- Hi, I'm Jordan from Kettner Creative,
and in this video I wanna talk about
the five biggest mistakes that we see corporate DJs making.
Now, I work with a lot of different DJs.
I work at a lot of different events.
I probably see between two and five
different DJs on any given week.
I feel like I have my finger on the pulse
of what gets DJs hired, and what gets DJs fired.
So I put together this list
of five tips of common problems
that we hear clients complaining about
but they never communicate it to the DJ,
they just stop hiring you.
Number one is communication.
Now the client will hire the production company, us,
and they'll hire a DJ, you.
They'll often give us your email.
When we email you to ask what your need for your event,
please email us back.
Often times we email once, twice, three times,
and then we give up trying to find out
what your requirements are.
Now, if we know that there's a DJ at the event,
we'll always provide audio hookups.
We have a DJ kit, it has a DI box,
RCA, quarter inch, XLR,
everything that we need to get you physically hooked in,
'cause that's our job.
But what we don't know is do you need a monitor?
Do you need two monitors?
Events are super versatile,
do you need a sub right beside you?
What's your preference?
And then on the client's side,
sometimes you have green room requirements.
Do you need a green room?
Do you need snacks, do you need drinks?
All those things.
If you're a professional DJ,
which in my mind everybody's a professional
once you make one dollar.
If you're getting paid to work as a DJ,
there's no excuse not to have a one page PDF
saying what you're bringing, how you intend on plugging in,
and what you need from the client,
or the production company.
Do you need a power bar?
Whatever you need needs to be on that document
and communicated before the event.
Often times it happens a lot,
we're already set up, the DJ's running behind,
and then they will text the client
when they're late and say,
"Hey is there a monitor for me?"
At that point there's nothing the production company can do.
We didn't know about the requirement,
and we don't have time to go
get you what you're looking for.
So that is already shipped.
If you want something like that,
it just needs to be communicated ahead of time.
Point two, don't be late.
The timelines on corporate gigs are quite tight.
Often times, the production company'll get there,
eight or 10 A.M., everything'll be set up by four,
there'll be a break, and the DJ's supposed to sound check
at five, and guests are in the room at six.
If you miss your soundcheck at five,
say you get there at 5:20 instead of five,
and it takes 15 minutes for us to meet you,
get you hooked up on the table,
get your power, all that sorted out,
for you to start up your laptop,
for you to connect all your equipment.
Now it's 5:35, we get one quick soundcheck, now it's 5:40.
Now what the client often doesn't communicate,
is if the doors are at six they expect music at 5:45.
And that's probably their fault
for not communicating that to you,
but it's probably your fault because you're late
and you didn't give yourself any wiggle room.
Now, that gives you five minutes to go get changed,
get food, whatever you're trying to do.
Often times you're coming from a day job,
so there's a whole bunch of things on your list.
You gotta catch up on texts, whatever you're doing,
but you only have five minutes now
because you were 20 minutes late.
Those windows are so tight on corporate gigs,
that you really can't afford to be late.
And if you're late once, in the corporate world
that's it, you're done.
I've seen these lists of DJs that corporate clients have.
They literally have a spreadsheet.
They have a spreadsheet for production companies,
one, two, three.
They have a spreadsheet
for catering companies, one, two, three, four.
They have a spreadsheet for DJs,
usually five or six deep.
The second somebody shows up late, name deleted.
You will never get called back again.
And especially the clients that do multiple
events a month, that is a huge chuck of revenue
just because you weren't on time.
That's fundamental.
Number three, don't be distracted.
Now, I understand the need for self promotion.
I make videos all the time.
But you can't let that distract
from what your actual job is.
As a DJ, your office is the event.
I get it, you have to take photos there,
you have to get all your marketing in
so you can use it on Instagram later, whatever you're doing.
I get what you're trying to do.
But probably once a week, for sure once or twice a month,
we see a DJ taking a selfie in the booth and the song drops.
They miss their transition from song A to B.
That's the one job, fundamentally that is what you're there
to do is to provide the smooth music throughout the event.
If you can't do that because you're too busy on Instagram,
then you're off the list again.
The client won't even say anything.
Every time we've seen it, the client looks at us,
we're like, we shrug 'cause we don't know why
your equipment stopped working.
But it was just because you were distracted, and that's it.
They won't even say anything, you're done,
you're off the list.
I have no horse in this race, I'm just the messenger here,
I'm telling you how DJs get fired,
and they don't stand a chance if you miss
the transition on the song.
Number four, energy level.
You can be a great DJ, you could have the perfect playlist
that's creative, and your best transitions
and all that, that suit the event,
you're doin' a great job as the DJ.
But if you look like you're bored,
if you look like you're driving home,
in your car or sitting on a bus,
you're absorbing energy from the room.
Now, people have two different types of energy levels.
You give energy, or you take energy.
You're never in the middle.
As a DJ, it's your job to give energy.
That's why you're there.
At the end of the day, yes you play music,
but you're hired to provide energy.
If you don't love what you're doing,
then you should probably stop doing it.
Otherwise clients'll fire you and they'll stop you
from doing it themselves.
Five, you need to know your equipment,
and don't test new things, new pieces of equipment,
or new software updates at events.
This was really big a couple years ago
with the Catalina update on MacBooks.
It nuked a lot of DJ's libraries,
and how it connected to the DJ software,
and people weren't finding that out
until they were at the event.
They'd do their software update at home,
close the lid, put it in their backpack,
show up at the event, and their libraries
weren't hooking up properly.
That needs to be ironed out before you get there.
One DJ just recently, his hardware was so bad
that we pulled him.
It kept cutting out, so I just had to put on my phone,
put on a Spotify playlist and he finished out
the last 20 minutes of his set fake DJing.
These things happen, and word gets out.
If something like this happens once,
that story gets told about you forever.
All techs do is talk.
For the next three weeks all I did
was man you would not believe DJ so and so,
this was happening, he was late,
he was this, he was distracted,
the song dropped when he was taking a phone.
Those stories get told about you forever.
There's no way that you can take it back.
Unless you try and make amends,
so you need to be self aware if you screw up,
just explain, "Man I screwed up, that never happens to me."
I mean there's not a lot you can explain
if you're takin' a selfie of yourself and the song drops,
that's 100%, in my mind that's like an unforgivable mistake,
especially when you're at a high end brand,
or a luxury event.
Back to point one, communication can help.
If you make a mistake and all that,
people aren't super strict,
people like to work with people.
But these are five tips that we see DJs
getting fired for on a regular basis.
They get cut off these lists
and they don't get to play as much
because of them, they don't get to work as much.
Hopefully this list is helpful,
if there's anything that you think I missed
please comment in the comment section below.
Again, please don't hate me.
I'm the messenger here,
I'm just trying to inform you what I see.
I don't hire or fire DJs,
I'm letting you know that a lot of these conversations
happen and you don't even realize it.
We see clients after the fact,
everything's all done, we're pushing boxes in the truck
and they're just hate the DJ.
It's bad, so here's five tips to help you keep your job.