Good Neighbor Podcast: North Shore
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of North Shore
Good Neighbor Podcast: North Shore
EP #50 - Greg Capozzi Peels back The Passion and Perseverance Behind C-Zone Entertainment
Discover the dynamic world of C-Zone Entertainment through the fascinating journey of its founder, Greg Capozzi. From humble beginnings as a musical side project, Greg's vision blossomed into an expansive entertainment service, offering everything from DJs to jazz ensembles and string groups. Greg dismantles common misconceptions about DJs, emphasizing the dedication and skill required to craft unforgettable events. As he opens up about his personal passions, from woodworking to cycling with his wife and their border collie, Greg reveals the intricate balance between his professional and personal life.
Navigating the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Greg made tough decisions to uphold his company's reputation, including refunding deposits, showcasing his commitment to customer satisfaction. Our conversation is filled with gratitude and admiration for Greg’s resilience and entrepreneurial spirit. Supporting local businesses is crucial, and we celebrate this by inviting listeners to nominate their favorite local businesses for future features. Join us in this heartfelt episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast and get inspired by Greg’s story while considering the vibrant tapestry of local businesses in your community.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Yvonne.
Speaker 2:Godfrey, Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we are excited to have with us Greg Capozzi. He is the owner of C-Zone Entertainment. Greg, how are you today?
Speaker 3:Oh, doing great. Thanks for having me on. This is a really exciting opportunity.
Speaker 2:We're so happy to have you here. I'm delighted to hear more about C-Zone Entertainment. Please tell our listeners about your company.
Speaker 3:Well, we're a company that books events private events and corporate events and we offer a variety of services under a unique boutique umbrella. The mainstay is disc jockeys, but we also book jazz ensembles, jazz combos, string ensembles, photo booths, we do lighting and we also book photographers as well, so there's a lot of different things people can come to us for.
Speaker 2:Okay, and how did you get into this business, greg?
Speaker 3:Well, I've been a musician my whole life since fourth grade and as I grew as a musician I thought it might be fun to teach myself how to DJ as well, just to supplement my income as a sax player. And I thought it would just be a fun hobby. And then the DJing just completely eclipsed my sax and it became very lucrative. And there's only so many Saturdays in the year, so slowly we started to expand and then it wasn't just me anymore, it was me and a whole roster of DJs, and then I included the jazz as well, and then we started offering strings and it just sort of grew from there where we just kept adding services, and now it's been like almost, I think, 23 years in business.
Speaker 2:Beautiful, beautiful. And can you talk a little bit more about that? 23 years in business when did you start at?
Speaker 3:Started in our first home in Natick, massachusetts, where we built the website and launched it January 1st 2003. That was like the very first day the company went live under the name C-Zone Entertainment and from there we've never stopped, you know.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So what are some myths or misconceptions that you've discovered in your industry as a result, Greg?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, I thought about that.
Speaker 3:I think DJing is a big part of the company and a lot of people feel like DJs are these ego driven characters that always have to be the center of attention and they try to make the event about them versus the client or the guest of honor.
Speaker 3:You know, and that is true, there are a lot of people out there that just can never shut up and they're always trying to steal the limelight. But our whole slogan is that it's not our show, your event. So we try to put people at ease and let them know that even though you're going to have a dj at the, at the event, it's not going to turn into a game show and it's not going to be like a used car salesman on the microphone. You know, a lot of people also think djs just stand there and push buttons and software does the rest and everybody just automatically has a great time. But that's so far from the truth. We organically mix everything and program the music to read the crowd and cater to their reaction and create seamless mixes, and there's a lot that goes into it. When it's done well, it looks easy, but there's a lot that goes into being a high level DJ to be able to cater to any crowd.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice. So outside of work, what do you do for fun, greg?
Speaker 3:I love woodworking. I'm not great at it, but pretty good. I like to build furniture and cabinets and renovate old houses and my wife and I love taking our little border collie on hikes and walks. And we have these little tiny foldable bicycles that have like 20 inch wheels. They look like clown bikes. We fold those up and throw them in the car and take the dog and just go on a journey and then, wherever we're at, we're already automatically mobile. So the little folding bikes have been hilarious. It was just a little thing that I thought would be fun, and now it's like we don't go anywhere without our foldy bikes would be fun, and now it's like we don't go anywhere without our our foldy bikes and we get some other friends that got them. So now we have like a foldy gang. It's pretty hilarious. I used to drive a harley davidson for years and now I'm driving a folding bicycle.
Speaker 2:life is crazy I can picture that and it looks, looks cute.
Speaker 3:It's fun. It's definitely fun.
Speaker 2:It looks hilarious.
Speaker 3:It is. I mean, we don't do it as much because you know I'm always working, but when we do have a little downtime we have a small fixer upper house down in Florida so we snowboard. So once we get down there we tend to get a little bit more of that type of stuff in, because once I'm back up here for busy season it's like seven days a week for nine months.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's change gears. Greg, can you describe one hardship or one of life's challenge that you rose above, and can I say, because of it, you're stronger, you're better? What comes to your mind?
Speaker 3:I think, the hardest thing when COVID hit in 2020.
Speaker 3:Right, so at that point we were 17, 18 years in business and then it felt like it took that long to build a reputation and then it took like three months to just tear the entire company in shreds.
Speaker 3:You know, I mean everybody was demanding their money back for anybody that paid a deposit and even though our contract says that the deposit is nonrefundable, you know I was the devil for trying to enforce that and I didn't know what to do. I mean, people were calling me with their lawyers on the phone and you know, a lot of my colleagues in the industry were really sticking to the contract and not giving people their money back and offering them to put that money towards a future date. But I was like man, I don't want to be at battle with all these people. I just don't have the stomach for it. And I was able to negotiate with some people partial refunds, other people, I just gave them all the money back just to make the problem go away. So in the long run, it worked out well for us, because my goal was to stay in the client's good graces and, you know, hoping that.
Speaker 3:You know, because we were compassionate to what's going on. They would come back to us later, you know, whereas they weren't compassionate to us what was going on on our end either. So it was kind of a one-way street where I had to absorb it all. But you know, once we got past that, I mean I had to work. I had to get back to work in construction full-time and do whatever it took to keep the lights on. So after that we had our biggest year ever last year. So we definitely came out on top. But that was definitely the hardest thing I've had to deal with in this business by far, but you came out on top Very nice, very grateful for that.
Speaker 3:yeah, Beautiful.
Speaker 2:So, Greg, please tell our listeners one thing that they should remember about C-Zone Entertainment.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, we're a specialized company. There's a lot of agencies out there that book talent, you know but not a lot of them are owned and run by a musician. You know, my sax playing has always been my number one passion. So, given that we're all about the music, that's the number one thing, the philosophy of the company. That really sort of permeates down throughout everything that we do.
Speaker 3:You know, we respect the music and the client and we make sure that the focus is on them and, you know, rather than just being some rah, rah, rah DJ on the microphone, we like to let the music do the talking. I've always been a big believer of let the quality of the performance do the talking and then after that everyone will do all the marketing for me, because the word of mouth is going to be going crazy. If you do a great job and everyone has an amazing time, then the clients are going to be the ones that are going to be promoting us down the line. So I really believe in our philosophy and that resonates with the clients and hopefully we'll be able to keep the company going. We had another great year, so I'm looking forward to another one in 25.
Speaker 2:beautiful. So, craig. How can our listeners learn more about your business?
Speaker 3:is their website the website is czonemusiccom, c-z-o-n-e musiccom, and then the. The big one is Instagram now, or we do about three posts a week of either highlighting services or highlighting events, or highlighting entertainers or venues or clients or whatever it is. So the sort of the working timeline and seeing what our body of work is would be Instagram, but then for a more in-depth services overview and everything, the website would be the way to go. I also got a YouTube channel where we post videos and got a whole jazz concert up there that we hosted. That was really amazing. I was wanting to have a concert as an artist, so we we did that last year, which was really cool. So you know, I would say Instagram and the website and YouTube would be the best ones.
Speaker 2:Okay, thank you for that, greg. We really appreciate you being on the show with us today and we wish you and your business all the very best moving forward. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thanks for the opportunity. Really nice to chat with you.
Speaker 2:Likewise Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show. The show go to GNPNorthshorecom. That's GNPNorthshorecom, or call 857-703-9406.