Beyond the DJ Booth

Ep. 13: "Almost" Gigs and Diverse DJ Income Streams

• Joe Bunn and Brian B • Season 1 • Episode 13

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What's it like to DJ for a global superstar like Pink? We don't know because we were booked already and couldn't do it. Join us as we wrap up the season finale of Beyond the DJ Booth Podcast, where we reflect on our whirlwind journey and the unexpected adventures that have accompanied it. From the incredible musical contributions of Buck Rogers and Sequan, aka Slim Young Man, who crafted our dynamic intro and outro tracks, to meeting Jared Leto, this episode is a celebration of the unique connections that music continues to forge.

As we bid farewell to our first season with episode 13, we're sharing insights beyond the DJ booth, including how bands like Needtobreathe and 30 Seconds to Mars have grown from intimate gigs to arena spectacles. We open up about our shift from platforms like TikTok to the rich world of podcasts and highlight our multifaceted income strategies, from Amazon affiliates to consulting. Our journey in content creation has been nothing short of exciting, and we express gratitude for the engagement our weekly reels have received. Don’t miss out on our full episode collection at beyondthedjbooth.com and get ready for more exciting content released every Wednesday.

RESOURCES & LINKS

Our website. Please leave a review! - https://www.beyondthedjbooth.com/
To book Joe Bunn: https://bunndjcompany.com/
To book Brian B: https://djbrianbofficial.com/
Joe’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djjoebunn
Brian’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djbrianbofficial
DJ Event Planner free demo: https://www.djeventplanner.com/signup.php
Brian B's Coaching Options: Https://www.thdjscreativeedge.com

Brian B:

welcome back to beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. I'm Brian B. Yes, sir, it's Joe Bunn. If this is the first time you've been listening to this, thanks for checking us out.

Joe Bunn:

Hello Welcome.

Brian B:

Tell the people what we do.

Joe Bunn:

We make podcasts for private event DJ.

Brian B:

What do we talk about?

Joe Bunn:

What's the value add? The value add is usually a question from the listeners. By the way, send those to us. We always will answer it eventually. We talk about music, usually something Brian has curated in his endless search for hot, steaming bangers, and we talk about gear or little things we have in our DJ backpack that saved our asses. We talk about crazy stories and recap, like what happened last weekend or what's coming this weekend.

Brian B:

That's what we talk about. It's November. We're batching this episode for December release. Right In this batch of episodes we have a new opener to the video podcast with a new track Two new tracks, right. So I wanted to shout it out because I actually got a text from one of the DJs listeners yeah, zeb, early. Shout out Zeb. Thanks for listening. He said dude, the first track on the intro and the outro were awesome, so I wanted to shout out the people who helped us put these together, alright.

Joe Bunn:

Intro on the podcast, that instrumental that was done by the one, the only, Buck Rogers. Gave us an original, an original, a saucy beat, and then he had an MC on it, but that part didn't work. But the instrumental is fire. Yeah, buck Rogers, shout out, buck Rogers.

Brian B:

Thank you, Buck.

Joe Bunn:

Yeah, he's in Austin, texas now. The outro, our boy, our very own, the man behind the board back there, we need to put a camera on him. Saquon Slim, young man, shout yourself out when can they find you? On everything, all streaming platforms. Slim Young man. That's Slim Young man, without the O.

Brian B:

That's right, slim Young.

Joe Bunn:

Man. Awesome producer. Another OG. I mean that's an original beat, original piece original beat dude so good we haven't said anything about those.

Brian B:

We really haven't.

Joe Bunn:

We know some talented people, though, man so shout out Saquon aka Slim Young man, and our boy Buck Rogers for making it sound saucy. How long do you think we'll use those before either you, me or the listeners get tired of them?

Brian B:

Do they have an expiration date? I mean, I would think a year yeah.

Joe Bunn:

Okay.

Brian B:

Speaking of this episode. Is this the end of?

Joe Bunn:

the first season it is.

Brian B:

Yeah, this is episode 13?.

Joe Bunn:

That's when we decided to close the season. Is that what, like Friends used to do? They used to do 13?.

Brian B:

How did we come up with that? That was a Google thing. We.

Joe Bunn:

Googled how many episodes are in a season, because you used to do about 44 episodes per season.

Brian B:

For me, a season was the year Nah 52. It doesn't sound right, but you were like, let's cut it.

Joe Bunn:

Yeah, so 13. It sounds better. Guess what I'm doing tonight. I have no idea I'm going to see Pink.

Brian B:

Wow, that was not on my bingo card that Saquon said the same thing.

Joe Bunn:

I mean, Ashley wanted to go, so I'm taking her. Have you been before? I've never seen Pink.

Brian B:

Okay, I heard she's solid.

Joe Bunn:

I know she's an incredible performer. Everybody's seen the clips where she flies around the arena and stuff.

Brian B:

Is this a PNC? Changed name recently.

Joe Bunn:

Lenovo. Okay, they changed the name a couple of weeks ago, lenovo Center renamed but was there and tonight, two nights in a row at the same arena. I mean that's 50,000 people, right, that's rare for Raleigh to get a double show like that, that's what I'm saying.

Joe Bunn:

I thought it was the end of the show. You want to know why? Friday I get a phone call from a guy I hadn't talked to in forever. I've been in the Raleigh bar scene forever. He's like hey, man, I need you to play this party for her and her crew.

Brian B:

She's staying another night.

Joe Bunn:

No, this was two nights ago, oh, before the tour started. So this was on Saturday night. They had Sunday off shows on Monday and Tuesday. Got it. And I'm like I got a freaking 300 person wedding. Bro, I can't help you.

Brian B:

That would have gotten me out of the tree cutting bro, you should have like pinged me, bro, trust me.

Joe Bunn:

And he started naming some other DJs and I was like, dude, those are good DJs. They're not right for this, right. I was like I have people like can do this, no budget, or whoever he was like I passed it on to them. Maybe he gave them a couple names, maybe they just called the first person on the list, I don't know, but I was called first and when I passed then it went to somebody else out of my camp and so I missed playing for Pink. And she was definitely there. What if she had seen me play? And the next thing, you know, I'm on tour. I can't believe you. It happened.

Brian B:

That would be be nutty. Anyway, can you imagine listening to Pink for the tour date, I mean, at some point? Well, maybe not, maybe all those crowds you're playing for, maybe that's worth it yeah, no. You could do a run of those. I think Hell yeah. So, speaking of run, you've been to a lot of shows this year. One Stick Out what's the best concert you've been to all year that you would tell the listeners.

Joe Bunn:

I mean I got to meet mars, I mean I gotta meet and take a picture with jared leto and then I'm on the stage for the last song.

Brian B:

But I feel like that's, like a personal connection, like that's you would say that well, if it sucked, they, you would be like that's my band, like no, no, that's not true.

Joe Bunn:

That is absolutely not true man, because that show, because need to breathe. I love that band. I've seen that band 15 times easily, maybe more, and they went on tour last year and I went to greensboro and it was not good and I've never said that. I will say right now that is the best touring band currently still alive and touring. But the set list was not good. The album that they were supporting was not good, it was just not good. I don't know if they've gotten too big, you know, because I went from seeing these guys in little bars and stuff where the last song they used to turn all the mics off and just wail like completely acoustic, like that's how small the places were, and now they're playing in, you know, greensboro Coliseum, but no, 30 Seconds to Mars, no question. I don't even have to think about it. What's your second? That's tough. I'm trying to think of who all we saw this year. I don't think Laney came Early in the year we saw them on Valentine's Day, the day before Valentine's Day, at the Ritz.

Joe Bunn:

That was a great show. I saw Quinn 92 the other night outside, still warm in October, at Red Hat. He killed you like that guy Quinn 92? I know the name. I really did love that Laney show though.

Brian B:

Did you?

Joe Bunn:

see that the Bay and Camino also at the Ritz.

Brian B:

You know, I love those guys.

Joe Bunn:

Yeah, did I what the the laney show our va? Yes, we sent her to go the largest indoor arena in the world.

Brian B:

I did not know this. Yeah, it's the largest clip. That was insane. Talk about a band that, like, has eclipsed, like worldwide.

Joe Bunn:

We saw them in a place that was held 1500 right. And then they went all the way from raleigh to the west coast they played at, at the Forum and that where the Lakers played.

Brian B:

They did play at Staples. Okay, no, it was Forum. I think it was Forum.

Joe Bunn:

And then they went to Asia, Thailand.

Brian B:

I had no idea. Now they're in Australia, okay.

Joe Bunn:

I mean that band has transcended. I was on them way early and then you kind of got on it later, which is very rare.

Brian B:

It's normally opposite. They're not like a gig type of band, no, which is why I'm late, because I usually don't listen to songs, that's true, that are just for listening.

Joe Bunn:

That's true. That's true. I think people think djs ride around and listen to like brick house in their car.

Joe Bunn:

Yeah, I've gone to podcasts dude really yeah, I'm not a consumer of any sort of media like I'm so bad. I don't watch youtube. I don't listen to podcasts. I'm a bad consumer. I don't watch YouTube, I don't listen to podcasts. I'm a bad consumer. I don't know man, I deleted TikTok the other day. I just let the VA just. If something pops off, let me know. It's just, it sucks. I hate it. It just wasn't doing anything for me. Anyway, what's going on today? Oh, we got a question.

Brian B:

We got a question, okay, Thought you, a little piece of gear you were going to pull out. No, not today.

Joe Bunn:

Not today A tampon holder or something For your DJs, I don't know.

Brian B:

For you, oh Jesus, a little stocking stuffer. Why was that? The first thing in my head.

Joe Bunn:

This is Corey Barron, one of our homies from Tampa, florida. Do you guys do anything other than DJ and create content to generate income? What types of investing do you do? Real estate, et cetera. Good question, can you answer first?

Brian B:

Sure, I mean, I feel like I'm the king of like little things that add up to a lot. I don't have like one extra side hustle. That's like carrying the lion's share of my extra revenue streams. I feel the same. I mean carrying the lion's share of my extra revenue streams. I feel the same. I mean Random just is an affiliate for Amazon.

Joe Bunn:

That's unbelievable. Yeah, it's such an easy thing. Yeah.

Brian B:

And I don't feel like I've done it Two different ways.

Joe Bunn:

One is.

Brian B:

I think it's called the influencer program. That's right, but the other side is where you actually and this is I just found this on Instagram somewhere where you make reviews of products and if people watch your video, if they click on that just to look for it and they see your video, you get credit for it. If, after they watch it, they go and buy it, surprisingly, that actually does pretty well. Yeah, I'm shocked that it does as well as it does.

Brian B:

Now is this going to pay your mortgage? No, it's. You know, two 300 bucks.

Joe Bunn:

Right.

Brian B:

You get a couple of those a month. Yeah, it's not nothing.

Joe Bunn:

No, you know, $4,000 a year.

Brian B:

I'm not investing in the stock market. I do have some passive stocks that my I guess life insurance financial advisor puts in there but yeah beyond that I'm not active, I'm not doing crypto no that's a jan I move no yeah, it sounds very jan I um and then just small little businesses like you know, little things here and there consulting, coaching yeah, speaking yeah, and then all those little things kind of add up.

Joe Bunn:

I mean obviously you got the dj's vault, you got crate hackers right, those definitely bring in the dj gear, the bun gear stuff that's right, I didn't forget about that this was the first year where I was doing it on my own.

Joe Bunn:

I had bought out my partner with bun, with bun gear right and it was a learning curve in a lot of ways. You know, finding the manufacturer, finding the right people, finding the right shipper, pricing it right and I felt like everybody made money on that this year but me, the people in the warehouse. I didn't lose money, but I definitely was not like making money. It was one of those things where I intentionally should have said all right, every booth I sell, I'm going to put $125 in my pocket or whatever in a different account.

Joe Bunn:

And I just didn't really do that. I've kind of restructured the pricing, restructured the logistics, the supply chain. It basically took a year to kind of figure out and kind of hit the reset button on October 1st.

Brian B:

Having worked at Pioneer back in the day. I know electronics profit margins are very thin. Is the same way in the booth furniture business?

Joe Bunn:

It's definitely thin, but because it is not anything electronic, it is better than electronics. In other words, there's no circuit boards and it's very little can break you know, UPS every once in a while jump up and down on a box or something.

Joe Bunn:

But I mean, sure it's, it's aluminum, it's very durable, it's powder coated, so I don't have a lot of returns, knock on wood stuff like that. I really enjoy it. I'm trying to come out with some other products and things like that and new style booth, the stands for the tube lights and whatnot. Like I need more SKUs. I really want to build a brand.

Brian B:

So, whatever happened, it just made me think of your pocket squares. That was another one of your. Did that ever take off?

Joe Bunn:

It definitely did not take off. What'd you call it? Brentwood circle? I made a bunch of them, or I had a tailor make a bunch of them, and I even talked to some people like overseas, like in India and stuff that were you know about sourcing fabric and making a lot. Right, I don't know, man, it was just I get these crazy ideas and what I did remember, because you have one, I do.

Joe Bunn:

All of a sudden, one morning I woke up and I just started packaging them up and sending them to all my friends and it was over. Yeah, I had like maybe 50 or 60, you know, and I just woke up one morning and I just I had the boxes and everything, and then I was like I'm going to just send these to all my friends.

Brian B:

They are solid. I mean, the idea was super clutch, because I hate those things because of the fact that it's I can never get it right.

Joe Bunn:

That's right. You can't mess up a round one, right? Yeah, I don't know what that idea came and went.

Brian B:

Will you go back to the clothing line with Brentwood? I?

Joe Bunn:

don't think so it's done. I think it's cooked I.

Brian B:

It's good to have multiple income streams right.

Joe Bunn:

I would say multiple income streams are incredibly important. I'm just like Brian, though it's a little bit from everything. A little bit from a lot of things I don't have, like a bunch of Airbnbs. I think the biggest fail I ever made and I still kick myself every year is that I didn't buy some sort of building or a little warehouse instead of paying rent.

Joe Bunn:

For all these years I've kicked myself all the time when Raleigh was still affordable. Right, you know I was here way before you were. You came in at the very tail end of affordability in this city. Like you got that house, which is, I bet your house has gone up 30% at least. In what two years, three years, since you've been here, I guarantee it's $300,000 more than you paid for the house, if you tried to sell it, if you wanted to sell it right now.

Joe Bunn:

But the problem is you went to sell it, tried to put that money in your pocket. Where are you going to move? Yeah, you know, like Fayetteville.

Brian B:

Like that callback, oh wow.

Joe Bunn:

He circled back. That was a Letterman trick there. So, corey, yes, if I had any input into said I'm really good at making money, really bad at holding on to it, really bad at saving it, I would just say manager, risk, you know what I mean. Like that's probably why I never did the crypto thing. What was that other thing? Where you were, people were buying artwork like jpegs, nfts, nfts, right non-fungible tokens.

Joe Bunn:

Yeah, you want to talk about a fucking beating? Ask logan paul like he spent like four hundred thousand dollars on some smoking ape or something like that. It's worth like $40 now. He spent millions on it, I think or hundreds of thousands. I don't remember what it was. Bitcoin is up. Bitcoin is up. I'm just saying if I was to give advice, I would say manage your risk. You know what I mean. I'm not going to go buy an apartment building in the worst neighborhood in town.

Brian B:

Anyway, I would also say you don't want it to affect your main revenue source, correct, which I think some people make that mistake. They're like I'm going to start a second business.

Joe Bunn:

And all of a sudden your first you know thing. That's kind of funding.

Brian B:

It in a sense goes sideways because you paid too much attention to the other thing. A hundred percent done that.

Joe Bunn:

Anytime I've ventured off the DJ path, no matter what it was. I've definitely flipped houses. I definitely made it was. I've definitely flipped houses. I've definitely made pocket squares. I've definitely made t-shirts and hats. I've definitely been a band manager. Like, anytime I dipped off the DJ path is when I severely lost money and just absolutely took a bath, and so I kind of learned the lesson the hard way, like stick to what you know, like stick to what you're good at. Stick to your audience you know, make a podcast for private event djs.

Brian B:

Because you're a private event dj which is making no money, zero dollars, throwing it out there people. So if you want to invest, we're happy.

Joe Bunn:

However, like I said the other day, you got to look at the glass. Half full is the content. You know we've got now like good reels every week there's usually something funny to post. Yeah, the people love it. Do y'all love it? Leave us a review. If you do, I don't know.

Brian B:

Let's put a bow on it. Let's do it Everybody. If you want to see where we're located, go to beyondthedjboothcom and binge the rest of the episodes.

Joe Bunn:

Yes.

Brian B:

Every Wednesday, we drop these and we'll see you on the next one. See y'all, thank you.