How DJs Survive Bad Corporate Gigs

A packed dance floor can come from the weirdest place and sometimes it’s a “Take On Me” to “Crazy Frog” transition that has a club screaming like it’s 2005. Brian B and Joe Bunn kick off season seven by unpacking what that kind of moment really teaches working DJs: stop assuming you know the crowd, take smart risks, and pay attention to what actually moves people, not what “should” work.

Then we get into the unglamorous side of being a mobile DJ and corporate event DJ: the paycheck gigs, the tense rooms, and the nights where the goal is simply to keep the vibe right. We introduce a new tradition, the stinker button, and talk through practical ways to read a corporate audience early, switch genres with purpose, and avoid forcing a dance floor that the client never truly wanted.

The big story is an AV nightmare at a corporate awards show where a billion-dollar company tries to pinch pennies on event production. We break down what went wrong, what to ask before you show up, and why bringing your own sound and the right adapters can literally save the show. We wrap with a themed-event win (a dark Alice in Wonderland dinner set), a travel gear hack, and a listener question on workflow: AI lead follow-up, CRM automation, DJ Event Planner, Vibo planning, and internal systems for subcontractor teams.

If you got value from this, subscribe, share it with a DJ friend, and leave a review. What’s the worst AV or “stinker” gig you’ve had, and how did you save it?

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:17

What's up, everybody? Welcome to season seven, episode one. I'm Brian B., one of your co-hosts. Next to me on the other microphone, we have is Joe Bullin. Welcome back. I'm still here. Dude, new season. Oh yeah. New season. Excited about this one. It is, yeah. Try to introduce new segments, try to kind of make up. Seven the lucky number. Yeah? I thought it's eight. Isn't eight the Chinese lucky number? Oh, I don't know. I thought it was seven. I thought it was, but seven, seven, seven.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Um seven times thirteen. Trying to think of how many have we done. Oh, oh, okay. Uh 91 episodes. Okay. That's pretty good. That's a good number. 13 episodes. I think so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Well, one of the ways that you can be more connected to our podcast, if you aren't already, is through our Patreon. That's where we uh put a lot of value. Uh whether that's lists or uh bonus content.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Bonus content.

Season Seven Kickoff And Patreon

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Or what else we put in there? Um prizes. Prizes. We draw those. Yeah, if you're in the back room, that is. I have a whole closet full of stuff to give away, by the way. Yeah, well, you've got the list going. Okay. Yeah, I've been editing it. All right. So let's thank some of our uh Patreon friends that have joined the back room recently. We've got Aaron Francisco. Is that why he's uh mighty fine DJ San Francisco? That's a good play on that.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Who do we have for next?

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Uh Michelle Dangerfield.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Is that Rodney's uh daughter? Cousin. Her cousin. And then our guy Danny Garcia. I thought he was in New York. He's in Orlando, Florida now, apparently. I don't know. Yeah. Well, thanks guys for subscribing.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

There's a lot of Danny Garcia's. You might be right. Might be right. I gotta be honest. That feels like a very DJ-type name. It is. DJ Danny Garcia.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's move into our pop culture segment. Okay. Brian B.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Joe Bun. Dropping heat just for fun.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Pop talk spinning like a wreck of spine. Pop culture class where the stories collapse. Two DJs bringing the flavor we're a while.

The Viral DJ Transition Debate

SPEAKER_02 2:28

So, dude, I saw this clip and uh it's at a show in uh nightclub. Okay. Uh I I don't want you to pay attention to the to the tone play this guy does. Okay. But the second track that comes in is hilarious. Okay. And how they go on. Crazy crazy. That song came out. I looked it up. 2005. So people are 20 years old at this point. If they, you know, let's say they're 25 getting married, 20, you know, six or seven. That song was, you know, around when they were in. I'm looking at this age of these people. They're into it. These kids look younger. Yeah, I know that. Yeah, but I'm just saying, like, it's crazy. I'm like, did I miss something? Number one, if that song is going off like that. Number two, God, I hope it's not the case. Because I hate that song. I hate that song.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

But wait a minute, though, the the that original, isn't that from a movie? Yeah, it was uh Beverly Hills Cop. That's what I thought. Yeah. That's what they sampled for that. Yeah. Oh, I don't even remember. I remember the Axle F or whatever that song was originally called. Right. I don't remember this crazy frog song.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

It's an interesting transition. He calls it the dumbest transition, one of the dumbest transitions of all time. I got I can't remember his name. Um, but it was just an interesting uh track selection to see that it would go off. Right. I was like, what is happening? I definitely need to do that. Uh at least try it out. This is one of those ones where I would take a risk. You would for the right crowd. Just to see if it works. Crazy fake. Yeah. I won't do that transition. Right, right, right. But uh, what was that first song? Uh take on me. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

But even that song, they weren't, these people weren't even born when this came out. I was.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

They're like going off on this. Crazy frog. I'm walking out the t. Even that bartender is watching, like, are you serious? Like, how is this working? Yeah, I don't know. It's not my demographic. Um, well, this isn't a great segue, but I wanted to talk through corporate events real quickly with you. Because you've been doing a few uh here and there.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Um, when you have a crowd that isn't a rager, like that you can tell these are the 20 somethings. Yeah, it's one of those. You gotta bring it in.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

You gotta bring it to the mic.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

And since this is the first episode, we have introducing a new element. Yes. You want to talk a little bit about this? The stinker button? Yeah. We didn't talk about this already. We talked about it on episode two, but you just now played it in episode one.

unknown 5:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Well, we got a little out of order. Um, yeah, the stinker button.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Yeah, we've been mentioning it. We said we needed one, so I went on Etsy, found this bad boy.

unknown 5:50

Got a stinker.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

This one showed up. A friend of ours came to town, Scott, and he also had made us a little 3D version. His doesn't say anything, but it's still, we're gonna put it there as an honorary one, but this is the real one. So when we have a turd gig, we're not afraid to tell you guys.

Corporate Crowds And Paycheck Gigs

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Yeah. So tell me, like, what's your go-to move when you see a crowd is kind of like one of those corporate. Like the Cotton Gen Convention you did. Yeah. Like, what would you do? Uh I mean, and have you had any recently where these have been corporate gigs where it's like been a little bit tense?

SPEAKER_01 6:23

No, uh uh because Friday, last Friday was um backgrounds. I my load-in was 7 a.m. Okay, okay, 7 a.m. and I stopped at 2 p.m. So it was more award show, background music, lunch music. Um man, it's it's a grin and barrett. It's the same thing you do. You you start a paycheck gig. Yep. You call it a paycheck gig and or a practice gig. Yeah, and you smile and act like you're having a great time, and you just keep playing music. I hope the time passes fast. And hope it passes fast. And the only thing that I can say is that you think about when you leave and you go, damn, like you're questioning your entire life and your career, yeah, is you go, how bad would that have been with no music? Right. That's the way I look at it. Right. How bad would this event have been with no music without me there? Right. And that you basically saved it. Yeah. By the way, Randy played for Miracle Ear the other day. He started the hearing aid hearing aid. They had a DJ? They dude, they they the party was from 5 p.m. to one in the morning.

unknown 7:27

Wait.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

I guess there are young people selling the technology. That's what the CEO spoke, and he goes, now we only hire young people to sell these. Makes sense. Why?

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Well, because it's uh, you know, they can hear, number one, clients, right? But number two, probably just because they want to make it sound like it's relevant.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

They put Randy on after a dinner and awards and all this bullshit at like nine, and I think he said for about four plus hours he played. Wow. And it went ratchet at one point. Then they found the boys? Hundreds, I don't know. Hundreds. I mean, it was a major conference.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

And Randy said, like, then they found the house system. So he was playing through his system, but then they found the mic that they had been using for the house system and started karaokeing over his shit. Wow. Some dude just relentlessly uh harassing him for in the air tonight by Phil Collins. And Randy said, I'll start it from the drums, and the guy was just not having that. He wanted from the very beginning. All from the beginning. Yeah, that whole down, the whole sad part. Not the dun dun d I mean, and I go, There's no way they said to one. He goes, dude, they were begging me. And they go, We have to have you back for next year. Wow. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Yeah, my my thought on it is, you know, one, I like to try to vibe it out early. Yeah. You know, like don't go in. Meaning, like, not when they say start the dance floor. I'm talking about like before then. Sure. Try to show your range, right? Be as well rounded with the crowd that's there you can be. If it's even if it's young, like play different genres, like try to let mix it up so it doesn't feel like it's all the same.

SPEAKER_04 9:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

That's number one. And then the second thing would be very similarly, once I get into dancing, if I see it's not working, I am switching genres, you know, not haphazardly where it's just like a ping-pong ball, but with where it makes sense, I'm switching as much as I can to try to like pull some people out. But there are times when it's just like this isn't the gig that they wanted to dance. It sucks when they have got a huge dance floor and you're supposed to make them dance, but um, those are ones where sometimes it's just, you know, older crowd, they just wanted to be out, have a nice dinner, and it's more about setting the right vibe. So go with that. Don't kind of force it where you can obviously see it's not gonna work. It's time to kind of rethink that part of it when it gets to that point of like, okay, how much more can I push here with trying to get people out here? Or do I just want to just write it out on vibes?

SPEAKER_01 10:00

But don't rethink your entire career. No, because they we've all had those things and they they they happen sometimes. We do about two or three a year with a band, and sometimes it it is literally like an employee band. Yeah. Oh, and yep, and then sometimes with a professional cover band.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

And then my job as and and Brian is the king of this, playing these after parties and stuff all over the country. And Brian will be like texting me at like 10, 10:30 when he's getting ready to go on and be like, I'm getting ready to mop the fucking floor with this band. So it's my goal. They're at peak hour playing like, you know, still on September. Yeah. And Brian's like, I'm getting ready to mop the floor with this band right now. Totally. And I and we kind of that's always our goal as well. Right. Okay, they they did okay, but now I'm gonna show you why a DJ is is elite. You know what I mean? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

I mean, yeah, why I'm the headliner. Yeah, yeah. I always it's funny. I have a couple of intros, like DJ intros, where it'll say, like, and tonight's entertainment. And you know, it's like on a sample. Sure. I just basically told these guys they were the openers, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Like indirectly, you know, basically. That's kind of the passive aggressive intro. Brian B, B, B, B. Totally. They're like, what the hell? And all the sounds that they were missing are all of a sudden just clean as day. Yeah. All the 808s and the shit that really makes people want to groove comes out of Brian's speakers, and he's the hero. Yeah. And he's just shit on a band that probably costs 30k.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Totally.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

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SPEAKER_02 11:59

Well, let's get to uh the next segment off the record.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Uh off the record, let me talk my sugar honey I see. They throw my shade while I'm sippin' on this I see. Don't care if you hate on it like me. You know why, cause that's just how I see it off the record, off the record, off the record. Say it with the chest. Got a microphone, check it. I'm gonna say what I want to say. Time to rant and read, get out the way.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Dude, I've been doing enough of these where it's your turn. I had I heard you had a little uh issue with some AV at a at an event. You want to talk it through?

Upgrading Your DJ Booth Setup

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Bro, I'm not gonna say the name of the company, but I I'll tell you this. I I don't need to look up. This is in town. Yeah, local. Last week on a Friday, 7 a.m. loaded. Corporate event. Yep, corporate event. Okay. Made me, in fact, paid me to go to a rehearsal at their headquarters the day before. Rehearsal for what?

SPEAKER_02 13:01

The run through of the show. So this is like scripted awards, I'm assuming. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Paid you to paid me to be at the rehearsal. Out, drove out to RTP 30 minutes from here, took an Everse 8, a laptop.

Off The Record Rant Begins

SPEAKER_02 13:18

No, 100%! They wanted to hear they wanted to get that. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Everse 8, laptop, and wired SM58 microphone.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

When you got there, did you think it was necessary at that point? Like once you started doing it, you're like, maybe this was a good call.

The AV Trainwreck That Almost Won

SPEAKER_01 13:32

No, no, I still didn't believe that I needed to be there, but I played along like I like I was a team player. But at the very and then there's and then the guy from the venue, I I don't want to say that either, called in on the on a call. He was supposed to be there. And then we hear the they had like all these cameras and stuff, teams that and uh we're like, who is that? Oh, it's the A V guy from the venue, and I'm like, okay, and then I start like piecing it together and I'm like, who is this guy? Oh that's Pat. He's our he's our in-house A V guy, but we're not we're not you know bringing any gear, and I go, and then finally the call ends with the dude, and I look at them and I'm go, this is a problem. I go, I know this place better than anybody. I played there for the I played the grand opening there 15 years ago. It is not good. The gear that you're trying to use is not good. They mentioned this guy, this AB guy mentioned what what speaker brands are. It didn't matter it didn't matter. I know the place. Oh. I know the venue. I know the brand. I know what's in the gear closet. I go, this is the venue's gear you were using. Got it. Allegedly. Now this guy, Pat, out of towner. Never been to this place. And I go, hey man, you know, you need to get there at 6 in the morning. Like and do when I'm telling you guest entrance was 9 25 a.m., they were still running cables at 9 20. So you didn't bring anything. I did. You did. I did because I was like, you know what? The worst case scenario, I can salvage this event through the eBox 12. Yeah. Because it was 150 people, it wasn't 1500. Right. But for a billion dollar company. Wow. A billion dollar company to not have a third-party A V company on site. Yeah. Where they pinch pennies is crazy to me. Every table had gorgeous flowers. Yeah. I was like, there's your AV. Yeah. Don't cut me. You could have cut that. You could have cut. They had chicken and steak and all this stuff for lunch. Cut that goddamn dirty piece of chicken out of here. Just give me a steak, you know, a nice little steak. Like it it there was the money was there. Yeah. It just had been allotted to the wrong thing. Yeah. They will not do it again. So they were, I mean, when I'm talking about panic up until the last second, bro.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

What was wrong with it?

SPEAKER_01 15:50

It just wasn't up to all the screens aren't on a video switcher. So he's running like a side. But your audio is fine? My audio sounded pristine because I'm playing through my own shit. Oh, yeah. I didn't even volunteer to play through this little doo-doo ball speaker on the wall. Yeah. I just said, I'm not doing it. And I said, I'm gonna play. My mic is here, my music is here. And I mean, dude, I had some fucking random adapter in my toolbox that he used to basically save the entire show. When you go, do you have a blah blah blah? I go, there's a toolbox, man. Dig around. I've never even seen this adapter. Don't know where it came from. Don't know why I had it.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

But you were just saying earlier that you uh were bringing your stuff just in case. So it was you were already planning on bringing audio. So what are you bringing just in case? Like screens? No, no, my just in case was to have my speakers in the van too.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Because they wanted you to use their speakers initially. Exactly. And you got there and you go, no way. Absolutely. 100%. Not even because I knew I knew it wasn't a dance thing. Right. It was over at two o'clock in the afternoon. Right. But I was like, I'm not even gonna play stingers through that. I'm not gonna play, I'm not gonna play lunch through that. I'm not gonna play. I'm not doing this. Did you bill them afterwards for that? No, I didn't. Yeah. But she got she wrote a review already. She literally came up to me and she goes, You saved our ass today. And I go, I told you it was gonna be tough. And she goes, You were right. And I said, Let's just do A V next time. She goes, From now on, you're a friend of our company. We will use you. I like I wouldn't be surprised if they traveled me places. Right. Like that one company that's been using you.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

I wouldn't be surprised if they had something in whatever that they're like, Hey, we need you to come. We gotta have Joe Bunn do this. So moral of the story, uh rant, uh Moral of the story is, man, if you're doing these corporate event things, number one, ask what they're using, which I think we did. Uh and they had downplayed it to we have a few slides and under a hundred people. It was not true. It was an entire award show, multiple slides, panelists, speakers, live mics, this, that, and the other, and and uh multiple slide decks, yeah, presentations, awards, names. Like they they lied to us, basically. And I don't know if they did that kind of like when remember when people used to lie and say they weren't having a wedding, and you would get there and be like, I mean, back when we were like 995, we'd get to play and be like, this is a fucking wedding. Yeah. I mean, like, you're doing a first dance, and I would call this a wedding. Wow. So, anyway.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

All right, well, this kind of segues into our story time. Story time. So I had an event very similar to your auction, although we did not have a live auction here. It was all silent.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

It was an Alice in Wonder theme. I'll put some pictures up here of this place. It's a gorgeous, um, like garden-esque kind of vibe. Florida. Yeah. They had a guy who was doing some, you know, caricature stuff or whatever. But the music, man, they wanted me to, for the entire dinner and walk-in, which was about an hour, to go like darker Alice in Wonderland style. Oh, right. And I don't have, I mean, I don't even know what that is, honestly. So I was like Googling, I had I watched the freaking movie because I haven't seen it forever. And I'm like, I didn't at least be up on like what is this? I don't even know what a madhatter is.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

The live action one, or like I think it was like uh the live action one is like dark.

Dark Alice Playlist Story Time

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Is it okay? No, did yours have people in it or cartoon? No, it wasn't cartoon. It was people. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So um, anyway, I I think I crushed it on. Like, I love finding genres that I'm not familiar with. Be digging for that stuff. Right. So uh I thought I would play you like a couple samples of some of these tracks. Yeah. So this is the one that I opened with as the event started, and it's called Once Upon a Dream by Invadable Harmony. It's just kind of like an ethereal, darker.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Yeah. This is like the kind of stuff I played for the Epic Games. Yeah. Yeah. It was like songs from the game, like this.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

The chimes kind of being kind of like mystical. But still feels kind of dark and haunty. Yeah. All this is all uh instrumental, this part. Right. And this went on for an hour like this? Yeah. Were you up there like trying to bob your head to this? I was totally into it. Like, this is like dinner for me. You know, I'm not like trying to get people dancing. People are just like having conversations. Did you wear the mad hatter hat? No, I didn't. Okay. So did you wear a costume? No, I didn't do that either. I just went all black.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

The stage black, baby. Yeah. The mad tea party. This is I literally looked this up. I just did a search for mad tea or mad hatter, mad whatever. And this came up. The mad tea party. This is by Michael and Spider. I don't know who that is. Here's another one.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

This is weird, bro.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

I'm just saying, like these are the songs that you know you would be like, how am I gonna find this stuff, right? Yeah, where did you find it? But I like it because it had a beat to it. So I could kind of like, it wasn't all movie.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Okay, I thought you meant it was all like that first one.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

I mean, it kind of ebbs and flows.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

It reminds me of like uh down tempo movies.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Lo-fi shit or whatever. Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

But like 90s.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

So it's got like a little bit of a groove to it. So, you know, finding these gems is kind of hard to do. This is this next one is um Wait, what was this for, though? I mean, what is this? So they're having a dinner. This is money tickets for? Yes, this was to raise money for this school. Okay. It's a private school in Florida. In Florida. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

So the next song is Into the Unknown from the film Over the Garden Wall by Evident. And this one actually has vocals to it a little bit more. Scary, bro. It's dark. It's supposed to be like it was like this was earlier in the day where it was like a little, you know, not as dark, but like with the lighting and everything, like this stuff really did work. I think it's one that has vocals, maybe not. It did. Oh, yeah. Here's the vocals. Kind of like Evanescence. Yeah. Yeah, like that kind of stuff. Anyway, uh, two more here. This is uh Tim Burton's uh this I found this from the Corpse Bride soundtrack. This is uh our boy Danny Elfman. This is called Main Titles.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

It's kind of weird stuff. You know what I mean? I mean, I think you killed it though. If I I mean, like looking at the pictures, I would say this. Yeah, it fits this vibe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

And then the last one I'll play for you is a song called Dear Alice. I looked up just anything with the name Alice in it, and this kind of came up. This is um area Tasuki? Tasuku? Anyway, hit it. It's just like haunting, right? Yeah. Anyways, if you run into a gig where you might have something like this, call Brian B. Bonus content. Ooh. It's just some weird stuff on there. Okay.

unknown 23:27

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Anyway, throw it out there. Obscure gigs. These are the ones where you need the help. Where you're like, bro, I I don't know. I don't have I don't have this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

Like, I don't normally I'm not playing this for Daniel. But again, though, it's like, I think that you're so good at this curation. You know what I mean? Like the level of commitment to to pull these. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

Took hours. Hours. Hours. And and more than that, probably like weeks, honestly. Because I I I mean, I'm not gonna sit there for four hours in one day and just I'd be you'd be wanting to call a get a wellness check on me, probably to go like, is this guy like I need to go check on this guy? Yeah. So anyway, it was a cool event. Uh, once we got to dancing, it was all teachers for the most part with donors, more teachers than donors, honestly. Right. And teachers like policemen and military, they love to have a good time. Yeah, I was about to say, they usually throw down. They threw down, like ratchet as all get out later in the night. I'm like, if your students saw this, you know what I mean? Saw you dropping it down like that, they would be like, yo, what's up with Mrs. So-and-so? You know what I mean? Girl. So, anyway. Girl. Brian B here, yes, interrupting yet another stellar podcast episode. But don't worry, this is a value add, not just me rambling. Have you enjoyed the music finds I share on here? You know, the ones that Joe pretends he discovered first. Well, if you didn't know, I've got a Patreon where you can grab not only song lists, but also exclusive edits of mine. Yep. Custom tracks that'll set you apart from every DJ still rinsing the same tired wedding set. Want fresh music suggestions every month? Go to patreon.com forward slash DJ Brian B official. Again, that's patreon.com forward slash DJ Brian B official. You'll be the DJ everyone's trying to figure out how you keep your sets so fire, and planners will start nudging their couples your way. And if that's not a hard enough sell, I don't know what is. All right, back to the episode before Joe tries to convince us that sweet Caroline is actually a banger. Let's move into the gear segment. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 25:46

The gear is here, is here, is here, is here, is here, is here, is here, is here, is here.

Patreon Music Edits Pitch

SPEAKER_02 25:53

So, dude, I've been on the road a lot. I've been seeing my Starbucks bill go crazy. And I'm like, I gotta cut this out, man. I bet I need some caffeine. We all need a little caffeine. Right, just to keep going. In fact, today, I we ran out of coffee. I couldn't make any, so I'm like, crap, I don't have any like to get me going in the morning here. What am I gonna do? Amazon.com, baby. Caffeine pills. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_03 26:18

I was gonna say, did you get on the gear? On the gear. Did you get on the gear? Yes?

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

I thought he was talking about real gear.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

I thought he was about to pull out a damn white bag. So these are 100 milligrams of caffeine, which is basically my wife says it's like a hot tea, basically. It's not gonna be, it's not like 250, like a Red Bull. What's like a grande latte? Oh, I don't know. I'm gonna guess not that. More than this.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

See what see what see what you got. All right.

Caffeine Pills As Travel Gear

SPEAKER_02 26:45

So um the cool thing is, like, I I put a couple of these in a in a baggie in my bag, travel bag. I don't bring this whole pill container. Right. And just, you know, if you're need to pick me up in the middle of the day, you don't want to be spending seven dollars on a latte, which got a lot of sugar and stuff in there. This is the this is the move. I got a shout out to my guy uh Trego the DJ, who was the one who told me about this. He doesn't drink coffee at all. At all. Zero.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

Starbucks grande, 150 milligrams.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

150. Okay, so a little more than this. Yeah. But I feel great. Like today, I I didn't have any coffee whatsoever. Well, I mean I like coffee though. It's not like I'm I do too. But like when you're on the road, it's tasty. When you're on the road a lot, like your options are limited, and like I can't brew it at home, you know, unless you're in the hotel room that has it. But if I'm staying at a friend's house, some, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

So it's really good because some gigs they don't have coffee stations. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

We we've been getting that a lot. Maybe I need to go to that. So what is it? Like quit the bull.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Yeah. What do you think this goes for? Oh, the the bottle container. Um, you got 250 of them. 1995? 1195. Okay. It's a no-brainer. You gotta go to it. Okay. You gotta check it out. I mean, I at least need some in my bag. Yeah, totally. That's what I've done. I it literally goes in my um toiletry bag. Okay. I put it in there. Okay, leave it in there. Yeah, I'm not trying to refill it. I'm not trying to go crazy on the the one I think about with these pills. Did you ever you're probably too old? No, no, yeah. Save by the bell. When the when uh Jesse Spano. I know this show, but I was like, Yeah, and I was too old. Okay, so I'm like the perfect demographic. Right. So where she goes, uh, she starts singing the song, I'm so excited. I'm so excited. And she's but on these caffeine pills, and then she crashes, and it like her, she goes, Ah, so just kind of like crashes out. So anytime I think about caffeine pills, I think of that. That just isn't.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

All right, booth heads, we made a move, and it's a bold one.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

We officially launched a Patreon. We've got two tiers: one for$5.99 and one for$19.99. Basically, the cost of a coffee or a cocktail, depending upon how you roll.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Listen, this isn't some support us or we disappear kind of thing. You actually get some things that are useful that we think that you're gonna need to run your DJ business.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

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.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

That's where the extra love lives. Monthly prize drawings like headphones, merch, coaching calls. We've got Serato exports of our history, discounts on exclusive merch, and record pool hookups.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

Backroom members aren't just listening, they're actually shaping what this podcast is going to become and probably making your DJ sets better in the process.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

So stop texting us asking what remix was that and get in the booth for real.

Patreon Tiers And What You Get

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Patreon.com forward slash beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. Choose a tier, grab your spot, and let's keep building. Booth heads, you know where to go. What's it the question and wrap it?

SPEAKER_01 29:59

All right. Question. Uh I'll read it.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Our boy Kevin Durant, not Durant Durant, not the son, not not um he although he did tell me he sent me a message and said, I would love to be related to Kevin Durant if I could be. But you wouldn't. As a multi-op partner, where our DJs are subcontractors, 25 of them. Damn, go ahead, Kevin. What is the one thing you've added to your workflow of inquiries, contracts, etc., that has made things smoother on your end? Are you using AI for any of it? If so, what? I'm feeling swamped between all of the leads, my own gigs, and my personal life. This came in through the fan mail. We've all been there.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

We've all been there.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

You're not really running B Bun DJ Co. anymore. So where's Randy?

AI Leads And DJ Workflow Systems

SPEAKER_01 30:48

Let me get Randy on this. Let me get Randy on this. No, I I know the I know the tool though, and it definitely has helped. And I'll uh I'll I'll shout him out. And if and if you don't mind uh if you inquire with them, make sure you tell them it came from Joe Bunn or Brian B. Or beyond the DJ booth. Beyond the DJ booth. We could use them as a sponsor. Yeah. Nice. Uh he would actually probably sponsor. Yeah. Uh Craig Loftus, uh, the company's called Lead XS, L-E-A-D, uh E-X-C-E-S-S. Put this way. Yes. Uh Lead XS. And basically, Kevin, it is a system that's entire goal is to start an AI conversation with wherever a lead comes from, whether that's through the website, the knot, wedding wire, whatever, and basically lead that person, uh, that potential client to booking a meeting with a DJ. That is its entire goal. So I don't care if they inquire at three in the morning, they immediately get a response from I think her name is Sarah Jones. And of course, if they say, look, is this AI or a bot or whatever, then it responds, yes, we are. But it has I mean, put it this way, our year is looking great. Our February was off the charts. I'm not saying it is all because of lead excess, but it is definitely helping. And if Randy Bennett, who is the the king of anti-technology and adapting to change, is uh okay with using it and liking it, then anybody will be. That's that's what I'm using that's helped us in terms of that. We still use DJ Event Planner, shout out to them. Obviously, uh a sponsor of the show, but we genuinely do still use that as well. And then I am working on something that is going to come out very soon. I know I've been teasing this, that is going to help with your planning with your clients.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Well, speaking of that, so I I'm uh using DJ Event Planner for the contracts, inquiries, and stuff like that. It's automated to the point of uh follow-ups and things like that. But the initial, like when they inquire, we put we hit push because of the fact that I want to add something personal about the venue or the time of year or whatever to that. So, but it it is, I'm assuming with 25 people you've got to be on a CRM. If you're not on a CRM at this point with that many people, you're you're doing too much manual work. Yeah, you there's every CRM out there, the good ones will have some kind of automation. Automation, you gotta sequences, uh trickle. Yes, all that. And then from the planning perspective, we use Vibo. And what I love about it, number one, is we've set it up in a way where uh it's it's automated with um push notifications, not text, not things that get stuck in spam on emails, but literally push through the app. So when you open your phone, it's it's there, and these are things like, hey, we're gonna meet in a month. Make sure you have the app updated. Oh yeah, I'm on my phone. I can do it right now. Let me fix this stuff. So they don't have to log into a website to do it all. Um, even things that you can send to not just the client, but you can send to guests who are on the app or DJs who are on the app. We've because sometimes they you know miss things on their emails as well, like, hey, schedule a planning call. It's pushed through the app on that specific event so they know who it is. And there's a bunch of merge tag stuff you can do with it as well. So it's it's been massive for us in that regard. And then the last thing I'll say is with subcontractors on the reporting side, um, we set up a site called uh mybboy.com, which is our company's name, bboyproductions, but on that site, um, and now it's like a locked page, but basically it has all of the 1099 stuff, it has um uh uh end of event report, it has if you need to get it reimbursed, it has um our employee manual, training stuff, all of that is on this internal site that doesn't get out to anybody but our own people. And that was a game changer for us when we were running pretty deep to not 25, but 12. Yeah, yeah. Hope that helps, man. Yeah, Kevin. Let's wrap it. Let's do it. Well, thank you, uh, DJ Event Planner for sponsoring us. We kind of shouted you out already, but it just again, if you're not on a CRM and you're looking for one, that's the one uh Barnun to at least check out. It's been around forever and uh we'll be with you forever once you're on it. So there we go. Uh we'll see you guys next month. Or next week. Jeez. We've been buying matching too long. Yeah. See you next week. See you next week.