Not Every Show is a Rager

Your next gig might be flawless or it might be a total stinker and either way you need a plan. We kick things off with a new “stinker button” idea (yes, a real button) and a no-filter rant about DJ trend overload, especially the endless wave of tech house edits that keep flooding record pools. The point is not to hate on a style, it is to protect your programming, your brand, and your dance floors from copy-paste shortcuts.

Then we go full storytime with two private event DJ realities. Joe breaks down a Ravenscroft gala where the DJ job is part dance party and part fundraising machine: supporting a live auction, riding instrumentals under the auctioneer, keeping energy high for fund-the-need, and then flipping the room into dancing with an opener built for a broad age range. Brian follows with a wild wedding at the Museum of Commerce in Pensacola, complete with a trolley and the city’s first streetlight, and the emotional reason the couple chose it. It turns into a lesson on staying calm in unusual venues and keeping momentum even when the music needs to jump across genres.

We also talk DJ gear with a Starlink mobile internet setup aimed at corporate events where hotel Wi-Fi pricing is out of control, plus the practical constraints like line of sight and power. Finally, we answer a key multi-op question: how do you evaluate your DJ team when you are not at the event? We compare client reviews, vendor feedback, discreet pop-ins, and low-stakes in-house battles that reveal real skills fast.

If you get value from honest DJ business talk, subscribe, share this with a DJ friend, and leave a review so more private event DJs can find us.

Transcript

April Fools Opener And Updates

SPEAKER_03 0:17

What's up, guys, and welcome back to Beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. A little bit of a bittersweet episode today, I would say. Uh we had the talk over the weekend. We did. The talk.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

Man, I feel like we've said everything we can say. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Like I mean, it's what did we do? A year and a half? Yeah. I mean, we went longer.

SPEAKER_04 0:41

A year and a half. We had a good run.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

I think it was a good run.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

People liked it.

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's you it'll live on an infamy. There we go. Did I use the right? No. Not right either. Not right either.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 0:54

We're still messing those things up.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

But uh, we'll give you guys a good episode today and then we'll put a bow on it.

SPEAKER_04 0:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

So it's so we end with season seven, episode one? I think so. That feels pretty on brand for us. It really does. It really does. Nah, just kidding. Nah, April.

SPEAKER_04 1:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

We're dropping it on April 1st. You know we had to get them. Yeah, man. I hope y'all didn't fall for that. Suckers.

SPEAKER_04 1:20

If you didn't know who was on these microphones, Joseph Bunn. Brian B. co-hosts together on this podcast for private event DJs.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

Hell yeah, for the last year and a half, and we're going to keep it going. We're going to keep it going. We got a new addition to this season. What is it?

SPEAKER_04 1:36

Well, it wasn't that light.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

That shit was blowing my eyeball out. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 1:42

But it's sitting right next to you on the table. You want to talk it through? Well, it still has a progress.

The New Stinker Button

SPEAKER_03 1:49

We've talked about uh I think what people really appreciate from Brian and I is that we're realists. And when we have a shitty gig, we're not afraid to share it with you guys in hopes that you can learn something from it or we can learn something from it. And so we recently uh had a friend, Scott Gamble, he 3D printed us uh a stinker button because we were like, man, we need to, when we're telling these stories, have a button we can just reach over and hit the stinker button. So Scott made this one and just got a little springy thing in it, and it says, if you're watching on on TV or on YouTube, it says stinker on top. But then Brian B went one Unbeknownst, not knowing that not knowing that that stinker button was coming. Brian B was like, I'm gonna get a stinker button. So he goes on Etsy and actually got one that we could record. So when you hit it, got a stinker. Got a stinker. So we're gonna leave it there, and when we're telling a story, we could just hit it. It needs to tell a microphone, really. We got a stinker. Uh that's a say qua Saquon really should be the guy we recorded it because he's the one that kind of coined the phrase. Yeah. Yeah, we need to put your voice on it. I got you. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 3:07

So uh let's shout out some of our friends in the Patreon.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

Uh so shout out the Patreon members. Thank you guys for being back room members. Again, if you have not checked it out, it's patreon.com slash beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. There are lots of extra tasty treats if you sign up for the top membership package. So, Gina Pharrell. Thanks, Gina. I love her, she's awesome. Damien Barber out of Phoenix. And then Al Ingalls in Wesley Chapel, Florida.

SPEAKER_04 3:35

Appreciate you guys being subscribers. We hope we're providing some great value there. I've been looking at some of your banger lists. You've got some good stuff that you've been putting out. Hell yeah, man. It's been good to watch. It's another way of like without being at the gig. Yeah. I kind of get a sense of like, hmm, I didn't know that track was going off. Maybe I need to give it a shot.

Patreon Shoutouts And Banger Lists

SPEAKER_03 3:52

You know what's funny about doing this, Brian? I've noticed, man, it's like I feel like sometimes like, am I playing the same show? And then I'll go back through the history and I'll look at these lists and I'll make these lists for these people. And I'm really am like giving them like actual songs that I played. They're not, I mean, there are definitely songs that are similar and songs that come out every weekend. Right. But there are also songs that I'm like, I mean, I haven't played whatever, Chattahoochee by Alan Jackson forever. Yeah. And all of a sudden, it's on my last two weddings. Totally. Uh, or Copperhead Road, you know, like just a line dance in the middle of the set somewhere. Right. It's just, I think sometimes I feel like because there are so many song songs that do come out every weekend that I'm playing the same, but I I when I look back, I'm like, yeah, that was pretty diverse, man. I was all over the place. Totally.

unknown 4:40

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

Anyway.

SPEAKER_04 4:41

Well, let's move into our off the record segment. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Uh, off the record, let me talk my sugar honey ice tea. 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 is. I'm gonna say what I want to say. It's right time to rent and read, get out the way.

Too Many Tech House Edits

SPEAKER_04 5:14

Dude, I know I've been hitting hard on these editors lately, and I didn't want to have to bring them into this next batch session, but I'm gonna have to do it. Oh no. And it's not so much them, I think it's just DJ culture in general. Dude, how many tech house edits are there out there right now? Like everything's a tech house edit. Like when they see something blow up, all of a sudden everybody jumps on the bandwagon. I'm like, do I need a hundred tech house edits? Kind of like you remember Able Beat when it would do that. I was gonna say that's actually a good thing because I feel like that's an actual genre, like a brand new genre, right? Whereas tech house is like just another subgenre of EDM within the you know, in the ecosystem of that. Okay, but do you remember when there was like all the B More edits? Yes, yes, and like there were, I mean, I can remember like uh Ain't No Mountain High Enough, like everybody had a B More edit of something, right? Right. And I'm like, I can't hear this for four hours. I'm from Maryland and you can only take so much club music, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 6:15

So I'm just I guess you know, pull it back a little bit, dial it back. Everything doesn't need a tech house edit. Like, I also feel like we're on the verge of a new thing because when these things go through cycles, yeah, like Afrobeats last year was that.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

Right.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

This year it's tech house right now. Right. I'm like, get me out of this. What's the next thing?

SPEAKER_03 6:34

What is the next thing?

SPEAKER_04 6:36

Because this is just like over the top.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

So you feel like once a genre becomes that like inundated with edits, then it moves to something else. Right, usually.

DJ Coaching Platform Break

SPEAKER_04 6:45

And when it something's hitting, everybody and their mother tries to make a tech house edit, and they're usually not good. There's just a lot of crap out there. Right, right, right. You don't need to be posting them, take them off the pools. Yeah, let's let's just like let it breathe for a little bit. Jeez, Luish. Hey, Brian B here. Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled podcast, but let's be real. You're here because you actually care about your DJ business. And if you've been nodding along, like, yeah, I should totally step up my game, then let me make it easy for you. I've got a coaching platform, the DJ's Creative Edge, where I help DJs like you stand out, raise their prices without feeling guilty, and actually get paid what they're worth. We're talking one-on-one coaching, a killer course option to help you define your uniqueness, and a group coaching option with other DJs who actually get it. The website, the DJ'sCreativeedge.com. That's thed's creativeedge.com. Because you know, repetition works. And if you want to just lurk for now, hit up Instagram at the DJ's Creative Edge. All right, back to the show before Joe starts yelling in his extra thick North Carolina accent about how back in his day, DJs used CDs and still had to walk uphill both ways to a gig. Um and with that, we'll move into storytime. Okay. You told me about this Raven's Croft gig. I don't know what it was.

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Yeah, well, I did. So this Raven's Croft thing, man, it's um you know the school, right? I do, yeah. It's really close to our house. Did you look at it for your we did? Yeah. Good school, great school. Uh, been around forever. They got some money. Oh, they got money. That's that property is massive. Looks like a college campus, bro. Totally. Do you uh you know the do you know the most famous uh alumni from there? Oh Dexter. Really? Yeah. Dexter went to Ravens Coffee. That's good trivia. Shout out Michael C. Hall. Sick. I'm sure people from Raven's Coffee are gonna hear this and be like, d the author, so and so, Edgar Allan Poe's third cousin, or some shit like that. But to me, it's Dexter. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:02

So what were you got hired to do the kids? The little school day.

Ravenscroft Gala Auction Music Strategy

SPEAKER_03 9:06

No, no, hell no. Fuck off. I don't play for kids. You know that. Well, kindergarten? I hate a child. Um, no, man, I played their gala at the school. No, sir, absolutely not. It was at a venue that is literally even closer than the Merriman Wynn House to here. Wow, if we walk down the bargain lot, I can see it. It's right there off Capitol. Okay. Uh called the Fairview. Nice, nice venue. I played a few different parties there. Saquon's been there a couple of times with me. And um about 300 people. They had not done one in six years. No gala in six years. And so Ben Farrell that we always worked with, our favorite auctioneer was there. He did the live auction. They had a silent auction. Great, great prizes. Um and then I think they put me on from nine eight thirty to ten or nine thirty to eleven. So are these mainly parents who are donors? Are they teachers? They were parents. There was definitely a group of admin and teachers there, you know, but small. Most of the numbers were parents. Oh, they crushed the numbers, yeah. It was probably a quarter million or more.

unknown 10:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

Yeah, they raised some money, man. And in addition to whatever they're paying for tuition, which I'm sure outrageous. I can tell you, I've loved it.

SPEAKER_04 10:16

What what uh what cool prizes were they giving out?

SPEAKER_03 10:19

Anything for the auction like trips and stuff like that? Um, you know, um Angus Bar and Dinner for 10 in the in the wine cellar, uh Capitol Grill with a wine tasting, uh uh on the glass tickets at the hurricanes with a stick and a signed by the wine wine from Cam Ward, who just are they doing paddles like auctions as well?

SPEAKER_04 10:37

Or is it all silent? No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

No, they this was live auctions.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

And are you playing underneath the auction?

SPEAKER_03 10:43

I am, I am so you have to kind of duck it, right? Yes, he and I are are are fucking dialed in. Like after this many, I mean, we've probably known each other 20 years. Yeah. Take one seen him a million times. Like I'm riding the track. Sometimes it's an instrumental, sometimes it goes along with the prize. How old is this? That part of it. Six items. Oh, that's it. Six items, six items live. Live 30, 30 minutes, 35 minutes. He's he's ripping through it pretty quick.

SPEAKER_04 11:08

And what kind of talk to me about what kind of music you're playing for this?

SPEAKER_03 11:11

Uh, sometimes instrumentals. Um, there's a thing called fund the need where I'm playing like high-end uh instrumentals, and he's basically saying, All right, we are gonna just it's raise your paddle and give ten thousand dollars. Got it. And that might be one dude. And then he'll go, okay, let's go down to five. Right. And I'm just kind of playing tracks underneath, keeping the energy up. And then, you know, when it gets to just asking raise your paddle for a hundred bucks, like then I'm real, then there's five seventy-one, six twenty-nine, three, and I'm just like, boom, boom, you know, trying to keep the energy up. Right. And that raised over a hundred thousand just in that fund to need. So I mean And then how do you transition that into dancing? Is it just like he basically turned it back over to the you know, the people that put on the event? They say hey guys, thanks for coming. You know, let's celebrate. Joe Bun, we got the best CJ in town. Joe Bun's here, bang, right into the first song.

SPEAKER_04 12:02

Yeah. And what what are you opening with? Is this more wedding style?

SPEAKER_03 12:06

Oh, I shout out even Steve. Um, it was that's the way. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I like it. Because it was diverse. It was it was 25 year olds or 30-year-olds that have kindergartners that are up to you know, 65 or 70 year olds that probably have kids that have graduated and they're grown now. You're going there. Brickhouse, playing.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

No, it went. That's the way. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I like it. Uh-uh-huh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Um holla back girl.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

Oh. It goes in. Do you have that edit? I do have it. No. So then it's like the older people are like, oh, he's doing it for us. But then in the middle of it, it kind of switches to that, like, yeah, oh, I guess it would be Gin X or whatever I am, or the year after that.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

Yeah. And then did just stay lit the whole time at that point? It was good. I'm not going to say lit, but I mean, I sustained for probably an hour the last 30 minutes, people started calling Ubers and falling out of there. But any song in particular that besides that one that kind of stood out to you that you can remember? Not really, man, because it was just, I I I could there was definitely it was so diverse that I was getting, you know, not a ton of requests, but like there were people there that went to Carolina with me. Yeah. So they want to hear Jump Around. Right. And it takes two. Right. You know, and then you got, you know, people there that wanted like Motown. I it just I you couldn't really get into that kind of groove. Right. It was too jumpy. Right. So, no, nothing really stands out. But I mean, I felt like I did a good great job. I've heard from all the people that put it on. They were like, I'll bring it back. We're definitely going to do this again. We made a ton of money for the school. They were trying to redo the locker room, which was ancient. Right. And it's great that's beginning of March. Good. You'd like to dip your toe back into the investment. This is when these things happen. Right. Because I think they're basically like tags right wealthy people. Although they don't need to do it till the end of the year. That's correct. It would be it. I think this is like they're getting their refunds. It's like maybe it's like, I don't know, but it's it's pre-basketball. It's pre-March Madness. Right. You know, and so we're recording this. I mean, we did it right before March Madness. It was on the night of the Duke Carolina game, but as you saw, Carolina got their ass boots, and nobody really cared. They had a TV. Yeah. They had a TV, but nobody. You're missing your superstar though, right? Uh yeah. I mean, we're cooked. Yeah. We're not gonna do well. And then these things go on big at the end of the year in the fall for us. Right. November. Got it. Funds of fundraisers. Got it. All right.

Wedding Inside A Museum Set

SPEAKER_04 14:31

Well, I had a gig, uh, a wedding. Yeah. You were down in Florida? Down in Florida. This was one where the Do I need it? Do I need to warm up the body? No, no, actually not. I I thought you would because this it was such a uh a unique situation. It was at the museum of Museum of Commerce. I don't even know what that is. I didn't know either. Never played there before. Yeah. It's the first time, and it's rare because most of the venues is Pensacola, Florida. I'm doing a lot in that area. Shut up, Pensacola. And so I thought, you know, oh, it's gonna be like a I was thinking the museum, like, you know, commerce, like maybe business. There's gonna be like these little clear things with all the different things. Bro, I walk in, I'm gonna show a picture of where I sat up. Okay. This was insane. So go ahead and hit the picture. This is basic. Oh, okay. Keep going. Keep going. Yeah, this is it. Is that a bus? It's a bus, it's a trolley. And look what's in what's in the front that you see lit. A freaking streetlight. It's the first street light of the city that they've ever had. I'm like, this is someone's wedding? And I double check that I was at the right gig. Number one. Right. Number two, I'm looking at the vendor list. These are all like A-list players. This is a Brian B gig. This was not a uh a Florida mid-level gig. This was they brought me in to do this. This looks like a movie set. Yeah, I'm like, we're doing this for a wedding. I cannot believe we're doing this for a wedding. And so anyway, come to find out, the photographer's like, hey, we have to replicate a bunch of photos at this venue with the mom. And I'm like, what do you mean replicate? I don't know what's happening. She goes, Yeah, the the mom and the dad of the bride got married here 45 years ago, and they're trying to honor their parents by having at this same location. I'm like, okay, now it makes sense because I'm like, I can at least let this slide. But I'm like, oh man, this stuff ain't gonna be able to go on the gram because this place looks like a like a freaking warehouse garage. Now they did like this this flooring, they actually put some dance floor stuff on it, so it wasn't like all bare like this, but it was pretty lit. Like it was all over the place. Probably the best programmed set I have done in a while. It was all over the map. So here's one clip from this. This is uh from uh you know uh swag surfing. Oh, yeah, yeah. And it was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

Oh yeah, when you send me these videos, I'm like, where the fuck are you shocking? I'm like, I can't post this.

SPEAKER_04 16:57

I mean, it went from there to like Dixieland Delight, like all over the map as far as musicality. Yeah. And it was just great. Everything just kept rolling, and they were on the dance floor the entire time. But that venue, I was like, man, I guess I can say I have DJ next to a trolley now.

SPEAKER_03 17:12

I guess I can pull that card. So wow, that is an interesting place for damn sure. Hey DJs, are you still showing up to gigs with a flimsy facade or worse, a banquet table? It's time for an upgrade. Bungear DJ booths are built for serious, mobile DJs who care about presentation. Lightweight, durable, and designed for speed. Our aluminum booths look pro and set up in minutes. If you want compliments and referrals before you even drop your first track, head over to Bungear.com and level up your setup today. What's at the gears segment? Okay. The gear's here. The gear is here, is here, is here, is here, is here, is here, is here, is here, is here.

DJ Booth Sponsor Spot

Starlink Internet For Corporate Events

SPEAKER_04 17:56

All right, you ready for some tech? Yeah, take it up. Bro, look at this thing. Oh boy. It looks like an iPad if you're not watching it. A little bit bigger than an iPad. Yeah. This is the Starlink mobile device. Oh, yeah. Shout out Elon. Right? So basically, how this works is if you have the mobile version, which this is, yeah, you have to have great line of sight to the sky. Okay. So if you're in trees and all of that, it's not gonna work well. Okay. I'm curious if how that's gonna work when it comes to rain and cloudiness. You know, I'm assuming it's gotta work through. I think it just has to have direct um, because we have in our backyard a lot of trees that kind of hang over, and I had to move it just to test it to make sure it worked. So uh and the other in your front yard. Why didn't you just walk in the coldest weather? That's what I ended up doing. Yeah. And then the front of this, you do have to have power with it. So that's the other negative, if I had to say there was one. So you couldn't be taking this to a gig inside of um a venue. You I get there, I will say it worked in my house when I had it in the front yard. So I still had the connection. The thing about it is it's almost like fiber, like as far as the quality that fast. There this remember I talked about them doing this on the plane at Southwest Airlines coming in. You told me, yeah. They have home units that actually have a display that you can put on your top of your roof. They have them for business. Sure. So there's two parts to this. You have to buy the unit, and sometimes they run specials where they'll give this for free. I didn't run into that. Uh, and then you have to pay for the plan. Okay. So there's different levels. I think I'm on the 100 terabytes. 250, you said$250. Okay. And I'm on a hundred gigs. 100 gigs is what I'm on. Uh, and download. And you can upgrade if you want.

SPEAKER_03 19:38

The reason why I got it was I was about to say, you gotta walk me through the reasoning on this.

SPEAKER_04 19:42

I am doing a ton of uh smaller size corporates where these hotels are charging them an arm and a leg for internet for their for their ballrooms. Sure. It's not like cheap, it's like$500 a day. So this corporate planner who I've been working with a lot lately is like, hey, if you can get me internet at like$50 to$100 a day, we'll go with you all day long. So I'm testing this to see if it's gonna be able to work for some of these hotel environments or just meeting room environments. So you'd have to put it outside the ballroom then. Right. Put it outside the ballroom and then basically power it. Power it, which with a jackery or something like that. And then basically uh they connect to it. But I can tell you, I had it in the middle of my cul-de-sac, to your point. It worked all the way in my house.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Does it come with a stand? Like what do you think?

SPEAKER_04 20:29

It does. It does have a stand. Yeah, it has a little stand to it as well. Yeah, it's props up, right? Yeah, okay. Actually, you can even probably I don't actually.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

And then I'm assuming there's an app that tells you where to turn it towards with the satellite or whatever. Yep. And it's in. But do you think a hundred people could connect to it? That's what they say.

SPEAKER_04 20:47

Yeah. Okay. So again, I'm gonna test it out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Charging a small fee just to see if it works. Right. But the way I was thinking about it was like if I'm in doing an event out in the field somewhere and the internet sucks, this is gonna be able to save me, you know, if I needed it. I mean, or if people needed it. Let's say you had a photo booth. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:05

Or anything like that. I know we've talked about this ad nauseum, but I'm telling you, man, I think the death of the MP3 is is near. I still think it's gonna go to streaming.

SPEAKER_04 21:14

But even then, yeah, if you don't have it in the you don't have it in a off-mode locker, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:20

You're still gonna need it. I know that. That's what I'm saying. That's why I could see needing it.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

So the reason why I got it is I am in a networking group where they were talking about uh a bartender service got this and said, Hey, I'm offering it for events that are outside now. So if you anybody needs really high-speed internet, they can buy it through us. Yeah, and I was like, hmm, that's interesting. I might try it for my b-boy brand as well. You know, since it's just sitting here. You just bought one for now. I bought one, I'm gonna test it. Okay, keep us posted. But interesting kind of uh device. Yeah. So throwing it.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

For sure. Shout out Starlink. All right, booth heads. We made a move and it's a bold one.

SPEAKER_04 21:56

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_03 22:07

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_04 22:16

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_03 22:36

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.

Patreon Tiers And Perks

SPEAKER_04 22:49

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. So stop texting us asking what remix was that and get in the booth for real. Patreon.com forward slash beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. Choose a tier, grab your spot, and let's keep building. Boothheads, you know where to go. Let's hit the question. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

Question of the day. When looking to improve your team, what's been your most successful way to gauge performance to provide feedback when you're not at the event? Video from the events, stopping by, asking vendors, etc. Chris Davis via Instagram. Great question.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

Yeah, I mean, you have a team of more veterans now, right? So you probably aren't having but you get fresh people in all the time.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:46

So what's your process for evaluating them? You're just going off of reviews?

How To Evaluate DJs Offsite

SPEAKER_03 23:49

I am going off mainly from reviews and client feedback and probably even more importantly, vendor feedback. And it not and not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily if I didn't hear from a v vendor, I wouldn't necessarily think it tanked. But if I hear from a vendor, it's usually because they're like, this guy didn't seem like one of your guys. Or and it's rare. I mean, it's once a year though, and and normally they don't last very long here. They just they they're they're not cut from the right cloth. They they're they're they show up with a bad attitude, they you know, the mixing's not good or something. Like if I hear that statement, Joe, this, you know, nothing it was fine, but it just didn't seem like one of your guys. I'm like, ah shit, this is not a good sign. Right. It's it's I can smell, I can see the writing on the wall.

SPEAKER_04 24:47

You're not like regularly or like I kind of think about this as a crazy example, but kind of like um how they do random drug tests.

SPEAKER_03 24:54

Yeah, no, I'm like, I'm not a pop-by guy. I think it, I think it makes people super nervous in an already nerve-wracking event. Right.

SPEAKER_04 25:02

But even like let's not say stopping by, let's just say sending out feedback to every, you know, 20 or 30 events to a form that goes out to the vendors.

SPEAKER_03 25:11

No, not to the vendors, no. No. And again, man, I mean, you know, the the clients, unless the DJ tells us to turn it off, they're gonna get a review ask. You know what I mean? Now, are they gonna do it all the time? No, right. I can assure you, if something went wrong, they're gonna let you know. Yeah. And um, I will say this, I I'm not a pop-by guy, but when there used to be very few venues here 15, 20 years ago, now there's one on every corner. Right, right, right, right, right. We would be at the Carolina Inn every weekend. There's three ballrooms, and we would be in all three of them. Yeah, yeah. Randy went in the one, one me in the middle, and the and dude, I went and saw this dude. He doesn't work anymore. But I I didn't go in, but it they were, they were, they were tiered. Yeah. So like I knew he was getting ready to do introduction and the first dance and stuff. So I was at dinner.

SPEAKER_04 25:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

So I was like, I'm just put on a dinner, dinner playlist, and I'm gonna walk down and put my ear to the door. This fucker called them the wrong name. Oh no. And like you could hear the room go, or he called them the bride's last name or something, like, you know, Mr. and Mrs. Brian Murphy, you know, because your wife's last name is Murphy. Yeah. And and the you can't you hear the room go, and then he goes, uh, just kidding. Or he tries to walk it back. I'm outside the door, like on the floor, like, no way. I just heard this dude shit the bed on the intro. Yeah. It's gonna be a long night. He tried to walk it back or play it off or make a joke. I'm just cringing on the floor outside the door. Right. Anyway, uh, but other than that, no, no pop-yeah. What about you? What was it?

SPEAKER_04 26:46

I do uh do the pop-ins. You're a pop-in guy. Yeah. Okay. So I but I am very discreet on when I do that and how I do it. Okay. I wouldn't So you don't say you're coming. I don't say I'm coming. Woo! But I also don't ever do it before they're into the dancing. Like I'll wait until that dance floor is full before I reveal myself. Interesting. Because I don't want it to feel like, oh, I'm now I'm nervous because we haven't even. But but but but you got there way earlier than that?

SPEAKER_03 27:11

Yeah. Were you just trolling around outside the ballroom?

SPEAKER_04 27:14

Yeah. Sometimes, well, I mean, like during dinner, I'll just kind of listen to like the mixes or you know, the introductions is usually where I'll be like, Yeah, to your point, ear to the door, just kind of listening. Yeah. And then I'll leave and come back, you know. A lot when I was doing it when we had a huge multi-op to your point, we were at this Hilton Sandestin. Yeah. And we would be in six of the seven ballrooms. Holy shit. So I could see all six guys if I was off. Right. You know, in one clip. Yeah. So it was great. I would just like wait till one of those dates would pop up if I wasn't working, and I would go and see them in different parts of the night, you know, and just kind of move around and see them. And again, I never wanted to make somebody feel nervous or uncomfortable right before Grand Enter says, Hey, the boss is. Hey, what's up, dude? Oh, yeah. Good luck. I don't know if I'm gonna use this.

SPEAKER_03 28:00

I'm watching you. So uh, but are you in a suit and tie like a like you like a guest or you're like in a beater in flop? And now he's gonna hold these guys one of those rubber masks.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

Like, no, I'd wear a business casual, you know, like if it needed a tie, I would put it on. Nothing crazy. But the thing is, is most of those vendors would know me, like from the company, you know. So like the planner, oh hey, you're here, it's great. Right. Yeah, just checking it out. And they appreciate it when they know that you're doing that kind of quality control to see them. The other thing I would do too, Chris, is maybe not necessarily do it at the event, but we did this um probably twice a year, where we would have either Battle of the Grand Entrances. This is usually during the summer, yeah. And I would make some crazy names. We talked, I think I sent you a clip about some names that you could use for your some training. Oh, yeah, yeah. Um, or we would do like show us your best three or four mixed songs, yeah. And we would just battle. Yeah. It's harmless, nobody's like getting a prize or getting crap done or whatever. But it was just a great way to see, like, hey, we're gonna be testing you in this uh next month. So, like, come ready, you know, kind of a thing. And so you can't see everybody at every event, but that's a way that you can kind of keep it in the house and still see them. Like, we want to replicate this as a wedding. Give me your best grand entrance. You pick the song, here's the names. Let's just see how you do kind of a thing. I like that. Uh we don't we don't do that now because all of our guys are like super, you know, seasoned that we don't need to worry about that. Right. But that's another way you can kind of check on your team is team meetings outside of doing some of this other stuff, or bringing in people like like Mike Walter and trainings.

SPEAKER_03 29:36

Totally. I think there's um that was very invaluable. I mean 100% valuable. There's people uh digital day will do trainings on you know programming. Uh yeah, Mike Walter do trainings on MCing, like super valuable stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 29:50

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

Good stuff.

SPEAKER_04 29:51

Hope this helps, Chris.

SPEAKER_03 29:52

Yeah, Chris.

SPEAKER_04 29:53

Uh let's close it out. Okay, let's wrap it up. Dude, thank you, DJ Event Planner, for supporting this podcast as our sponsor. If you're not using a CRM, if you're in the market for one, you gotta check it out, man. It's the go to for us. And with that, we will see you guys on the next episode. See you next week. See ya.