How a Chandelier Almost Ruined New Year’s Eve

A packed dance floor can die in one flick of a switch.

In this episode, we break down two real events where tiny, overlooked details nearly derailed the night -  including a New Year’s Eve celebration hijacked by a blinding rental chandelier and a holiday wedding where the bar shut down two hours early… yet the room somehow stayed alive.

From 28-degree outdoor dinners to guests hovering behind the DJ booth pretending to twist knobs, we walk through the exact decisions that saved both parties — and the non-negotiable habit checks we now build into every show.

We get tactical about flow: how to announce an early last call without killing momentum, why pre-lighting walk-throughs matter more than your newest transition pack, and the moment you have to force the party inside when weather turns on you. You’ll hear how we rebuilt energy after delays, structured countdowns under midnight pressure, and handled a groom’s 11 PM curveball request to sit everyone down on New Year’s Eve.

We also talk playlist politics:  last-minute overhauls, “no Pitbull” rules, and how to respect taste without abandoning the room that actually needs to dance.

Then we tackle the elephant with a ring light: influencer pricing. We unpack the shared-risk contract model that keeps “exposure” from turning into an unpaid invoice, what deliverables actually count, and the red flags that tell you a clout deal won’t convert.

If you care about DJ booth boundaries, lighting strategy, weather contingencies, and the business math behind brand mentions, this episode is your blueprint for fewer trainwrecks and more clean wins.

If this sharpened your craft or your contracts, follow the show, share it with a DJ friend, and leave a review with your wildest lighting save... what’s the one fix you’ll never skip again?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:17

What's up from Raleigh, North Carolina, in the studio of Beyond the DJ Booth Podcast? This is Joe Bunn. Yes, indeed. Over here to my right. And if you're not watching, person talking, Brian B. Brian B. Other co-host. Saquon on the board. Yes. Welcome to episode six of season six. Six-six. Yeah. Love that. I love that. The last couple days of January. If you are not part of the Patreon, we're about to pull for the Google Home device. Yep. That's right. Comes out in a couple days. So if you want to jump into that, this is a perfect time to do that. Speaking of Patreon, let's shout out some of our friends, the backroom members. We got some new members in. Brian Hoff, Clive Astores. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Damon Burton and DJ Celos. Appreciate you guys. Yeah. Thanks for supporting the show and the Patreon. Uh, we got two tiers there. I would winky wink, take the top tier. I promise you, the value is every penny worth the$19.99 we are charging.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Uh go check it out. You can cancel it anytime if you don't like it. But I think it's going to be something that's going to serve you very well as the seasons progress. I agree. What's it the pop culture minute?

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Is I'm calling it. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Pop culture minute.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Yeah, what's it? Another segment. Another segment. Okay.

Welcome, Patreon Updates, New Segment

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Brian B. Jobon. Dropping heat just for fun. Pop talk spinning like a wreck of spine.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Pop culture class where the stories collapse. Two DJs bringing the flavor world wild.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

I love this picture. So, dude, this is the best picture. Like, it can't be real, though, right? I I mean, look at the speakers. I can't remember. Right. I mean, they haven't had that out. What is that drink, too, by the way?

SPEAKER_00 2:12

It's like a medello with strawberry juice in it or something. I don't know. It's it's but dude. But this was like this picture's been around a long time. So this is like pre-AI. So somebody at least staged it.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Yeah, totally. But then you saw the spider video, right? Have you seen this? This is a while back. I don't know. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

I love this. Look around for help.

SPEAKER_03 2:36

We just kind of like over.

Pop Culture Minute And Viral Clips

SPEAKER_01 2:41

I love it. It's so good, right? I love it. Well, I saw another one like this. Okay. And this was uh Mr. Gray. Yeah. Look at this dude on the far right. Who even is he? Just some patron. Patron. Watch him. He's on his phone. He's like trying to make everyone think he's the DJ. Watch what happens now. Oh, he's gonna put the hand out there. Oh! And he's like, I wish I had a fly swatter. Dude is just like fingers. I gotta wish I had a fly swatter. Like he's the DJ. Is he recording himself?

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Yeah, he's acting like that.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Oh my gosh. So I was curious, how do you handle? Are you getting anybody doing this kind of stuff at your gigs? I don't, man.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Very few people come back there. I mean, again, Saquon is the buffer. Yeah. Right. So somebody comes back there. Hey man, what do you need? Or what do you want? Yeah, I get him.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

But he's uh what if he's on the camera? What if he's moving around?

SPEAKER_00 3:48

He he know he knows. He's always watching me. He he'll come up and interject and play like linebacker or whatever that position would be to move the guy off the ball.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Like But if you're at a moment like this where maybe someone's 13%.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

I mean people like the like this, they'll be like, oh, I'm just checking out your gear.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah, I don't mind, I don't mind those people. But if you're gonna sit there and like, you know, fake like you're touching knobs and record yourself. I don't like I don't like that. Yeah, I don't mind. It's usually like an older guy and he'll uh used to DJ back in the day. Like I get a lot of those.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

You're not getting a lot of the Instagrammers who want to just like mm do it for social.

DJ Booth Etiquette And Guest Boundaries

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Like it's a boiler room type thing. No, I don't not at a wedding. Man, again, I'm I'm a wedding DJ. Like I'm I'm not getting that kind of vibe. I I really don't. And I mean, I love people right up on me. The only viral video I had this year, you saw it, was that dirty girl that was all over the blue. You ended up posting that. I thought for sure you weren't going to. De Bride allowed it. A blurter face. A blur face. Okay, okay. I think it's gonna hit a million. Really? You got already done pretty well? It's at 950. Wow. All right. The the one viral video I have of all the shit that I put out to help people, to, to, to motivate people.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Viewer count I was on Instagram or I was on YouTube? Instagram. Okay. Interesting. A melee. It's gonna hit a melee this month. Wow. That's crazy. A dirty girl. Well, I'm getting a lot of people who are coming back there basically, you know, just wanting to watch. Okay. Like just random guests. I'm like, yo, like go enjoy yourself. Go dance, man. Like, yeah, what are you looking for? Looking for the next song that I'm gonna play? And then I do get some of those people. Like, yeah, what are you gonna play next? I'm like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

I hate the Serato looker, whether you're doing it from this side of the booth or coming behind. Yeah, they come over to the bottom. What the fuck is that?

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Enjoy your time, man. You're here for a party. You're not here to watch me cook.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

That is crazy. Yeah, it's very weird. I don't like it at all.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Anyway, this made me laugh because I just thought this dude, I'm like, I can't imagine some dude just doing that.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

You know? It makes me nervous. Me, man, it screams either manager or maybe he's the owner.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah, maybe he's the owner.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Could be because otherwise, man, I would that's kind of crazy for him to post it then. As the DJ. That's a good point. Maybe you don't want to play there. I would have pushed him in the face, probably. I don't, he's way too close and he's trying to flex like he's DJing. Yeah, yeah. Even the finger, the the jazz hands.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Well let's move into story time. So we haven't talked about gigs in a while. Do you want to recap? Uh I would love to hear about your New Year's Eve gig. We haven't surely spoken about it, but you did one right before then another wedding at the same venue.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

I did.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Talk to us about the venue at the gigs. Anything memorable?

Story Time Setup: Recent Gigs

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Anything that was December 21st was memorable because right before Christmas. Right before. I mean, really same venue as New Year's Eve. Why do you think they did that? They locals? Um man, it's a great question, dude. I don't really know. I don't really know. They leaned into Christmas. It was definitely Christmas trees and some like Christmas type decor. Christmas type music? Uh cocktail hour. Yeah. What'd you go with? What'd you go what was uh they made it? Remember because the it was at Merriman Wynn House. So the cocktail hour is in the old house. So they just play music over the sonos in there. Got it. Yeah. So they had it, but I saw their cocktail list and it was all Christmas songs. That's interesting. Intro song was um the scooter edit of All I Want for Christmas is you, Mariah as well. This the introduction of the couple into the room. Wow. And so they asked for that edit, or you just played it because it was had a beat to it? I I needed more beat to it. They said um that or mistletoe beaver, or they gave me one more, and so I just kind of I knew it wasn't that important. So I went more upbeat Christmas edit. And you don't play that stuff very often. No, I don't. I'm not a big Christmas music guy, just in general.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Did you infuse any of the dance set with that? I did not.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Okay. Did not. So Christmas was done after the grandmaster. It was way done after it was way done. I think I snuck in a couple of dinners.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

A couple of Harry Conic and somebody else. Anything memorable? The fact that they shut the bar down two hours early. Why? Yeah. It was a cash bar, they hit their cap. Nope. She said, My dad's a lawyer and he doesn't want to get bitey to get too turned up and leave here shit face. That's a f I've never heard that. Me neither. Begged everybody in the building to talk them out of it.

Christmas Wedding With Early Bar Closure

SPEAKER_01 8:32

So were people going to their cars to sneak booze? Because that happens a lot of times at events when it's a dry wedding or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Listen, no, I think two things. I I mean they made me make the announcement everything, dude. It was the third song. Well, I'm glad you did. It was the third song of the dance set. Wow, that's a little early. But I mean, glad you did, because that would piss people off if you didn't, right? Normally I don't, but I was like, hey guys, uh quick announcement, last call.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

While the song's playing, or did you have to turn off the media?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. While it's playing, and then like I could hear this audible, like, what the fuck? Like, and everybody kind of like left the dance floor again, second or third song, gets that drink, and then that was supposed to sustain them until two more hours. Yeah. So did it kill your dance floor? Did it affect it much? No, no. In fact, it was a really good dance floor. They got nothing else to do. So that was 8 45, the bar closed. The party was supposed to go to 10 45. It was sustaining, sustaining, energy, energy, energy. Now again, they were very young. The couple was probably 25. Which makes it even weirder. The and and and and I don't know that they were a heavy drinking crowd in the first place. The couple or their friends. Young and very I don't not saying Christians don't drink, but it seemed very Christian. Very, very Christian.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

And some playing some worship bangers.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

A lot, no, no worship bangers were played. But there was a lot of Jesus talk during the toast and whatnot. Yeah. The ceremony was very um Christian. Yeah. It wasn't like non-denomination.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Yeah. And so you're not playing wipe that up.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Yeah. I did not play, I didn't play pop that P or anything like that. It it gets to be 1025, and I'm starting to see the repercussions of the no alcohol. And then an angel descended upon me. Uh the wedding planner was like, they're ready to go. Oh love that's perfect. Love it. Fantastic. And I and I played one more like Brightside or something and wrapped it. Yeah. And so it it it saved me. This was on a Saturday. I think so. Why will you look that up? December 21st. I think it was a Saturday. Yeah, it was a New Year's Eve was a Wednesday, which is super weird. New Year's Eve was great. Same venue. Um it was cold, you said.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Bro, this was the it was on a Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Okay, that was the 21st was a Sunday. Well, that makes sense then.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

People probably have to work, maybe whatever. I can't. It was fine.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

The fact that it ended when he mandatorily saved it. Yeah. New Year's Eve, bro. I've never seen this either. She was adamant that they were having an outdoor dinner for 150 people. And I go, oh, okay, what which tent did y'all get? You know, the clear top or whatever. She goes, we didn't get a tent. I go, what about heat? And she goes, we're not having what about music out there? We're not having any heat. I go, what? 150 people outdoors, 28 degrees when the first course came out. Am I lying?

SPEAKER_02 11:32

No, it was crazy. I love you.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Did you bring a little spot heater?

unknown 11:35

I didn't walk.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

I didn't even walk inside. Me and him were sitting inside.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Wait, so wait, it was playing through their sound system, their sonos?

New Year’s Outdoor Dinner Disaster

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Nope. I put up sound system outside on the lawn. Yeah. Two little e-verse eights. I took their playlist. I hit play and I walked inside. Wow. I was like, I'm not standing out here. It's freezing. Did you have a booth out there at all? No booth. No. Everything, the dance part was inside the carriage house where we had our conference. Got it. And so, dude, and and all the food was ice cold. Like it was just like people like Oh, people were headlands. People were from Denver. They were like, bro, I'm from Denver, and this is freezing. Yeah. I'm freezing. It's a different kind of cold when you have the humidity. Yeah. I'm freezing here. Like, I was like, dude, I don't know what to tell you. I don't. Yeah. She said, the only reason, the only way I'm eating indoors is if it starts raining, and it was a gorgeous day. Yeah. But it was cold, cold, cold.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

How long was dinner? 45 minutes? That's long.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Crazy. Then they started saying we're going to do the toast out. And I said, I said, everybody's moved into the carriage house. Saquon and I have music playing in there. I'm not coming back outside. Like we have to move this party inside. Everybody's already sought like seeking refuge inside this carriage house.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

And so me and Saquon had to start music and all the lights are on and stuff still. Like and then so New Year's Eve starts. And they've rented chandeliers. And they're the number one, they're the wrong temperature bowl. They weren't 2,400. They were like that 3,000 like face melters. So they the the rental people not know what they were doing? I don't know. So I look at Saquon and I said, go unplug these chandeliers. As soon as the dancing started, right? He's like, boop, boop, boop. Okay, we're looking better. What's up with this one? There's one right over the dance floor. I mean, brighter than these fucking floodlights. And it's now it's we're two an hour behind schedule. If I was about to play a three-hour dance outset, I'm now at two hours. Ten minutes, two hours to fine. I don't mind that. I don't either.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Two hours to midnight. I'm ready to go, right? I'm I'm just hammering. Let's go. It's time. Like, let's build it up. You know, and there's a lot of pressure. It's New Year's Eve. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Hey guys, um, and so I'm starting to text the planner. Hey, I need the chandelier off. We're we're working on it. 30 minutes goes by. I need the chandelier off. It's actually ruining the like I'm I'm I'm emphatically texting her. She comes by and goes, I promise you, that is ruining this party. I can tell the vibe is just gross.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

You you can't appreciate how bright it was. I'll I'll show you the video. It was fucking terrible.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

We'll put it in the, we'll insert it in the episode.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

I got it. And and now I'm starting to, now it's like affecting me. I'm I'm getting more and more anxious and agitated, and I can tell it's ruining the party. Right. Like that bad. I'm looking at him, he's like, dude, I don't know. I see a ladder come in. Ladder goes up.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

No, in the middle of the dance floor.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Not in the middle of the dance floor, on the side where somebody thinks it's plugged in. But it's plugged in up. Imagine like that piece of trim, not on the floor, like the other ones were.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Like down here where a normal outlet is. It's up on the top. Guy goes up, comes back down, takes the ladder down. Still on. Walks out. Just gave up. And yeah, just gives up. I'm texting her. This light needs to come down. I said, if I have to get up on the ladder in the middle of the dance floor and take the bulbs out, I'm doing it. That's how bad it was. We're working on it. We're calling the rental company. Ladder comes back. Guy goes up. Comes back down. No light still. And what time is this? 1050. 1055. Now going into 11, 60 minutes to the new year. Ladder comes back in. Goes back up again. Number three. Finally comes out. Third time up. Somebody finally finds the outlet up on the ceiling and pulls the fucking plug on.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

With an hour to go.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

One hour to go to midnight.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

So now the thing was they were at that location, the same spot, right before they took the ladder down. I just don't understand why.

The Chandelier Crisis And Midnight Push

SPEAKER_00 15:36

How you missed that. Right. I was so mad, dude, that it actually like affected my performance. Yeah. And I was like, dude, I gotta shake this off. And like now, you know, it's like I got an hour to get this really. It was going to when? 1230? No, no, no, no. It was literally one song after midnight. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. And you had her her choice. Her choice. It was 12 o'clock 11:55, Cryo Canon, We Found Love. Bright side. Countdown. Lil John countdown. 10, 9, 8, 10, 10. Yeah, I'm surprised you did that too. Yeah. Why weren't you counting it yourself? I don't like it. I didn't like my voice. It sounded better with Lil John doing it.

unknown 16:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Happy New Year, blah, blah, blah. Pre-recorded. I got that clip as well. We can insert it. All lengths on for 15 seconds. Love story, original, Taylor Swift. Ending. Wow. Sent him out to the street for sparklers.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

And how did what was the vibe with that last song?

SPEAKER_00 16:33

It was great. The whole last 10 minutes leading up to it felt good. Yeah. And a guy brought in Cold Sparks and a guy brought in a giant confetti machine plastic. I mean, it felt New Year's Eve.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Once the lights cut off, it was Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

It felt right. The last hour was great, man.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

And just it, but it, but it it's When you say it didn't feel right, were people not dancing? Or they're not going to be able to do that. They were just on the outskirts? Because where are people going? Not going outside.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

It's like they were around the dance floor.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Ah, there's weird. Yeah. It was right there, dude. Yeah. Above the dance floor in the worst colored LED bulbs in the brightest settings. Because it's so good.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

It's hard to like, you know, when you're like, all right, let's rip it. Boom. It's supposed to be lights off. R lights come on. Party lights. You know what I mean? If it's our lights going and then you got this bright yellow. Yeah, I get it. People are confused. They're like, uh, is it not time yet? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

I don't know if the bride was as upset as I was. I didn't really see her reaction. I didn't want to go to her. I was trying to go through the planner. And I could see them. They were on the phone. Like, this is somebody you've worked with. Oh, yeah. A while. Yeah. The same girl I was with on the 21st.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Got it. So would you like now that you know that this has happened, uh, going forward, are you going to be checking these lights before you start a dance? 100,000. I mean, you had all that time. Oh, I had hours.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

We got there.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

But you didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

No, that's not the we did find the plug, but we thought it was all plugged up into one.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

But we should have physically unplugged it, yeah, at three o'clock in the afternoon and seen them go out and then go. Well, even during dinner. We could have we had hours upon hours. Now, again, not really my responsibility. I didn't hire the rental company, but now knowing how bad that it messed up that full hour, right? 100%. If I see anything installed, I'm gonna either say, Where's the dimmer or where's the power point? Right. And I'm killing it.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

I run into that a lot, intense. It it is brutal, man. And and and the the what's even worse is the fact that that you know it could have just been a dimmer. A dimmer would have would have been fine as well. I mean, because it was almost too blacked out, right? Right. Right, right. It was nuts, dude. Yeah, it ruined my vibe. Uh what about yours?

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Um, so we your Napa boy. We did the the Napa thing and um biggest paycheck ever. Yeah, it was raining. Oh, for two days, three days straight. Unusual? I don't know. That time of year, it's hit or miss.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Yeah, I don't ever go up there.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Um But their plan A was to do a outdoor ceremony and an outdoor cocktail hour. Okay. Give me a temperature. I mean, it was chilly. It was, I mean, we're not chilly, chilly, but 50s. Okay. I mean, cold. Yeah. Um, and so I mean, it was raining all day. All day raining and like dumping or like like it's California is not like the South where it stops like in 10 minutes. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like it's once it's raining, it's on. Okay. It's not gonna stop. And it kept going until like one or two in the morning. Oh wow. So it was dumping water. Yeah. Uh so they had to go do a plan B with the ceremony. They had to do it indoors, and no one wants to, I don't care who you are, no one wants to do an indoor ceremony. No, but this floral company, this design company, they hit it out of the park. It would be a plan A for any other couple. Oh wow. And I it looked gorgeous. Okay. The party itself was interesting because he three days before the event, this is like that weird transition between Christmas and New Year's. It's a weird town. I'm with my family. We did a California trip. We were doing the tour. I look good. And it was fun. There's some other things with that, which I won't get into. But let's just say it was fun. But I don't want to be thinking about the event. Like I've done my work, you know. Get a call from the groom. Hey, I would love to update the playlist a bit two days before. Can you unlock the portal? I'm like, what are we talking about here? Are we talking about adding two or three songs? Like, or we're talking because I said I've already kind of put in the prep. And I don't want to, you know, not let you make some changes, but like I'm not looking to spend two days here trying to redo everything.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

When I'm with my family now here, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Oh, I guess a couple songs.

unknown 20:38

Oh boy.

Lessons Learned On Lighting Control

SPEAKER_01 20:39

So he goes in there, he says, Okay, I'm done now. I go in there and it's pretty much completely changed up from everything. Yeah. Uh his, I don't know if he he inserted all these songs just months ago and they just had a chance to look at it again. And I had already told him, I'm like, hey, if you can do this before the holidays, that'll really help me out because I want to get all my stuff done before then because I'm gonna be on the road. I'm not gonna have a whole lot of time. So I'm spending the last night beforehand, like moving things around, downloading stuff that I mean, and and the the the thing was the do not playlist was very no pitbull, no flow rider, yeah, like all that. Yeah, like stuff that can I work around it absolutely, and I did this we can, yeah. But you have a six-hour dance set planned, like that's a lot of artists to like cut off the list. And I'm thinking to myself, are you thinking of your crowd? Like, I understand if you don't like it, but I feel like you always have to take consideration of the people that you're inviting.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

I would so I do, yeah.

Napa Rain Plan B And Playlist Overhaul

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Uh, and it was a very mixed crowd. We had some, you know, people who won some Afrobeat stuff, we had people who wanted some Latin stuff, so it was all you didn't really play six hours, seven till one seven till one. Not dancing, not dancing, no. Uh I mean, okay, eight is when we started dancing. This is sat down dinner at seven o'clock. Eight o'clock, we are dancing. And there were very few formalities, very few. Eight to one? Wow. So the their plan was eight, and I'm like tiptoeing through this playlist to like keep the energy going, you know, till so at one point, this has never happened in my career. I mean the dance board's full, so like we're going fine. How many people? 160. Okay. The groom comes up at 10 30. He goes, Hey man, um, I'm thinking we should sit everybody down from like 11 to 1115. Take a break. And I'm like, huh? What do you mean? This has never been discussed. This is out of the blue. Pino's not around. I don't know where she is, you know. So I'm like, uh I don't know if that's a good idea. Yeah. I go, we gotta restart the momentum. So then I said, uh What was his reasoning? He didn't give me one. He was just like, I think people are are are you like we've been going hard. And I go, yeah, we have been, but I mean I've been going up and flowing. It's not like we've been like, you know, 140 the whole way through. But I'm like, okay. I just kind of thinking maybe he would just forget about it. Yeah. Nah. 1045. Hey man, I just want to make sure we're we're gonna stop at uh 11, right? Give everybody a break. So then text the planner. Hey, our boy is wanting to uh stop the party in about 15 minutes and have everybody sit down. She wrote back, what all question marks? I'm coming over now. And uh, so she comes over and she goes right to the I see her beeline to the bride, which is a smart move. And uh the bride goes, No, absolutely not. We are not setting anyone down, we're gonna continue the party. But like, I for a minute I was like freaking out of like, what do I even say? Like, oh hey guys, we're gonna take a quick reset. Let me play some jazz while you all kind of just like have a smoke or whatever you want to do. I'm like, what are we doing? Like, what? No.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

So uh oh my god, dude. You did the right thing. You did the right thing. Oh, you gotta do it. I mean, yeah, but the groom was so adamant, like, and and I will say did it blow back on you from him? No, no, no, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

I think because I saw as soon as he talked to the planner, yeah. I'm sorry, the planner talked to the bride, yeah, the bride beelined it to the groom. Yeah, and said, da da da. I don't know what was said, but it was basically like, this is what we're doing. Like, we're keeping the party going. I don't understand. I don't either. So we go, I I think it was because I mean we had been dancing for three hours.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Yeah, two and a half. But that's what they asked.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Yeah, eight to ten, yeah, 10 45. And it was already so the last hour, you know, I experimented with some more things and and like tried to tiptoe around the list. Um, the only negative I would say is when we got to the midnight, uh they did have it down. I did count it down off my own time. They had the sparklers, you know, out there. And uh it was just anticlimatic after that. I didn't know I still longer were you supposed to be. Until 1230, too long. On top of that, they wanted to transition from at 12:30 uh to Buddha Lounge music, which is kind of like this yoga style music that's very relaxing for like 30 more minutes. It's like very ethereal, like you know, it's it's kind of 1230 to one drop. After that, yeah, from 1230 to 1. Okay, okay. So I had 30 minutes. Um, my song after the uh the New Year's Eve track, like oh, it never can pronounce that one right. All things on. Yeah, I can never say it right. Yeah. I went with um the uh the David Guetta track, the I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, great song. Didn't hit like I thought.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

I saved it for that.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Yeah, me too. I would have I played it around that time too.

Six-Hour Party, No-Pitbull Rule, And Flow

SPEAKER_01 25:30

And um just didn't didn't go off as big as I thought it would. I was trying to think like what other track could I have played? And I was so hamstrung with this playlist. Right. There's a lot of like surprisingly, a lot of like B-side hip hop. Oh, Jesus. And it was like the the crowd was older. Yeah. So I'm like, I don't know, man. Like I tried to dip my toe into it, but I didn't stay in there very long. I kept switching it up as much as I could. Uh, and then I did the Buddha Lounge thing, and I will say, like, I was not thinking that was gonna work, and it did. It worked really well, like moving into that.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

They weren't dancing at that point.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

No, no, but people were just walking out, yeah, just enjoying themselves, whatever. And then they had like shuttles to their room. The the property was very expansive. Yeah, so you had to take a shuttle to get to your rooms and stuff like that. But do you feel like the client was I walked out thinking it was a B plus.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

And I was not happy with that. Okay. I was like, I wanted this to be in the A category. Okay. Then they posted the reel, which I have for you. We'll insert it here, we'll play it here in a second. And it actually looked better than I thought. And I thought to myself, well, maybe I was just way too tough on myself, thinking of the pressure, wanting to make sure I delivered, not feeling like it was an A track. But then if I look at the pictures and the video, I'm like, wow, it actually did go off. It was a better party than I thought. Uh, client was super happy. The groom was like, dude, you are you crushed that. And he was emphatic. So here's the clip of it. If you want to start from the beginning, maybe. You put this on your socials? Uh yeah, I got tagged in it. So this is the plan B with all those candles in that room. That was the reception space. Talk about candle galore. But like the party, like that looks good, yeah. And there were pops of moments where it was packed out, doing really well. Got me in the video, got me in the video. That's the daddy was very uh Latin. The groom was having the time of his life. Like, look at him. But it just uh I don't know, it was just an odd, it didn't go off like this the entire night like you had hoped.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Yeah. So that was why it's called a highlight reel.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Yeah, great editing no black tie for you? No tie. No, I didn't have a tie. I did have a tie to start. Okay. Then we got into dancing, it was hot as a mug. I was by candle walls. I was melting. So I'm like, bro, tie is coming off. I can't like time to rock. I'm dying.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

So it was You're a big finger lick fan. Am I?

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Like you kind of seem like a derma photo, but you're a big one. You do though that you're a big oh yeah, too. You lick your fingers. Maybe I do. Very uh very uh Brett Favre quarterback style. It's the next. Didn't he hit a finger lick on that? Didn't he hit the finger lick?

Groom Wants A Dance Break At 11 PM

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Oh my gosh. Well, let's take the question. All right, quick pause from the episode because we want to say this clearly. If you've been listening to Beyond the DJ booth for a while, you already know this isn't surface-level DJ talk.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

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SPEAKER_01 28:32

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SPEAKER_00 28:40

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SPEAKER_01 28:59

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SPEAKER_00 29:04

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SPEAKER_01 29:09

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SPEAKER_00 29:20

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SPEAKER_01 29:23

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SPEAKER_00 29:38

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SPEAKER_01 29:53

Join the crew or step into the back room.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

See you there. Question of the day. You want me to read it? Dave Dam says Dave. I love Dave Dam. What a name. I love it. Great name. Uh recently got an inquiry from a wedding planner about a wedding she's doing for a bride that is said to be a quote unquote influencer. I love us. I was told she has 800,000 followers on IG and four million on TikTok. I have looked up the influencer and it is legit information. The planner says she would love to work something out, quote unquote. What kind of questions should I ask? Have you ever done a discounted or free event slash wedding for an influencer? And if so, what kind of expectations did you have? Thanks, David. Wichita Kansas? Wichita. Shout out, Wichita. You go first. Man, I I I can't stand these kind of people, man. If you if you think you're that hot shit, man, and you can't pay somebody to do the event, I I just don't I I'm not I'm not doing it, man. I'm not doing it for free. I'm sorry.

Midnight, After-Party Vibes, And Reflections

SPEAKER_01 31:01

At this point in your career. Nah. But would you have done it earlier in your career? Sure. Sure. And what would you have said?

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Uh half? I need half what? Half money or free?

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Half money or free? What would you when you say work something out? If you were approached like this the 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Yeah, I would I would say I'd do it for half price. And I need to be, and I would and this would be in writing. This ain't gonna be some handshake bullshit.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

But you would have done that back then, 20 years ago? I don't well that the influencers didn't exist. Well, I'm I'm saying like in your celebrity, if let's say if it's now you have so much hindsight, right? Like you've you've you've been doing this for a long time. Like in this part of your career, I can understand.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Yeah, so it's I would have messed it up, I'm sure, 20 years ago. But I mean I don't I don't understand what you're asking. If if I'm if I'm me now, I'm not I'm just gonna be like, yeah, it's it's whatever, it's five thousand dollars for me. I don't, there is no discount. Yeah. Years ago, as I was coming up, I I think I thought this would pull me some business. I would have said, half price, to be honest, I may have done it for free. Yeah, but I would have said in writing, I need to be tagged in the reel. I need to be, I need a shout out from you that I can post arbitrarily at another time. I need to blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Like Did you do ever do events like that where that didn't come to pass? Where they said all these things. You even had a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

I never really did anything for somebody that was quote unquote. That's not true. I did a lot of players and stuff like that. But I never made them like tag me, post me, anything like that. I I charge them the same thing I would charge anybody else. Got it. And I don't think I was ND8 up, so I would get to post a picture with Dak Prescott or somebody that was at the wedding or you know, Trubisky when he was there, you know, and standing behind my turntables acting like he was DJing. Like it's a good look, but I think that you, damn, Dave Damn, are gonna be gravely disappointed in the results if you do this event on what is actually going to happen. I don't care if she shouts you out, I don't care if she praises you up and down the street. Are you gonna get a couple leads from it? Maybe, but I I I just don't these people are not nearly as important as they think they are. They're very self-important and have no self-awareness of how little they really matter in the grand scheme of things. Look, it's fucking Leo DiCaprio or something. I mean, that's different, but like uh some ass model on on IG or whatever, whoever she is, is not what's I don't even know what an ass model is, but you know what I'm saying? I just I don't I don't know what is your take, dude.

Question Of The Day: Influencer Discounts

SPEAKER_01 33:37

So I've been in this situation. I know you have. And uh 90% of the time it doesn't come to pass, right? So what part? Them tagging you, saying you're gonna do that. So I'll uh the last time I did it where I was like, I gotta figure out a better path. Was I did a uh a thing for a B level, let's call it B level uh movie star. Okay, right? Hey, I have all these connections that are gonna be tagged in People Magazine, da da da da da. Okay. So I gave them a break on the price, right? Give me a year. This is two years ago, no, no, like two, twenty, the probably twenty eighteen, nineteen time. Pre-pandemic. Okay, go on. Find me out there, uh, they do all the stuff, and the party was okay. But did I get mentioned in anything? Zero. Now I did not have it in my contract, but this is something that they had said. Even the planner didn't get mentioned, did not get mentioned. Wow. So there was a lot of like yeah wishful thinking. Yeah. So at the time, I had a business coach said, Hey, I don't ever want to run into this a problem again. What are your thoughts? How should we fix this? And so now I operate kind of the way he encouraged me to do, which is basically uh something called shared risk. Meaning I'm gonna put myself out there, but you're putting yourself out there too. So what he recommended, and this is how I do it ever since, and this is what I would recommend to you, Dave, is to say, hey, listen, I'm happy to give you a break on the price. But um these are the things you'd have to look and see, like obviously if you have four million on TikTok, I would say, hey, probably TikTok's a good place I need to be mentioned in. There's four million eyeballs. Um, or look and see, like what I would ask her, what publications or what media would you be willing to tag me in? And you set the worth of that discount based on those things. You know, someone said, Hey, I'm gonna put you in the Raleigh Times. I don't give a shit. I don't give I don't know, I'm not trying to do something in the Raleigh Times. We're not worth it to me. You know what I mean? However, and so then what you do is you say this you say, I am gonna charge you the full rate. However, once we are tagged in these things, then I will send you a check or send you a credit. Okay. That way we're both got skin in the game. Yeah. I'm not gonna put all the skin in the game and just hope that you do this. I'm not gonna take you to court, right? No, it's never gonna happen. So you have shared risk. Wow. Then you see if they're really serious about playing ball or not. Who gave you that, Sean?

SPEAKER_03 36:03

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

Oh, he's smart. Very smart. So now I have that in my contract. And we list out the different things. We say this is what this is valued at, this is what this is valued at. So if all these things are come fruition, this is a free event. Could be. Or it might be that, hey, I'm willing to do half off, whatever the case may be. But I am the one setting the terms as to what I think that's worth for my business.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

When you are tagged in these magazines or articles or reels or whatever, do you feel like they lead to No? I mean, nah.

Shared-Risk Contracts And Real Outcomes

SPEAKER_01 36:32

No, I don't. Right, right, right. Um, to be fair, I haven't had anybody sign that kind of a contract since. Right. Because as soon as I mention it, yeah, oh, well, maybe we're not as serious, you know, you find out that they're not really gonna do any of that stuff that they were really promising in the first place. Yeah. Now I guarantee you, this planner is probably not having anything like this in her contract. Right. So she's either doing it for free or she's getting paid and trying to tell that, hey, I'll get all your vendors to do it for nothing, but I'm getting paid. So my my question is always to the planner hey, what did you do? I'd love to hear what you worked out so I can kind of come in potentially at the same kind of level. Great advice. I love all of this, man. So that's what I would suggest, Dave. Yeah. But to your point, I've never seen these things ever turn out unless it was like a Kardashian thing or whatever. But like these influencers aren't as much as you'd think they would be. They're always looking for, they call them partnerships. I love that word. You know, you want to partner with me on this event? No, I don't want to partner.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

I want to get a check. Yeah, yeah. So your tag on Instagram did not pay my mortgage this month. Exactly. All right. Thanks, Dave. Appreciate you.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Let's uh thank our sponsor, DJ Event Planner. If you are looking for a CRM and are still on the fence, I don't know why you would be after listening to us ramble about it for the last couple of years. But I would say, hey, jump on to DJ Event Planner. It is really the industry standard and something that we've been using in our businesses for the last few years. Yep. So with that, we'll see you guys in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in. Hope this is helpful.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

Yeah. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. See ya.