like, oh, he's just a
beginner, he doesn't know whathe's doing, I'm not going to pay
him.
He's been doing this for freefor three months.
He'll do it for free foranother three months.
Don't let that happen.

(01:51:07):
He'll do it for free foranother three months.
Don't let that happen now.
Um, those djs make anywhere from1.5k to 3k per gig, at the very
least a thousand.
They can throw you a bone 100bucks, 200 bucks if you are
bringing value to their gig,right.
Or they can say, hey, listen,come to this gig, I'll give you

(01:51:28):
another gig like, I'll give youone, I'll like.
Or come to these two gigs, helpme out, but I'll give you a gig
at 800 bucks, right, like?
Something, right?
Something that that is going tohelp you.
Or hey, um, come to this gigand I'll come over and I'll I'll
train you for your gig, I'llspend a few hours with you.
They can't just take, they haveto give back.

(01:51:51):
Don't look at them like, oh,this is such an incredible DJ or
this is such an incrediblebusinessman or woman, and you
know, I'm so dwarfed by themI'll just do whatever they say.
No, you have a value too.
You have a value too, and I'mhappy I've been through this.
You know I'm happy I've beenthrough this.
I'm fairly young and it's goodto learn this now instead of

(01:52:12):
later.
So, and most things that youlearn on your own flesh,
personally, on your ownexperience, rather than hearing
that it happened to someone else, that will stick with you more
than anything else and you'lllikely never make the same
mistake again.
Um, so you're likely to be in asituation where you have a DJ

(01:52:44):
agreeing to take you under youknow and and and and teach you
everything, but at the same time, if you want to get that, if
you want to earn, if you want toget the money and the
opportunities that I'm talkingabout, you got to show them that

(01:53:06):
it's worth it.
It's worth to keep you aroundbecause they probably have a
list of another two or three orfive or 10 people who want to
take your spot and they'll dothings for free.
So show them why they shouldworry about you leaving.
And if they don't care, and ifyou know that you you know,
pretty much took whatever youcould from that relationship,
move on.
Don't burn a bridge.

(01:53:27):
Be cool about it.
Say, hey, you know what, like I,I definitely like need to get
paid at this point.
Um, if, down the road, like, uh, you think that, uh, you have
something for me, uh, please letme know.
I'll help you however I can.
But at this point, uh, you knowI need to start getting paid.
Uh, you know, or whateverconversation you want to have

(01:53:51):
with them.
There's so many things you cansay.
Try not to be too redundanthere.
So what else do I want to talkto you guys about here?
So, yeah, like, I can't tell youhow many times, how many people
approached me because of myvariety of skills other than

(01:54:12):
djing.
Uh, they knew that, like I, Ican uh, elevate the game by
joining their team.
And, uh, they knew that I waslooking for someone to show me,
um, to show me the ropes.
And at first I was.
It was for literally right,like I would just do it.
And later it was mostly becauseI wanted to learn how to DJ

(01:54:34):
weddings.
At first I would just come withany DJ anywhere for however
long, however far they want togo, because I'm like you know
what that's a good experience.
Later it was more like you know, I want to gig with DJs who do
weddings because I'm alreadygetting into that field.
I'm like you know what that'sgood experience.
Later it was more like you know, I want to gig with DJs who do
weddings because I'm alreadygetting into that field, I'm
ready.
But I need to like learn how todo entrances properly, how to

(01:54:58):
coordinate, like when there's nocoordinator, right, like that's
what I was looking for.
And if you only saw, if you readmy conversations with some of
these DJs and the way they spoketo me and about me and the
things they promised and yousome, some of them, like you

(01:55:21):
could tell it was fake.
But some I was like, wow, likeI'm really hitting it off with
this person, like this is thisis amazing.
Like, like I guess we have goodchemistry.
I guess they really appreciateme and value me.
And guess what?
Some of them they're full of itand some of them just didn't
plan correctly, didn't budgetcorrectly.
They wanted something but theyweren't like maybe the best
business people or best planners, and they realized, hey, like

(01:55:45):
you know what I actually can'tdo, what I said I will do for
that person In either case.
It's all talk.
It's all talk until they'rewilling to stand by what they're
saying and you get the gigs,your promise and you get paid
for your contribution.
So, like I said, if you, if youspend more than one to three

(01:56:06):
months, about six to nine to 15gigs with them, you know and I'm
being super generous herebecause the peak season isn't
that long so you pretty muchspent an entire season with them
.
So now you got to wait for nextseason and I'm not saying the
season is that short, one tothree months, but that's the
peak of the best season, right,the summertime, early fall,

(01:56:27):
right.
And then you get it towardslike the end of the best season,
right, the summertime, earlyfall, right.
And then you get it towardslike the end of the year, and
then that's when the corporatestarts in Halloween and
Christmas and everything else.
And if you see that there'snothing that's kind of like it's
not in the cards, if you seethat there's nothing that's kind

(01:56:51):
of like it's not in the cards,you played your cards right but
you paid your dues, but it'sjust not in the stars for you
with this person.
If it's been that long, you'renot getting gigs from them,
you're not getting paid to tagalong and you're expected to do
everything for free.
Walk away, walk away.
Selling yourself short is waybigger of a loss than devaluing
yourself.
Like that, you'll find a bettermentor or someone who is

(01:57:15):
willing to show you the ropeswhile paying you and blessing
you with a gig here and there.
So that's pretty much what Ihad to say about that.
Yeah, I can see that what Iwrote here already.
We kind of discussed about,discussed all that stuff.
Um, yeah, oh, yes, that'sactually something I really want

(01:57:41):
to talk to you about.
I have to make notes becausethere's, we've been talking for
about two hours now.
Right, so, right.
So I had to kind of go overthat write it down, because I
knew that it's going to be atleast 45 minutes or something,
but it turned out to be twohours.
I might make it a two-parter, Imight just post it.
I always wondered what's goingto happen if I post like a Joe

(01:58:05):
Rogan episode, like an hour anda half, two hours.
I'll just do it, I'll do it.
I mean, it's uh, it'sinteresting to me, right?
I'm trying something here.
Um, so, after tagging along forfive to 10 gigs for a couple of
months, you should, or youshould, already have a working

(01:58:27):
knowledge, a workingunderstanding of how things work
.
So take it from me, like I, I,I was.
I wasted so much time thinkingthat I wasn't, uh, ready to gig
on my own on the first year whenI was doing this year year and
a half, and then it was methinking, oh, I wasn't ready to
do weddings on my own, whateverit is.

(01:58:49):
Yes, you're not readytechnically, but you'll never be
ready until you do it.
Like don't get me wrong, likedon't just go out there and bomb
it, just bomb the event, crashand burn and destroy someone's
event.
Remember, like this is aftertagging along with someone and

(01:59:15):
getting some hands-on experienceand practicing, now you need to
do your research and practicesome more and with practice and
what you learn from that person,you'll be just fine.
You may not ace it and it'll bea 10 out of 10 event, but
you'll do well enough for themost likely reasonable price

(01:59:36):
that you offered your clients.
Some even admit that they arebeginners, you know.
Some say you know what I saidthat in a very, very few gigs
that I took, I said they askedme how much do you charge?
And I said I actually have apretty good rate.
I don't have too many gigsunder my belt yet, I just
started.
But hey, I'll show you thisvideo where I'm DJing and it's

(01:59:57):
the style that you're lookingfor and if you like it, I can do
the same thing for you at yourevent.
I found a way to kind of reallymake them trust me by telling
them something that most peoplewon't tell them.
And in the way that I said it Idid not make myself look
unprofessional, but just likesomeone who knows what he's
doing.
But I didn't do it enough timesto say that, hey, I'm a pro,

(02:00:18):
I've done this a hundred timesor a thousand times already.
But hey, I did it two or threetimes and it went really well
and I know I can do it againbecause of X, y, z.
I have a system.
I know I can do it againbecause of X, y, z.
I have a system.
Um, now some people will justhang up, turn around and be like
I'll keep looking around.
But again, for some gigs itmade sense.

(02:00:39):
For some gigs it made sense andit just because of the way the
conversation went.
Um, it was the right approach tosell myself like that for that
gig and it was just in thebeginning.
So that's just one method youcould use and I'm just trying to

(02:01:00):
give you examples, analogies,however I can, things that I was
looking for when I started.
So lots of clients are okaywith that approach.
But, like I said, that's kindof the risk that you're willing
to share that information.
Some clients are just going toskip you, like I said.

(02:01:22):
But for the first few gigs, dothat If it's really going to
help you.
Now they know that you neversaid you're a pro.
You won't have the uh impostersyndrome, you know you.
You know everyone's on the samepage.
I had one client like that, likeI said, like a very uh decent
client.
He, I was trying to sell myselflike like, not like a pro, but

(02:01:42):
I never said I was a beginner.
But then he kind of picked upon it and I was like you know
what he is almost picking up onit.
And I was like you know what heis almost picking up on it.
Let me just tell him the truth.
Let me tell him the truth, youknow it's.
There's nothing wrong with that.
I pretty much have the salealready.
I just I need, I need him totrust me.
And I told, told him that andhe's like yo, you know what, I'm

(02:02:03):
going to go on your Facebookpage, I'm going to, I'm going to
like your page, I'm going to,I'm going to like your page, I'm
going to like leave a review,like help you grow, and stuff.
That's the best case scenario.
But you know what, when you havethe right approach, the right
things will happen.
Maybe not every time, but moreoften than not it will happen.
So when you're confident, youcan go all in and charge

(02:02:25):
properly and not even considerdisclosing anything else to the
client, because you know what.
You have enough business, youknow what you're worth and they
better book you if they want agood event, because you know
that you're going to, you'regoing to, you're going to do a
great job and they're going tobe really happy, but it's going

(02:02:49):
to take time to get to thatlevel.
And, yeah, I, I, I really hopethat these two hours that we
spent together on this podcastepisode brought some value into
your life, into your personallife, into your professional

(02:03:09):
life, as DJs, as people.
This has been, you know, a toughmonth for me.
There's a lot of stuff that Ihad to kind of face, a lot of
truths, a lot of things.
I was like you know what thisis, how I got to go, do things,
going forward in order tosucceed.
Whether it's my personal job,you know, do better at work, you

(02:03:33):
know improve, get to a betterpoint of work, a better position
at work, whether it's mybusiness, whether it's my
personal relationships.
It's important to evaluate thatat least a couple of times a
year, because there's no wayyou're doing everything
correctly.
So all the stuff that I'mtalking about here is not just

(02:03:54):
for your DJing.
You got to be a decent humanbeing.
You got to be a good person tomake your business succeed,
because you're working withother people and people will
pick up on your personality,your, your, your, your ways and
everything.
So people are good with that.
People can sense who you are.
So, hey, you know what I?

(02:04:16):
I often chose to work withsomeone I trust and someone who
gave me a good vibe, thansomeone who I know is more
professional for certain things,for certain jobs.
So there are so many ways to tomake it in life.
Uh, let's speak.

(02:04:37):
Let's focus on DJing.
There's so many ways to make it, uh, as a DJ, and I believe in
each and every one of you Prosout there.
You know I believe in you too,but I know you don't need me to
believe in you.
I know you're doing well.
But beginners, the ones who arelike, well, how can you make

(02:04:58):
money from music?
People told me I won't be ableto, or I mean, how long will it
take for me to succeed?
You're asking all the wrongquestions.
You're focusing on all thewrong things.
When you have that attitude,create a foundation for your
business.
Practice, get the right gear.
Don't chip out and also don'tspend too much money.

(02:05:20):
Get something used for all.
I care for your first gear.
I'm very sentimental.
I'm not going to sell my brandnew like the gear that I got
when I started.
I'm going sentimental.
I'm not going to sell my brandnew like the gear that I got
when I started.
I'm going to keep that forever.
But some people they buy it andthey sell it.
They buy it and they sell it.
They buy used.
Do whatever you got to do aslong as you progress and don't
collect stuff for it to collectdust.

(02:05:41):
Just get what you need.
Get the right legalities sortedout.
You know contracts, liabilityinsurance.
Join an organization, a DJorganization, a community.
Work on your soft skills, workon your entrepreneurial skills
it's all.

(02:06:01):
It will all come together.
After a year of doing thisstuff, you will see your
business will start comingtogether.
You'll start getting consistentwork and you know like it's
been working out for me and uh,and soon I'll be able to do it
full time.
I will not need any side work.
I mean, I'll still keep itbecause, you know, in this
economy, until I won't be ableto do it anymore, I'll still

(02:06:24):
keep doing it.
Um, but uh, at some point.
Yeah, you gotta.
You gotta value your time andyou gotta focus on what you love
most and what works.
So, once again, thank you verymuch for joining another episode
of the Clever DJ.
My name is Ilya and I'll bewith you going forward.

(02:06:44):
I'll see you next time.

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Mastering the DJ Business & Who Can Be Trusted To Work With? - Ep #37

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Mastering the DJ Business & Who Can Be Trusted To Work With? - Ep #37