Mike Walter – scaling to over 1,000 events per year
Continuing my series on “Scaling”, for this episode I talk with my friend Mike Walter on his journey from DJ working for another company to growing his own company that does over 1,000 events per year! How big is right for your company? Listen to this episode for another angle on how to grow a business.
Mike Walter is the proud owner of Elite Entertainment, a Multi-System DJ Company in New Jersey that has been selected by TheKnot.com and WeddingWire.com as a top Entertainment company in the country. For over 30 years, he has MCed events from weddings to fashion shows and beauty pageants and his public speaking experience and acumen have served him well as a presenter.
He began to offer seminars in 1998, at first specifically to the DJ Industry, then he expanded to speaking to event groups and finally to any and all audiences. His seminars are known for their fast pace, mix of information and entertainment and deft use of Keynote. Having sat through enough tedious seminars in his life, Mike vows to never bore an audience. Whether he is offering life changing advice, motivational challenges or hard-core information on how to grow and expand your business, Mike promises he will deliver a quick, concise, and nugget-filled presentation every time he speaks.
Mike has published three books, Running Your Multi-Op which is widely consider the most comprehensive book for anyone interested in expanding their DJ business, the self-help primer, Ten Things You Can Do to Have a Better Day and the music history compendium: On This Date in Music. He’s also released a number of education videos to help his fellow DJs and business owners. In 2014 he partnered with Joe Bunn to start the PhDJ Workshop and in 2017 the two began a weekly podcast called the PhDJ Podcast.
For more information head to DJMikeWalter.com and OnThisDateInMusic.com
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– When I think of scaling, there’s different ways to scale your business. Oh, see, there it is, it just zoomed me out. Crazy. Okay, let me try that again. When I think of scaling a business, there’s different ways to scale, there’s multiple locations, there’s multiple cities and states, and then there’s just growing in volume, and my next guest has grown in volume in a way that I think you’re going to find really interesting. Stay tuned. I am so glad to have on the “Wedding Business Solutions” podcast my good friend, my Queens born with me, Mets loving, and hating ourselves for it, friend, Mike Walter, Mike, how are you doing?
– I’m great, Alan, thanks for having me on. I think the term is long suffering Mets fan, I think that’s just kind of covers everything, yeah.
– I think it does. Those of us just love getting our hearts broken and there you go.
– I was 20 years old when they won their last world championship and if you would told me that night, you’re not going to get another one. You’re going to be in your mid fifties and still not having to, I think I might’ve celebrated that championship a little bit more than I did that night.
– That’s hopeful. Right? We’re just being hopeful, hopeful thinking. And listen, you are an optimist my friend, I know that. So Mike and I have a lot in common, which we didn’t know until we met many years later. We both grew up in Queens, in New York city. We’re both the fans of the Mets, Shea Stadium. When there was a Shea Stadium there. One of Mike’s dog’s name is?
– is Shea. That’s right. I named my dog Shea and if Citibank wants to give me enough money, I’ll change his name.
– There you go. But Mike, so your business now you were the first business to hit 2000 reviews on weddingwire, correct?
– Yep. Well, I believe so. I can’t really get a firm answer from WeddingWire, but I’m pretty sure we either were or the first one to get there with a 5.0 average. So either way I’m happy with it.
– Either way you’re happy with it, so obviously you do a significant volume. So in a normal year, we’re not going to talk 2020 or 2021, but in a normal year, like in 2019, how many weddings did your company do?
– We did about 12, Well weddings We did about 900. We do about 1200 events, just shy of a thousand weddings.
– Okay. And how many DJs, entertainers do you have working with you?
– 16.
– 16. Okay. Now, you didn’t start out and flip a light switch and you became 16. You actually started out as a DJ. What on Long Island was it?
– No, I started out in New Jersey. I was living in Queens and I starting to get booked by a company in north Jersey. You remember Star DJs back in the day. And they were the ones that really kind of encouraged me to move out to Jersey, cause they were booking me so much, but yeah, that’s really where I got started.
– Okay. So they brought you out here and you’re working for them. And what, when did you start your own business and what made you start your own business.
– So I was with them for about four years and they had made some business decisions that I didn’t love. So I looked to get out of there and started Elite with a partner. And my vision from day one was to build some depth because that’s what I had come from, Star DJs was a company with 40, 50 DJs. I never really wanted to get that big, but I mean, I knew when I left Star it wasn’t going to be just me and Eric deejaying. We were going to build some volume and some depth.
– Okay. So you started Elite Entertainment here in New Jersey, you and Eric, how long did it take until you grew that from more than just you two?
– Pretty much right away. We started adding another DJ and then once we were able to fill his calendar, we added a fourth and then a fifth and I bought Eric out in 97. And that’s really when the growth took off because you know, it was fear. I went into debt to buy him out. So now I had this big nut to pay back every month. And that’s where I went from hustling to really hustling. And yeah, I’d say the next five or six years after buying him out we had some great growth and I met some amazing DJs and some guys who were still on staff. I’ve given out now four, 20 year plaques to DJs who’ve been with me for more than 20 years. So, and that kind of longevity is sort of unheard of in our industry.
– It’s not just our industry. It’s unheard of period, in a lot of industries. As a matter of fact, I graduated college wanting to get into advertising. I got into advertising only to find out that you basically work for a company for about a year, year and a half, have to leave and go someplace else to get promoted and make more money. And I didn’t understand that, my dad worked for an accounting firm for 17 years. Right? Then went to another one, became a partner and he was there for 10 years. I’m like, why can’t you do that? Right? Why can’t you do that? When I’m working with companies as a consultant, I look for stuff like that, because that says a lot to me all the way up and down the chain. If those people are around for 20 years, they have to be, being taken care of as a person, right? Not just as a worker, I’m squeezing you for every dollar you can get there. So,
– Right.
– But when you left Star and you went and started your own business, you had to become then a manager, not just a DJ. So what was that transition like for you?
– That was a learning process for me, Alan. And, you know, you referenced early in the show that we’re both New Yorkers. And I came to realize that the communication style is a little bit different. You wouldn’t think New York to New Jersey would be that much different but it was. And I was losing people early on because I was a little too upfront and maybe in your face and New York, if you will. And so I had to kind of dial back my communication style, but I did, and I was able to do it successfully. And, and that’s why, you know, like I said, I’m really proud of the longevity I have, but yeah, that was a self-taught kind of thing I realized early on. Oh, you’re turning people off, with your communication style, Walter, you better smooth it out.
– I actually had that thing when I sold my Wedding Pages franchise, and went to work for Wedding Pages corporate before they got bought out for the knot, I was writing emails and somebody asked me to change the way, the language in my emails, because I was sounding elitist, which is funny. Cause you’re a Elite Entertainment. But I was sounding sounding elitist. And I didn’t think so. I was just writing with proper grammar and you know, maybe using dollar and a quarter words instead of, you know, 25 cent words. And they said but it’s coming across as elitist. I was like, you know, okay, I guess, I have too good of a vocabulary. Is that a problem?
– Do I have to dumb this down a little bit?
– Yeah. But it’s the way it’s perceived to other people. And I went from being a salesperson to publishing magazines to eventually 50, 60 people at the Knot. That’s for people listening here, running a business is different than being a solopreneur, where you’re doing everything. Now, but you are still a practitioner. You are out there doing weddings and that’s a choice cause there are people that could run a business your size, again, 1200 events a year. You could be sitting in the office, you know, steering the ship instead of out there. why are you still out there?
– You know, Alan, I actually did cut back drastically about seven or eight years ago. I was starting to put, block off a lot of dates and a lot of full weekends. And I think my fewest events in one year, I did like 22 events. And I just found that I really missed it. You know, I said to myself, Mike, you didn’t get into this business to run a business. You got into this business to entertain people. And that’s my true passion. And that’s what I really love doing. And so after that year, I slowly started opening up some more dates and accepting more events, and everything else. And I find that I just still look forward to, I mean, it’s a Thursday afternoon that you and I are talking. I have a wedding tonight and I’m looking forward to it. As soon as we get off this call, I’m going to load up the truck and get ready to go to a wedding. And it’s something I still enjoy doing. You know, there’s a great line, Bob Hope, late in his life somebody said, why don’t you just retire and go fishing? And he said because the fish don’t applaud. And there is something to that, as an entertainer, you know, most entertainers, whether they’ll admit it or not have a little bit of a hole in their being that they need filled with the adulation of a crowd. And I definitely have that.
– Yeah. It’s, you know, the why, you know, why do you do what you do, right? And I know that you and I have in common that we don’t do it for the paycheck. We do it because we know we’re having an impact on people, wherever we’re adding value to that. Mike is great on social media and on Facebook, Instagram and Mike posts these pictures of him at a ceremony. And it’s my view of a thousand ceremonies. He always says, and there it is, there’s half of a speaker in there cause it’s, he’s behind it.
– Correct. I realized that years ago, I’m like, God, I started thinking about it to myself, how many ceremonies have I witnessed from this view? And I just took a picture and put it up on Facebook. And people were like, oh, that’s cool. And then it just started becoming a thing. And after this last year, when I hardly put that picture up, when I started recently, people were like, oh great, we’re getting to see these pictures again, You know.
– But it is your view. And what’s important about that view is you’re showing what’s important which is the ceremony, I’m behind the speaker. Don’t look at me.
– Right.
– This is not what this is about. And you understand that you’re also a speaker at conferences. You’ve written the book. I tell people if you want somebody who’s written not “a” book on running a multi op, who wrote “the” book on running multi op, that’s Mike. But you have that credibility because you’re still out there doing it.
– Right.
– But the running, the multi op is different than being the DJ.
– Totally.
– Right? And, you know, you talk to people all over the country cause you go to all the conferences, I see you in a lot of the conferences. And when people look at you and they say, oh, you know, 1200 events a year. Yeah. I’m going to do that. They don’t necessarily understand what it takes to do that. So what are some of the things that you’ve learned in growing, understanding that people listening are not just DJs and entertainers, they’re all throughout the wedding and event industry. What are some of the things you learned as you scale your business up to this many events that, you know, you wish you knew then, what you know now.
– So I think a big part of it is the fact that I’m still doing events. I know some multi-op owners who have stopped and they’re no longer “out in the field.” And I think when enough time goes by, you start losing, your staff can’t relate to you anymore. And you start losing credibility. You know, when I get my staff together, I can talk to them about the hot new songs that are hitting and this approach and something I’ve seen here and something I’ve done. But if I had stopped doing events completely a number of years ago, I think my staff wouldn’t listen to that. And they would go, in one ear and out the other because they’d go, when was the last time Mike did an event? So I don’t say you have to stay in the field as manically as I do. Cause I do an awful lot of events, but I think you should keep that toe in the water at least so that you can relate to your crew and your staff. And I mean, as far as finding talent, Alan. One of my biggest tips to anyone who asked me is always be on the lookout because some of the best DJs that I have on staff, I just met them in some happenstance. And I recognize the fact that they had a lot of the talent that I look for in a DJ. And I said, Hey, you should think about doing this. And they approached me and I trained them and they came aboard. And I often think about those moments like, man, if I didn’t have my DJ radar up in that moment and give somebody my business card and say, Hey, man, I think you’d make a great DJ. You know, history would be a little bit different.
– Yeah. Yeah. So what do you look for? what is it that you saw in like the last person that you brought on that was successful with you? What did you see?
– I mean, personality is first and foremost in my industry you need to have an outgoing personality. You can’t be a wallflower. You can’t be shy. You know, you have to be able to smile that lights up a room and gregarious. I don’t want to use too big of a word and get illegal, Sorry. But you just need to have that. And I’ll also say this and I know some people get turned off by it, but I look for a look as well. I mean, we are in the entertainment business. Aesthetics is important. And so somebody who is fairly attractive is going to be more successful in my line of work. So I look at the whole package, how do they talk? How do they communicate? What’s their personality and what is their look.
– Okay. And how long is your training process? Cause I know you do a very, very extensive training process. You’re not going to say, oh, you’ve watched me do two events. Okay. Go out and do that. Cause it’s your name on the door.
– I would much rather find somebody who has never deejayed and teach them everything from A to Z. And that’s a much slower process and there’s no guarantee which is why a lot of DJs are like, I’m not going down that road. But A, when it’s all said and done, I know that they’ve not only been trained, but they’ve been trained in my style. And also B, I do think that training can give you a little bit of loyalty to start out with, it’s not endless loyalty. You can’t abuse somebody and think, well, I trained them, so they’re never going to leave, but it does kind of give you a headstart in that department. So typical timeline when they come aboard, they start assisting and then if from assisting, they show that I was right early on and they do have potential. They enter training and that’s a four month process. So typically it’s a six to eight month process between the time I meet somebody and the time that they do their first event.
– Right, and another thing that I know we’ve spoken about, and without talking numbers here, you pay your people well.
– I have to, you have to pay your people competitively or they’re going to leave. I mean, you know, pay isn’t the only thing. But at some point, if they realize, I could make an extra 300 to 400 hours of Saturday night working for somebody else, they’re going to go, no matter how much they love you, they’re going to seek greener pastures.
– Right. Right. So you’re taking care of them as people, you’re taking care of them financially. Okay. So going back to you doing events, I don’t know if people caught this, but you said, the way you described it was you accept a certain number of events a year, right? Yes? Most people say I do X number of weddings. You said I accept.
– Yeah.
– So for you to personally do somebody’s wedding, what does it mean for you to accept it?
– Well, first and foremost, it means that I’ve kept that date open on the calendar. And that’s something I’m really, you know, this year 2021, forget about it because I mean, all of last year’s postponements, I opened up a lot of dates that I personally wanted to have off. But typically, you know, my sweet spot is about 60 to 65 events a year for me personally, which means I’ve got some Sundays off that I can spend with my wife. I’ve got some weekends off that we can go away. I’m a firm believer in the restorative quality of a vacation. So I don’t want to just work 365 days a year and burn out. So typically when I say accept the wedding, number one is that date is open on the calendar. And then number two, I mean, I’m not really that picky as far as who I accept as a bride and groom, if they want me and I have that date open and they’re willing to pay that price then I’m taking the wedding.
– Okay. And so with the 16 DJs, is it one price for everybody? same price or are people at different prices?
– I don’t have tiered pricing like that. But what we do is we offer discounts as we get closer to the date. So in other words we hold out for price until about six months before, and then we’ll discount a little bit and then three months in advance, we’ll discount even more. And what typically happens is your veteran DJs get booked further in advance while your newer DJs get booked closer to the date. So while I don’t have a staff picture that I can say that guy’s worth 1950, that guy’s worth 1450. It generally works out that way.
– Okay. But you started out that if it’s Saturday in 2022 in September.
– Here are the DJs that are open, here’s the price.
– And it’s the same price, for all of them, right?
– Yeah.
– Okay. Cause I had a client who is a wedding planner in Michigan and she was running the business and she had other people doing planning, but she said, I accept 10 weddings a year. She had three kids. Her mom was ill. She’s like, I’m going to accept 10, but they’re going to be the right ones.
– Right.
– And what that for her meant is they had a budget that was at least six figures and that she was charging them by the hour which for a wedding planner is very unusual, right? That’s not a flat fee, whatever. She’s like this way if at eight o’clock at night, I’m on my laptop instead of reading a story to one of my kids. I’m getting paid for that.
– At least she’s getting paid,
– I’ll get paid. I don’t want to do it, but I’m going to get paid, but she was going to accept. But then that phrase in there, I accept, whatever. Cause I know people that’ll say, listen, I’m going to do certain weddings. I’m going to charge more for me. You’ve chosen not to do that. Which I also think sends a sign that listen, the quality here is only one level.
– That’s it? I think it would be hard for me to convince people that I believe our staff is equally as talented from guy one to guy 16. If I charged here tier pricing, I mean, you know, listen, I went out to dinner the other night and I was looking at two different steaks and one was $50 and one was 35. You couldn’t convince me. There’s no thing you could say to convince me that the $50 was the same as the 35. Nothing. You know, my assumption, and by the way, after a long weekend, I got the $50 steak because I felt like I was worth it. But there’s no way you could convince me that the 35 was the same quality. So I don’t know how, I know some DJs use, well, it’s not quality it’s experience, but I just think at the end of the day, the consumer, now they still might go for the cheaper guy. The DJ cause they might go, well, we believe in your brand and we want to save that money, but there’s no way in a consumer’s head that they’re not going to think. Well, then that person’s got to be better than the other person.
– Right.
– Right. And again, this is a sign that you have to send. I have somebody else that’s on my scaling podcast. I mentioned to you, they have 44 venues. The packages are exactly the same at every venue. The pricing is only different in different places. These are different states, different parts of states and stuff like that because the rental fee might be different at that one. Or there might be, you know, might cost more to get the food.
– Yeah. I was going to say, just cost of living. I mean, you can’t, you know, I know DJ’s in North Carolina that can’t get the price that we can get, but you know, they also bought a house for half of what I bought mine for. So it all kind of comes out in the wash. Yeah.
– Exactly. And that’s a choice, right? That’s a choice.
– Right.
– You also had your partner at the PHDJ podcast, Joe Bunn, Joe sister is, up in Montana where you think, okay, Montana. But I remember Joe saying, that’s where the billionaires are kicking out the millionaires. You know, it’s like, you think of Montana. That’s not what you think of, but you know, that’s why they go there. Cause they can buy 15,000 acres of land and, you know, have nobody around them over there. So the level that you’re at this 1200 events a year, how long have you been? Again not including 2020, 2021 of course. But how long have you been at that level?
– Probably for about a decade. We really have leveled off about 10 years ago at that number and I don’t know whether it’s just my own shortcomings or what, but I just can’t seem to break through it and maybe nor do I want to. I mean, I make a pretty good living. And so do the people who work for me but it’s also manageable. I think maybe if I added, you know, 40% of that number maybe I wouldn’t have that time to enjoy life a little bit and take my vacations and take a Sunday off here and there and be able to spend some time on the beach.
– Or in Jamaica in a suite.
– Yes, exactly.
– And was it January or February?
– That pin is on the calendar and I have a mantra just make it Jamaica, just make it to Jamaica, Just make it to Jamaica. That’s my mantra for 2021.
– And not the Jamaica in Queens that I grew up in, Right?
– No, Not that one. No, I could make it anytime.
– Yea, We could go there.
– Yeah.
– So who does the sales? you had 1200 events a year. Who’s doing that.
– My self and Dominic and Lynn helps out, I have an office manager. Lynn. She helps out from time to time, but Dominic and I do the bulk of the sales.
– Okay. Are your 16 people, are they all full-time DJs, entertainers?
– No. No. We very few full-time. Most of our staff have full-time jobs and they do this on the weekend.
– Okay. Is that something you look for?
– Oh, I’d much rather that, yes. Yeah. I would much rather, you know, in my experience, if a DJ doesn’t have a full-time job, at some point they’re going to go, what do I need Mike for? I could do this and maybe make a little money. They could be wrong about that because they might not make more money with it, you know, without me. But, but they’re going to sit around thinking that. My DJs who have a full-time job, it’s just enough for them to contact their clients and then do their gigs on their weekend. The thing that they want is to get involved in marketing the business and ensuring the business and selling the business and all that. So yeah, I would much rather get either full-time college students or people with a full-time job.
– Okay, and the full-time college students. Don’t your risk losing them after college?
– Yeah. I mean, if they’re going to leave the area and that’s an upfront conversation we have, but you know, I mean, ideally I love to get people in their early twenties when they’re still in college. And then when they graduate college, their full-time career is slowly getting starting and they still need that part-time income. You know, typically when a DJ leaves me it’s because the full-time job has taken off. They’re making enough money Monday through Friday. Maybe a couple of kids have come along. They can’t give up the weekends. That’s typically when I lose a DJ. So I’d much rather that calendar start in their early twenties then in their late twenties Cause then that that window might be shorter.
– So each of your people determines their own calendar availability, is that it?
– Absolutely.
– And when do you figure that out? Is that like you sit down in January when you get back from Jamaica.
– No, first of all, in this industry, you got to block dates off a lot further advanced than that. So we use an online planner system where the DJs can block off their dates and you know, I’ve got some guys that will block off every Friday. Some guys block off every Sunday. Some of them will put in like, I can take a Friday event, but only if it starts, you know, at six o’clock in Monmouth county which you know, makes sales a little bit wonky. But, but I get it. I mean, so yeah, it’s really completely up to them. Now listen, if they block off, if they only leave me 10 dates a year to book them, then we’d have a conversation about, is it really worth keeping you on staff? But you know, as long as somebody leaves open enough dates that it makes sense to keep them on staff, then I’m fine with that.
– So one of the things you mentioned is, you know breaking through this level, I’ve talked to a bunch of people, a lot of them entertainers trying to grow their business. And I remember one of them saying to me, it was just two people and he said, you know what? I want to do 250 events a year. I said, okay, why?
– Right. That just seems like an arbitrary number to throw out.
– I said why? And he said, well, I’ll be seeing as a bigger player in the market. I said okay, why is that important? Right? And he said, well, all the planners and people will see me as a bigger company. I said, okay. So why is that important? I kept asking him that. And then I said, all right, so let’s talk about this. You want to go from the two of you who were doing about 50, 60 events each, right? So let’s say a hundred, 120. You want to double that? Right? I said, why he’s along turning away a lot of business at a lower price point, which was still a decent price point But he was at a higher point. And I said, well, you’re going to need to do more advertising, more marketing. You might need office staff now, more insurance. Are you their providing equipment? or they providing? Right? Let’s go through all the things here.
– Right.
– I said, the easiest thing is the equipment, right? You have a credit card? Go buy equipment. You can do that. The second easiest is actually the people, like you said, you keep your eyes open, You can find some people here, but now you have to bring in more leads. You’re going to have to do more advertising marketing. Another guy up in Boston. He wanted to get to 500 events from 200. I said, again, equipment is easy. People, you can probably find there’s DJs around you can find them. But are you getting so many leads that you’re turning away?
– That’s the big question right there, Alan. If you’re turning down a dozen events a year, that’s not enough. If you’re turning down two events a week, then, oh man, you better go get yourself some extra staff. But you’re right if you’re only turning down a handful of events a year, then if you want to bring somebody new on, it takes on showcasing and marketing and probably paid advertising on some social media. So, right. Realize that before you go into it, my advice to anyone, if they’re looking to expand, don’t add that next DJ until you’re turning down a good amount of work.
– Right, or and again, not just DJ, whatever it is, you’re a photography or videography or officiant, right? Are you, are you turning down work? And like, I could be making money there, but I can’t be in two places at once.
– Right. And then another part of that is if you’re not, then maybe you should look at your performance because if your performance is not generating enough referrals, then maybe it’s something you’re doing out in the field that’s not generating enough phone calls. And for your non DJ listeners, I mean the same thing can be said for the pictures that you’re taking and the video that you’re producing and everything else. If people aren’t raving about your service, to the point where you’re getting what I call word of mouth referrals, then maybe it’s what you’re doing, you know, when you perform your service, maybe you’re not blowing people away. And that’s hard for people to admit, but a good look at what you’re providing service wise might tell you that.
– At one of my other podcasts on my regular Wednesdays is about, you know, everything is a transaction, right? Where money’s going to exchange hands. But if you’re just making it transactional, that it’s just about, I’m going to take their money. I’m going to show up, I’m going to do something or I’m going to provide X flowers, favors, whatever it is. That’s not going to generate the referrals because you’re not wowing people. But everybody that is involved with a wedding is basically auditioning at every event. You’re not there handing out your business cards and saying, hi, you know, “hire me”. But just by nature of what you’re doing, you’re getting referrals. So you’re a business. Again, you’re getting referrals. Do you do anything to try to make it, to get more referrals?
– Do a great job, hand out business cards, blow brides away and grooms away to the point where they sing our praises. I mean, we do have a newsletter that we keep in touch with our past clients. And we have a pretty decent open rate on that. So I know that our past couples still want to hear from us on a regular basis. So we kind of stay top of mind that way. So I think that certainly helps, but I don’t have any kind of incentive program or anything like that, if that’s what you’re are asking
– No, don’t need an incentive program. But the idea is you do need to stay top of mind because they don’t need you personally.
– Right.
– Although you also do holiday parties, right?
– Yeah. I mean, we get the random future event from couples, but the most important way, a past couple can help you in the future is, you know, when she’s at work and her coworker gets engaged, does she think to herself, Hey, I got a great DJ for you. Here’s a business card. Or here’s his email address. If she doesn’t think that, then maybe you didn’t leave the impression that you thought you were leaving.
– Right. But for me, part of it is if you don’t ask, the answer’s always no. I have a speaker friend of mine, Bill Cates, And he has written many books about getting more referrals, Matter of fact, He is the referral coach. That is his business, Referral Coach International.
– Right.
– And just by that newsletter, just by staying top of mind, they’ll think of you more than if you just never reach out to them again. Some people are more proactive with that, sending out little dodads, gifts or whatever. But when I was on your podcast, the PHDJ podcast, subscribed to that as well. Not even if you’re not a DJ, you’re going to learn some stuff over there. We were talking about the value, right? What value can you add to the relationship that you have with that couple? And if you’re adding value to it, they’re going to be top of mind. Referrals happen because of opportunity. Just like you find DJs because of opportunity. If somebody says, Hey, I’m getting married and they don’t think to say, you know, Elite Entertainment. Or if somebody says, Hey, does anybody know a DJ? And, and they’re like, yeah, I do. But they don’t think, oh no, yo you want a DJ? No, no, no. You need Mike, you need Dominic, Dominic from Elite, because each of your people, 20 years, your people have brands.
– Oh, definitely. Yeah. And I encourage that. our business cards are two-sided the one side is always the same with the company information, but the flip side is their picture and their name. And I want them to proudly give that out. So when somebody calls us or emails us and says, Hey, I have one of your business cards here, flip it over, Who’s the DJ? That’s, you know, and he gets the track of the referral. So, absolutely. Yeah. It’s one of the things we do with our showcasing. You know, I want Jay Thompson to be able to sing at our shows so people can see he’s got a unique talent and, you know, I want people to hear Dominic’s voice to hear what a great MC he is. So, and that’s one also one of the reasons why I insist that my DJs has worked for me exclusively because can’t build a brand for a DJ. If they can also be booked outside of your outside of your company.
– Right, and these people are great entertainers. And if they don’t want to run a business, if they don’t want to deal with that kind of stuff, you’re taking care of them, they’re getting paid. Well, it works for everybody. That’s what it is. Again, you shouldn’t look at your people as expendable because they will become that.
– Right.
– They’ll become that if you do that.
– Matter of fact, it’s the exact opposite. They’re not expendable. They are the lifeblood of your business. You know, it’s a lot easier to find a new client than it is to find a new DJ. So I’m doing everything I can to keep my guys on staff and gals. I shouldn’t just use that
– But the other thing is, you’re also very confident when you’re out at a wedding on a Saturday night that there’s 15 other weddings that you have people at and you don’t have to worry about them.
– No. I get so few phone calls and texts on a weekend. My DJs are incredibly responsible. They, you know, people ask me all the time, how do you even sleep at night? I’m like, cause my staff is great they understand the importance of what they do. They don’t take it lightly. Now I’m sure I’ve instilled that in them. That’s why they understand it. But yeah, I would have so few, knock on wood here, emergencies, and now my dogs are barking.
– Well, again, the key is you’re at a level you’re comfortable with that level. You have a life, you’re a staff. Your people that work with you have a life. It works for everybody. Could you break through that? Yeah. What would it take more people, more headaches, more whatever. And then maybe you wouldn’t be, you know, thinking about Jamaica and let’s just make it to Jamaica. And there we go there. So any last words of wisdom for people here thinking about growing their business and anything that you want them to, just don’t forget
– I love the fact that you focused on the why. And I think that’s extremely important. I think the biggest thing that I advise, especially single op DJs, but this probably is for anyone in the wedding industry, you have to shift your marketing focus. Once you go from just you to you plus somebody else. And, that starts with looking at your website, looking at your social media, it can no longer be all about you. And I think if you look at my website, eliteentertainment.com, and if you look at our social media, it’s not like you’re going to see a million pictures of Mike Walter and barely anything of anybody else. I love it when I get a great shot of Tom Monaco or a great video of Dominic Sestito or whatever because I don’t want Elite to, I don’t want the perception of Elite Entertainment to be it’s Mike Walter with a bunch of other DJs. So that’s the biggest shift. And because if you’re a single op, your whole focus is selling you, you, you, and so immediately overnight, it needs to shift from just you to whatever your company brand is. And the individuals that work underneath that.
– Right which is why the company name is not Mike Walter entertainment.
– Exactly.
– And why my business name is actually Wedding Business Solutions. But my website is alanberg.com because I have chosen for it to be just me. It is me. And when you see me on stage, you’re looking for Alan, even though the business name, you know, the name of the podcast there. So with the expression that I gave to that guy that was trying to grow from, you know, two people to 250 events, I said, listen, I want to feed your family, not your ego.
– That’s well said.
– And I said, look if you’re trying to feed your ego, go for it. You know, you’re going to pass money from hand to hand to get those lower price DJs booked, right? Maybe a little bit will land in your lap, but you know, if it’s about feeding your ego, go for it. If it’s about feeding your family, let’s talk about profitability. Let’s try to make you more profitable where you are. Instead of that and that’s where you are now. And I’ve worked with you already before, but if I was consulting with you on how to keep doing 1200 events a year, but to have it be more profitable, we could look at ways to do that without doing more events, right? Figure out ways to do that. So, Mike, thank you so much. I’m going to put in the show notes. Any links that you want to give me for people to find you, ask any questions, to see more about what you do, look up how the heck did you get 2000 reviews on weddingwire at 5 star by doing a great job. That’s how they do that.
– Well. Not all. I’ve actually done an entire seminar, but doing a great job is step one. But similar to the point you just made about referrals. If you don’t ask for the review, you’re not going to get a lot of them and you just have to ask, you know?
– Yeah, exactly. That’s it.
– Yeah.
– Thank you so much for joining me, my friend, I will see you very soon in Chicago at a live event. Is that a thing?
– We get to shake hands. We’re actually going to be able to shake hands Alan.
– You’re vaccinated, right?
– I am, double vacs
– Okay.
– All right. So me too.
– That means we’re hugging.
– We’re hugging my friend.
– No shake
– We’re hug it out my friend
– We’ll hug it out, all right. See you soon.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected]. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
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