Beyond the DJ Booth
Brian B and Joe Bunn tackle questions about the private event DJ industry, share music, gear/gadgets, and stories from their events.
Beyond the DJ Booth
DJ Economics 101: Rent Hikes, Heat, and Hit Songs
An email can change your month...and your mindset. Joe's arrived with a “pursuant to your lease” assessment that nearly doubled the rent on a 600-square-foot office in a 100-year-old building. We unpack what that clause really means, how to demand transparent line-item accounting, and why negotiating caps on pass-through costs might be the most valuable sentence in your next contract. If a landlord’s endgame is clearing tenants for redevelopment, we share the leverage plays and exit strategies that keep your business solvent instead of squeezed.
Then the conversation cools (…barely) to the real-world pain of summer gigs without functioning air-conditioning. From portable fans to backup gear placement, we trade music-gear-gadget fixes that keep you alive through triple-digit heat and outdoor weddings.
From there, it’s all about music that saves dance floors. We spotlight K-pop crossovers that work even in crowds who “don’t do K-pop,” anchored by universal pop backbones. You’ll also hear the 80s flip that instantly reignited a dinner crowd, the wordplay transitions that turn recognition into momentum (think Glamorous → No Broke Boys), and the subtle meme-sample that had an entire cocktail hour smiling. Plus, a Johnny Cash bootleg that proves you can honor a request without killing your set’s flow.
Traveling to make those moments happen? We review the TRTL travel pillow plus and talk about why the redesigned support finally let us sleep on flights, and when investing in travel comfort is worth every penny for working DJs constantly on the move.
Finally, we tackle a listener question: what counts as a “decent living” as a DJ? Instead of throwing out a single income number, we define sustainability: covering bills, taxes, and a healthy buffer without needing a second job. We break down real regional differences and show how to build event DJ business advice that keeps you stable year-round.
Whether you’re negotiating leases, refreshing playlists, or trying to survive another wedding in the heat, this episode blends humor, real-life DJ stories, and strategies to help you run a stronger, smarter, more profitable business.
Hit play, then drop us your best edit, your
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
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. I'm Brian B. Yes, sir. This is Joseph Eagles Bun Jr.
SPEAKER_01:Sometimes you do like to give my full name like that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_01:It's my government name. What was your middle name again? Robert or something like that?
SPEAKER_02:No. And then you said Michael one time. No. Like, I don't know. Rare you're.
SPEAKER_01:It's always something. It's something basic, though, isn't it? Teeth, baby. Why do I always forget that?
SPEAKER_02:I don't know, man. It's a great segue into our next segment here. Which is off the record. Listen to this shit.
SPEAKER_00:Off the record. Let me talk my sugar honey ice team. They throw a shade while I'm sipping on this ice tea. Don't care if you hate or like me. You know why? Cause that's just how life before record off the record, off the record, off the record. Say it with your chest. Got a microphone, check it. I'm gonna say what I want to say. It's right time to write and red. Get out the way.
SPEAKER_02:So wait, first of all, let's set it up again. How long when did you move into this spot? Do you remember? Four years ago? But okay.
SPEAKER_01:I moved into this bottom place in this building around the pandemic. So five years ago.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. And you weren't in this room.
SPEAKER_01:I was not. I was on the other side of that green awning out that window in a little office over there. Got it.
SPEAKER_02:This became available a year in.
SPEAKER_01:No, no. I was over there five or six years.
SPEAKER_02:Well that's now.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, no, no. Twenty twenty fifteen to twenty twenty. Oh, got it. Okay. I was over there.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Same building, right over there.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then 2020 to current day. So I've been here 10 plus years. Loyal. Loyal. Never missed a payment. Even through the pandemic. I think they let me stop paying rent, but then they came for it when the pandemic ended.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And your lease was about what, a four year or five years?
SPEAKER_01:My lease was four or five years. No, my lease over there was probably two or three. I re-signed for another two or three. Then I moved here, signed for two or three, then another two or three. And the lease ends September 30th, 2026, a year from basically today.
SPEAKER_07:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Two days ago, I get a mail, a letter. No, it wasn't in the mail. It was an email letter that said pursuant to your lease agreement, you're being assessed a fine of or an amount of four thousand dollars for January to September of 2025, in addition to an assessment of$1,300 on top of your rent. Existing rent. Which my rent now is about$1,300. Right. I mean it's a 600 square foot. Basically doubled. Yeah. And I immediately am like, I mean, I just stopped what I'm doing. I started emailing them back. What are you what is what is this? What are you talking about? Second person I email Ashley, my girlfriend, is a literal contract attorney. I'm like, it's this, what is happening right now? She's like, it's pretty standard, and it's probably in your lease. And so then the next thing, you know, a day goes by and now all these other tenants are coming by my office because they know I'll get fired up.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And they're like, what the fuck is going on? And I'm like, and and I'm again, keep in mind I probably have the smallest office space. So if I'm being assessed 4,000, there's some people here being assessed 8,000, 10,000, 12,000. It's how much square footage you own at least.
SPEAKER_02:For those that don't have an office, what does an assessment mean necessarily?
SPEAKER_01:They're saying that they have made improvements to this property that you are basically taking, let's say, let's say it was$100,000 and they're dividing it up amongst the tenants.
SPEAKER_03:Based on the size of your property, y'all pay for it, the improvement. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:And I and so my first question is I need to see the accounting.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01:Question one is math, ain't mathing. Oh, our accountants are out of the office until Thursday. That's convenient. Yeah. I'm so sure they are. Like my my number one thing was like, I'm not, number one, I'm not paying this. Number two, uh, I need to see the full accounting. What have you done here? Because there's been nobody here. What? There's nobody that's fixed the roof. The parking lot hasn't been repaid. A C was going out of the house. The AC was out half the summer. Oh, geez. They come by once a week and blow the driveway. So they're trying to just make some cash off of you. Absolutely. I mean, again, extortion it. A cash grab, something. And I'm not standing for this shit. So I'm already picking apart the lease.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm So you have an out in your lease that you can get out of it to move?
SPEAKER_01:It doesn't look great. I think I might just leave and see what happens. I got it. So for somebody who sue me, if if uh there there is no advice I can give these people because there is no standard lease that you're gonna sign on an office space that's not going to have that verbiage in it. And they're not gonna let you take it out. So it's it's just like if the HOA Save some money, in other words. Save your money. I mean, it's an emergency rainy day thing. I mean, because if they come knocking. Now, the only thing I will say, I will give one tip you you need to write in there or have them write in there that there's some sort of a cap that they can't bump it to whatever they want to, which is what they just did.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Now, listen, I'm I may I'm they may be trying to clear the building. That the the building is ancient. It may not be protected under code. They might be tearing it down and putting up uh houses or condos here. And that may be the play, but and that's fine, but then you just have to let me out of I'm not paying the next year a double double rate. I'm not doing it for principal only. I'm not paying three thousand dollars for a six hundred square foot space. I don't know what the square footage cost is. That is way above market value. Right in a in a hundred and one year old building.
SPEAKER_02:And why are you saying that there's so many other places that are building up like commercial?
SPEAKER_01:We work in and and and have a coffee barista, yeah, uh a conference room with with plexiglass overlooking the city, like uh a uh Ames, whatever those uh super high-end chairs are called. Like I mean, I mean I mean, I mean, I did all this work that you see that makes it look cool myself. Right. It's just there's no way I'm paying that. I'm not paying it. Yeah. There's no way. So have you done anything to uh I've been looking for years to try and get out of here. Right. Because I need something with a warehouse to move bun gear and everything else into here. Put a studio for Saquon, put our podcast studio in here, put a place to shoot content against a white wall that has AC that doesn't go out. Has air conditioning that doesn't go out, like freestanding building so we can play music and have parties and like it's it's a needle in a haystack. Right. And and Raleigh's gotten too big too fast for me to buy something.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So no clapbacks yet?
SPEAKER_01:I'm not gonna speak on that. What I what I'm I I must save that for off the record. Real off the record. Real off the record. I I Joe Bunn ain't going down without a fight. Put it that way. This shit is going to get get get a biblical uh war is going to take place. Uh and it helps if your girlfriend's a lawyer, put it that way.
SPEAKER_02:But um you would still say that this has I mean is has been an investment worth doing, right?
SPEAKER_01:100% pre-pandemic. Realize this. I would have told you 1,000% that this is. You told me when you told you the two markers that that made my business go to the roof 15 years ago. Number one, rebranding. I had bad branding. Number two, I was always good at marketing, so I'll throw marketing in there with branding. But number three was to get an office space pre-pandemic. Every single night of the week, we would have couples in here to the point where we had to have a shared calendar so that DJs weren't sitting here with couples doing the presentation. Yeah, and somebody walks in on top of them. We had champagne, we had the up light set up, we had a photo booth so they could take a picture. We would show the presentation up on the TV screen. Yeah. Every single night we had people here prior to 2020. Right. And ever since that day, nobody has come and sat down in here.
SPEAKER_02:So if you weren't doing content creation, would you need a space?
SPEAKER_01:Would you I can't work from home.
SPEAKER_02:You can't.
SPEAKER_01:I not one single minute of work gets done at my house. Interesting. I can't do it. There are a thousand distractions. There are a thousand things that need to be cleaned around the house or done, or I'll look outside and a bush needs to be trimmed, or you know, paint needs to be touched up on the back door. There is a fucking dog there that Ashley has that barks every time somebody comes around. And the entire front of the house is glass, if you recall. Yes. The front door is glass, all her office is glass, the dining room is all glass. So every time somebody walks by, dog barks. She works from home two out of the three days. So she's back there on some conference call the whole day. Yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like there is a lot of things. You would have at least a one office no matter what. There is no matter what, at some point, even if I have to go to WeWork or a co-working space, I will always, till the day that I die, have a separate office from my home. I don't even think if I had taken my garage and built a second level on it and made some kind of swagged out place up there, that I could do it. Because it is still at the house. Yeah. I don't like it, man. I don't see how people do it. I don't know how you do it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I I think you just city, right? Which is a cracker box as it as it is. So you kind of you just make it work, you figure it out. Yeah. And um, I will say there was a guy, uh, shout out Travis Wackerly from Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_01:He's he That's a great name, Wackerly.
SPEAKER_02:He created a uh a shed in the back. Like it looked like a shed. Yeah. It's like pimped out. No, I know, yeah. It's an office. And it's it's literally separate. So it's not in the house. Right.
SPEAKER_01:Would something like that work if you had that in the backyard? That's what I was saying, man. I mean, because that could, you know, if I spent a hundred thousand, I could I could add a second story to our garage and get permitted and everything. I I still're still in the main house. I'm saying behind the house. That's right. All right. Yeah. It's not your garage is on in your house. Right. My garage is behind the house. No, I don't, man. I really don't.
SPEAKER_02:All right.
SPEAKER_01:I don't. I as much as I I mean, as much as it sounds like a great idea, yeah. I and and I could probably get a loan and I could probably get it permitted and and build it. Yeah. I I just I think I still want to be out out truly out of the house.
SPEAKER_02:So end of the day, the story is I got something somewhere to go. And beyond and if you need a space, go get a space still.
SPEAKER_01:They can come for you, man. You're there nobody's gonna uh write a lease up in a in a true um legal fashion without having that assessment in it. Right. Well or that ability to assess you if the parking lot all of a sudden the tree roots from all the oak trees popped it up. Yeah, and they had to repave it and it was ten, twenty, fifty thousand dollars. You're gonna you're gonna get taxed for that.
SPEAKER_02:Got it.
SPEAKER_01:I ain't going down. There we go. I might be leaving, but uh you might see us in a different spot soon. Yeah. But uh, but it but it ain't gonna be pretty.
SPEAKER_02:We'll send you a cell number, so if you need to send me correspondence, you can see that. Uh let's hit the music. Some music. Okay, let's talk about music. So on Annie's playlist, let's talk about some of the stuff that's popping off on your five-year-old daughter's playlist. We talked about K-pop a couple episodes back.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, you still not playing any? Nah. No, not even getting requested. Nah. Still not. Raleigh is behind, man. Bro, Raleigh stays behind.
SPEAKER_03:I wouldn't say it's just not what Raleigh's listening to.
SPEAKER_01:Uh-uh. It's crazy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, there's because I mean, I know some nerds that like anime and stuff, they listen to it.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_03:But it's not like the majority of Raleigh. Right.
SPEAKER_01:Majority of Raleigh's like, okay. No, we've never got a request for it. Absolutely not. I mean, listen, dude, I'm not one of those DJs that doesn't take requests. I know that. Yeah, yeah. You know, if somebody comes up to me and is like, hey, man, this is gonna go off. Or what somebody came up a couple nights ago and was like, you know, did the bride put this? And I was like, no. And then they were like, I promise you this is gonna go off. And it, whatever it was, it went off.
SPEAKER_02:Got it. So this is that K-pop song, Golden. Okay. But this makes it playable for a party. This is with Black IP's I Got a Feeling. Okay. Now I'm more interested. Got Annie's sign off on it. Okay. She's jamming to it in the car. So I know it's gonna work. So here we go. See if we can play this for a party.
unknown:Here we go.
SPEAKER_01:Here we go.
unknown:Go, go, go, go, go.
SPEAKER_05:Go with the girls, go with the girl.
SPEAKER_02:What I like about this is you can go into it. But if it was on a request list, you wouldn't lose half the crowd who doesn't like K-pop. You're getting like this behind it. It's like you're right. So anyway, good edit. I don't even remember where I got it from, but super solid. I'm gonna allow it. I'm allowing it. All right, number two. This is um the song called Together. It's a brand new release, ish. David Guetta takes the old 80s song. Um he loves to do that. He does. But I love this edit. This is a DJ. He's the new puffy. He is. Nah, ish. No did he know. Production version. Yeah, yeah. But this uh this edit starts with the chorus as like a slam in. Okay. And I played it during dinner. It opened my dance floor organically for me. It was like the last song I played at dinner, and I was shocked at how well this did. I was like, okay, I gotta keep this in the back pocket. Okay. So here it is. The edit I have. That's what I'm saying. The J City edit. Just to start it off. Like, you know what I mean? It's not aggressive where you're Totally Clips of the Heart. Totally Clips of the Heart. Yeah, that's what it was. Anyway, brand new, great song to Totally Clips of the Heart. I hate that song. I think I hated it too. But with that edit, I was surprised everybody.
SPEAKER_01:I think I even hated it back then in the 80s. But I like this. I I I'll I could see this going over. So I had a Do you still play um Good Feeling around? Yeah. A version of it. Yeah. It's a good closer.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it's great, works great.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:So uh Wookie put out a new track. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um that's that My Girl Yeah, My Girl Guy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. Sunshine. I think that track was called.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah, you're right. It wasn't called My Girl, it was Sunshine.
SPEAKER_02:These guys wanted some old like 70s rock stuff. Okay. And on the list was Ring of Fire. Johnny Cash. Wookiee made a version on Friday. This last Friday released. I played it on Saturday. Wow. Now I don't really do that that often, but it was on the list. I was like, oh wait, he just released this. I'm gonna try this. Played it in the main dance set. Fire. Flames, flames, flames.
SPEAKER_01:Jesus. Let me hear this.
SPEAKER_07:Low is a burning thing. And it makes sense.
SPEAKER_02:You think that's really gonna be right? Oh, I don't know. I don't think so. I cleared it. But it is an official boot. Right, right. Oh, it's powerful. Yeah. I'll let it ride for a second. Yeah, we have it turn.
SPEAKER_01:Oh hell yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And people are just like, oh, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_07:It was so funny. It was so great.
SPEAKER_01:But if you just have like something like that on the request list and play something like this type of edit and then give you blowback, you have to be so careful.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Like so careful. Like that one stays so true to the original to an extent. Uh-huh. It's just a thicker beat. Yeah. So the fact that they can hear it during an actual dance, if they actually enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_02:But if it was like you know, like the you know, trap. People are like, this is over the top. Yeah. But that one's like rides pretty clean. Like it doesn't go aggressive.
SPEAKER_01:So did that my girl thing he did. Yeah, totally. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. I'm gonna like to play that track.
SPEAKER_01:I love that.
SPEAKER_02:It would work in a North Carolina. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:100%.
SPEAKER_02:All right. So uh number four.
SPEAKER_01:Love that one.
SPEAKER_02:I told you the song of the summer was No Broke Boys. Yeah. You're still not playing it.
SPEAKER_01:No, I am. Are you now? Yeah, we played it a couple times. Did it go off? It was fine, yeah. It's fine. Fine. It just, dude, I mean, we're behind. I mean, we're not getting it on every list. We're, you know, it was on one or two. It was on, I think the one that we did at Elon with the EDM stuff. So it it segue seg into the rest of the stuff that we were playing that night at what is it, 120 something?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, 128-ish.
SPEAKER_01:I dude, I don't know what to tell you. You played at that EDM wedding? Yeah. And it went over? Yeah, it went over, of course. Yeah. I mean, but it just, it's not something we see on every playlist. We we I mean, you also have to remember July and August are super slow. So for us to say Song of the Summer, like it would have had to be in May or June. Yeah. I mean, July and August didn't really do shit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, this is one of those ones that Annie has all the lyrics memorized to No Broke Boys, which is not great. Just kind of made up a little bit. But the song, uh, there's a great wordplay with this. This is going from mainstream glamorous into no broke boys. From Fergie? Fergie. I play that song all the time. Are you playing that one?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'll still play Fergie every once in a while. Okay. But I use but I usually Yeah, we play glamours. Yeah, we play glamours.
SPEAKER_02:All right, so here you go. You'll hear the wordplay. And just with the chorus. Uh that's a great question. I actually made this edit of it because I like this version edit of an edit. Yeah. Very even Steve is what makes having the wrap over too. So does that kind of light that for me a second? So people can make the connection.
SPEAKER_01:Great, great, great. Isn't that a good version? Bravo. I need it. Dude. I need it.
SPEAKER_02:It's it gets to the level of the journey, even Steve, recognition. That's a specific edit with that transition.
SPEAKER_01:Need it for this weekend. Please. Okay. By the way, corner, corner, um, corner store boy on uh Saturday. Got me in the corner. Oh, yeah. Saw it three weeks ago. Sent to the planner, would rather not be there.
SPEAKER_02:Oh.
SPEAKER_01:Took it back to the couple. Couple said that's where he is. Wow. Wow. Maybe, maybe, baby is in the corner in this particular Saturday. Yeah. Tell the planner I'm like, anywhere but there. Come back to me a week later after their tour. Nah, that's where you are. Yeah. I mean, I think I even circled on the floor plan. I could be here, here, here. Nope.
SPEAKER_02:Options in the corner. One through ten and they then go for anything. In the corner, homie. Wow. Yes, sir. So the one that you said was kind of the song of the summer, which wasn't even a song, but it was the Jet 2 holiday.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_02:So, dude, I've been playing. There's an edit out with that.
SPEAKER_01:There's multiple edits out. I know.
SPEAKER_02:So Diggs did one. Yeah. You can get on DMS. Yeah. I'm doing destination stuff, so it's a holiday for a lot of people. Sure. I've been playing that song with that piece of it's it's um it's Jess Glenn.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So here it is with that song.
SPEAKER_01:I saw them meet recently on a podcast. It was so funny. Like, you know what I mean? The girl that does the voiceover for Jessica. And then they were like hugging. It was so funny. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02:The song went off. People get the joke.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02:So here it is. They didn't they didn't take it as a troll? Uh, I mean, no, they just thought it was funny because they didn't expect it. Right. Because the song is good in itself. No, yeah. Jess Glenn has banger. Right? Yeah, and this one specifically. This is like an cocktail hour. I'm playing this. Oh, really? Yeah, not even dance that's a big one. Nothing beats the shit. Do you want to do it? He's dying. It's just that one little hole. Oh, I didn't even do the rest of the commercial. I didn't get another commercial. So this one makes it. They have another version of it that's longer. Right. You want the full thing?
SPEAKER_01:If you want to save 500 pounds.
SPEAKER_02:This just has that one little bit so it's not like super like over the top.
SPEAKER_01:I for for like two weeks, I would hear it on Instagram, and I was working on that saying, nothing beats a jet fueled holiday. And Tiki was like, What are you saying? And I was like, I think it's jet-fueled holiday. And she was like, It's jet to holiday. And I had to look it up and I was like, shit. I'm wrong.
SPEAKER_02:All right, new singer. Last one. This is uh You got something else? Oliver Olivia. Sorry, Olivia Dean. He loves the fuck smite name. I'm sorry, yeah. Olivia Dean. It's the song called Man I Need. It's a brand new release. And this is just a house version of it. It's really catchy. I think it's gonna be big. Really? Mm-hmm. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Wait, the I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02:The original is gonna be big. Okay. That's on every thing.
SPEAKER_01:You need to always know. Like if you're talking about the original.
SPEAKER_02:It's on every TikTok right now. It's on mine. Can I hear it? Yes. This is the house version of it. The break though. If you played it for the case, I think it's super.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but I think it could be a bullet. I like that halftime. Yeah, yeah. And the beat's not too aggressive.
SPEAKER_02:No, yeah. It's like a good modern cocktail song. So anyway, just want to throw that out there.
SPEAKER_01:Do you literally play, even if they like like we're in the ballroom right now, nobody's really supposed to be in here. The cocktail hour is going on out there. People are just mingling, having a drink. You're telling me if that was happening right now, you would be out there playing this set live. The cocktail set live. So you'd have another controller and every time we do a a cocktail hour, it is in somewhere other than the ballroom. Okay. We we we there I don't remember the last time that the ballroom was the cocktail spot.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm not usually either because usually it's I'm under a tent 90% of the time. In Florida. In Florida. They want it outdoors. So cocktail hour is outside the tent. So I put a satellite speaker out there playing what I'm playing.
SPEAKER_01:So you're still close enough to your main gear to jump into a satellite. Right. So you will play it live. I will play it live. I I I could see doing that. That makes more sense to me. I and I agree, it definitely is a big difference than throwing on the autoplay Spotify live. Right. No matter how good your music is, nothing's gonna be as good as a live DJ. Right. Right. Especially if you have a musician. Actually sent me that new update the Spotify two days ago, you know, where you can like blend music and stuff. It's like, check this out. And I'm like, I'm not exactly fucking excited about that, actually. Like, I'm glad you are. Like I'm not I'm not like hyping people up to be a Spotify DJ. It's like an actual mix. Yeah, no, you can like lay them together.
SPEAKER_02:And you can pick the effect that transitions. But from everything I've seen, I haven't tried it myself. Everybody says it's garbage.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I will get better. It's better than the regular crossfade. But you gotta like manually go in and do it, I think. Like you have to you have to like but will it like sync the songs? It will. Yeah. She was like, this is cool. I'm like, it's not that cool. Don't get so hyper replacing the DJ. Yeah. Anyway. Let's go to the gear. The gear? Yeah. Oh, we hadn't done that yet. You're right. We've been batching today. Sorry guys. I'm I've lost my place. So let's go to the gear. The gear's here. The gear. Is here is here. Is here is here. Is here is here.
SPEAKER_02:Can you um sleep on planes?
SPEAKER_01:Or you know.
SPEAKER_02:Why? Um is it the comfortability factor or is it just something else?
SPEAKER_03:I can't because I feel like I need to be aware of my shit.
SPEAKER_07:You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03:Somebody's gonna jump you. Or no, I just need to like know somebody's going down.
SPEAKER_02:But what are they going with it? They go to the bathroom with it? I mean, where are they taking it?
SPEAKER_01:Um, I don't know what mine is, man. I um I think I I I can feel myself kind of not off at the very beginning, and I think it's because of the white noise. And that reminds me of the fan. Yes. Because I run a fan at night because I have tinnitus or whatever. But I never like if there was a whatever, that four hour, five-hour flight to Phoenix, you there's absolutely no way I could sleep on it. Got it. Not not I mean, I may not for 50. Uh no, I didn't sleep.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't even sleep. That was overnight, right? It was overnight. I remember kind of tossing and turning. We had the nice kind of like lay down seats. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nah. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Well, for me, I couldn't sleep because I my neck would just like I'd fall off and then everything go down. I'd just be. So I tried every pillow out there.
SPEAKER_01:None of them work. The Bucky or Buppy or whatever the page. I tried all of them, dude.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I spent so much money on pillows and threw them all away or returned them. They're just trash. Right. Till uh our mutual friend Kaylee Weiss, I think that's how you say it. That is. She introduced me to the turtle pillow. Okay. Which is um kind of like it's actually a medically designed device. Okay. So inside of it, this is what it is. This is the old version. I'm gonna show you the new version. Okay. But it's got like a an actual like you can feel it in there. Like that's it's like an actual um wire frame. Wire frame in there. Yeah, this is great because for the people who can't see it, yeah. Um, but it when you rest it on your shoulder.
SPEAKER_01:Wait, it goes on your shoulder?
SPEAKER_02:So you you wrap it around your output for you. So here it goes like this. So you see how it's got velcro on it on one side, okay. Goes around it like this. Okay. Looks kind of crazy, but you just go to sleep like this. Oh.
SPEAKER_01:So you can kind of it's it's basically like a plastic insert inside a piece of fabric. He's got one part on his shoulder and one part on like right under his ear, and then his head is just tilting to the side.
SPEAKER_02:Right. And when I tried this, yeah, it was the first time I've ever woken up and my neck hasn't been hurting. Right. And so it's the only pillow that I've been able to use that's what's great like this. So I just sleep like this, right? Wow. So I lost, I thought I lost it. Okay. Go on Amazon, I'm gonna reorder it. New turtle. New premium. It's the it's the new uh turtle pillow plus. Okay, let me see it. Let me see the first of all, the thing I don't like about this is I have a carrying bag. No satchel. No satchel. You love a satchel. I love a satchel. I've got a satchel. The best thing about it was, and I broke it already. Carabiner. Carabiner. I gotta replace this, but that would hang on my backpack. Yep. Because I don't have to pull out of my bag. Now I gotta pull this out of my bag every time I do it. Right, right. So you pull it out. This thing has been improved 110% here. Really? Oh, yeah. I mean, how long do you think you had that other one? Oh, I've had that five years? Since 2019, maybe. So a long time. Yeah, five, six years. Okay, turtle. So this is this is you can kind of see it's even got the knobs. Like this is just the build is ten times better. And I haven't really even had to adjust anything with it yet. Okay. So I don't know if that's gonna make a difference, but you can just tell it's just a lot more sturdy. Yeah, yeah. And it's not one big plastic piece, it's like a couple different ones in there. So same thing, it's the same kind of design.
SPEAKER_01:But you basically have a preference on left or right? Yeah, it's this side. That's it.
SPEAKER_02:It has to be this side. I can't do the left side. You gotta go left. No, I yeah, I have to go left. Left, yeah. So same thing. Like this doesn't stay on the lip though. Hold on. And you just go like this and you just sleep like that. And I don't have to, and dude, I can. Can totally sleep with this thing.
SPEAKER_01:I I honestly have never seen anybody really even on a plane using it. Incredible. You gotta get it. If you want to try to sleep, this is the on a long flight, I would love to sleep. I don't really like to sleep during the day. Okay. You know what I mean? Like I feel like I need to get away from the floor.
SPEAKER_02:Road trips, though. Road trips. If you're the passenger, if you're not on the thing, you're just like, and you I've tried to bring my pillow before. It never works, right? This thing. Turtle. The turtle. Damn. And I think there's something to be said for like somebody who understands sleep patterns and what makes people like, I don't know if they're chiropractors or whatever. Right. They designed it correctly with something that's got that. I feel like it looks like a neck brace. It does. It does totally look like that. So any idea on cost? I think it's probably 75 plus. Close. A little more. 84 bucks. Yeah. 84.99. I can tell. Premium. Turtle TRTL. Oh, T R T L, okay. Plus.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm assuming it comes in different colors.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. You can do whatever you want. I just went gray because Turtle Plus, guys. Get it. I'm telling you. Get it. Get it. If you don't like it, return it. But let me know if you do like it because I would love to know. Yeah. That turns you onto it. On Brian B's Amazon. Let's move into the question.
SPEAKER_01:By the way, where do they find your Amazon and my Amazon again?
SPEAKER_02:I put the actual now the URL in the email newsletter that goes. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, and then I put the URL on the podcast description under the YouTube video. Okay. All right, booth heads, we made a move and it's a bold one.
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SPEAKER_02:Like early access to batched episodes, bonus episode that we couldn't post publicly, maybe, and our weekly top 10 banger lists, songs that absolutely crushed at our events this week. You know, the stuff that you really want to steal from us anyway. But if you want to go deeper, jump into the booth backroom at$19.99 a month.
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SPEAKER_01:Okay. Um the today's question comes from Richie Steadman, our boy out in Salt Lake City, Utah. And it's a simple one first for him. Yeah, he usually write a damn novel. He'll write a damn noveletta. Uh, what do you think making a decent living as a DJ is? What do you think making a decent living as a DJ is? And he put that in quotes. Making a decent living is in quotes. Brian, you want to go first on it, or do you want me to go first?
SPEAKER_02:I can go.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I think we just we talked about a pre-show, but this is gonna be regional for whatever market you're really in. Because what what makes a decent living in Mississippi as opposed to what makes a decent living in New York City, totally two different things. I guess I mean, I'm not gonna put a number to it, but I would say this if it allows you to go full time, I mean, that's kind of I think where you're trying to go with it, make a decent living that where you don't need a second job to support you. So something that will pay your bills and give you a little bit in savings would be my most generic answer ever to this question, uh in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01:I hate when you answer first because then I feel like I'm just going, yeah, me too. I feel like I was gonna give a very similar answer. My my gut reaction when he asked, it was a hundred. A hundred thousand.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's probably what get you pretty far in most places.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, that was my gut reaction for a number. I thought he wanted a number, but then the more I went deeper into it, I was like, you know what, man? Maybe that's not necessarily the number that somebody needs in rural America or that or that doesn't have kids, or you know, that that has paid off their car and paid off their house, like Randy. You know what I mean? Like never got married, never had kids. His house is paid off, his car is paid off. It's crazy. I mean, just I mean, you talk about somebody making bank, like, I mean, I I got kids and ex wives and cars and houses and of of doubled office rent rate. I've been shit on all over the place. But I I but then I think about it more from what you just said, from a and I don't want to say financial freedom, but it to the point where you don't wake up every day worried about money, that your bills are paid, that you're not severely in debt, that you that you do make enough money to not only pay your bills, but to put some away for an emergency, for taxes, for somebody in your family needing medical assistance or whatever that is, that to me is making a living. And if you and and to be full-time is obviously the the dream for most people that are that are doing private event DJing, but if you have to go out and subsidize it, whether it's a side hustle, driving Uber Eats or uh, you know, m 3D printing objects or whatever, then you gotta do that. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like if that's the if they if you have to subsidize your income, there's nothing wrong with that to get to this making a decent living.
SPEAKER_02:I would also say, too, it's uh not living paycheck to paycheck.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I would say that.
SPEAKER_01:Which is essentially that's the majority of the country. What we're talking about. That's the majority of the country. I looked this up recently.
SPEAKER_02:The majority of the country is living paycheck to paycheck?
SPEAKER_01:It's it's it's I think I Googled what is the percentage of the US population, not the the world, that has five thousand dollars in their account right now, cash, liquid, and it was the number was small. I don't remember what it is. Go Google that if you don't mind, segwan, just out of curiosity. What percentage of the US population has five thousand dollars in their account right now? And how would they know that? That's a great question. I don't fucking know. I mean probably asked banks, but then the CNL in the world, it's it's like 1% or something like that. In the world, because there's so many impoverished country countries or whatever. You have the answer. Did it pop up? Yeah, I I don't I mean the number was very low. Yeah. So what do you say? Or what's it saying? 29%. That's what I was about to say, 20%.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, 29% between 500 and 5,000 in their savings. That's how much. That's a good idea. And only 11% have close to 50,000. Saved up.
SPEAKER_01:So I mean, it's just you know what I mean? So I don't even know that that's the benchmark. I mean, investing's hard. I've done a terrible job. I'm sure you've done better. No, I have not. I mean, uh, I've done a terrible job. Like I Ashley's done a great job, but she's always been corporate. Right. I'm a serial entrepreneur, man. I cannot have that money tied up somewhere. Right. I can't do it. Yeah. If you know 401k or Roth this or that, we do have that, but like But I mean, I've always had to pull it.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:You know what I mean? Like I've I've I've needed it. And I'm like, dude, I gotta get that money back, pay the penalty, get beat up. It's just yeah, I I just am always moving too fast to have my money tied up. Right. Anyway. Well, that helps, Rich. Yeah. Hope that helps Richie Steadman. Anything else for today? Like I said, man. Dude, this is good stuff. Thank you all for listening. Thank our sponsor, DJ Event Planner, for always taking good care of us with our CRMs. Brian and I both use the product. It's DJEventplanner.com. And as usual, new episodes drop every single week wherever you stream. And then, of course, the full video version on my YouTube channel. Thanks, y'all. Later, booth heads.
