From DJ to Multi-Business Owner: Strategies for Creative Entrepreneurs with Sir J
Episode Summary:
Welcome back to another episode of "Minding My Creative Business," the top podcast where creative entrepreneurs come to get real-world strategies, structure, and self-development tips for building businesses that last.
In today’s episode, hosts ShySpeaks and Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr. are joined by the multi-talented Sir J—a creative at heart, entrepreneur, and owner of not one, not two, but three thriving companies. From humble beginnings as "Sergey the DJ," Sir J takes us through his journey of scaling a freelance gig into a six-figure business, building value through smart add-ons, and ultimately making the leap to true entrepreneurship by launching separate entities and acquiring new brands. We’ll get the inside scoop on how Sir J turned music, events, and signage into a network of interconnected businesses, all while balancing faith, family, and the ever-present drive to help others level up.
You’ll hear essential lessons about moving from freelancer to business owner, the power of mentorship and networking, and the behind-the-scenes realities of legal hurdles, acquisitions, and building sustainable systems. Whether you’re a DJ, an artist, or just someone looking to monetize your creative skill set, this episode is packed with actionable insights—and a whole lot of inspiration.
So, lean in, get ready to take notes, and discover how intention, consistency, and laser focus can help you mind your creative business!
Timestamped overview
00:00 Creative Entrepreneur Spotlight
03:42 Balancing Family, Business, and Goals
09:21 "Expanding DJ Business with Add-Ons"
11:35 Increasing DJ Revenue Strategically
13:24 DJ Services Business Expansion
18:59 "Creative Shift: Freelance to Entrepreneur"
22:21 "Empowering Success Through Goal-Setting"
26:02 Collaborative Creativity and Impact
29:32 Trademark Conflict Challenges Business Name
30:47 Mentorship Beyond Technical Skills
33:43 "Understanding DFW360 Service Activation"
37:26 Monthly NACE Meetings and Networking
41:57 Rapid Fire Creative Business Tips
45:30 "Capital Access for Business Growth"
48:19 Negotiation Insight: ESPN Deal Experience
50:32 CRM Importance and Industry Specificity
53:28 Opportunities for DJs and Creatives
Key topics and bullets
1. Introduction of the Podcast & Guest
- Welcome and overview of the podcast’s focus (strategy, structure, self-development for creators)
- Introduction of Sir J as the episode’s guest
- Sir J’s personal introduction (faith, family, creativity)
- Establishing Sir J’s credibility (owns three companies, six-figure entrepreneur)
2. Foundations of Sir J’s Business Journey
- Brief background of Sir J’s beginnings as a DJ
- University background and entry into DJing
- Transition from freelance DJ to establishing an LLC
- Comparing income: teaching vs. DJing and decision to go full-time entrepreneur
3. Scaling Up as a Creative Entrepreneur
- Identifying value-adding opportunities within the business
- From $800 gigs to $1,600+ via add-ons (lighting, monograms, photo booths)
- Importance of investment in quality equipment
- Transition from freelancer to business owner
- Creating systems and entities (not just working a job)
- Building a separate photo booth company (DFW360 booth) as standalone
4. Mentorship, Networking, and Community Building
- Role of mentorship in Sir J’s growth
- Key mentor figures (e.g., DJ Bowtie, DJ Tagman)
- The importance of networking and collaborating
- Leveraging industry connections for learning and opportunities
- Membership and leadership roles in professional associations (e.g. NACE)
5. Systematizing and Growing the Business
- Building systems to allow the company to operate independently
- Hiring and training contractors for events
- Developing team members and supporting their career goals
- Empowering employees and fostering loyalty
- Example: nurturing a librarian’s photography aspirations
6. Mindset, Contentment, and Counting the Cost
- Reflection on growth stages and “counting the cost” of scaling up
- Balancing ambition with family and life goals
- Contentment with current level while open to future growth
7. Product & Service Diversification
- Creation of new service offerings
- Launching DFW360 booths (photo/video booth business)
- Expansion to other event services (signage, activations)
- Developing and branding multiple businesses under a holding company
8. Coaching, Education, and Giving Back
- Desire and approach to coaching and sharing knowledge
- Developing digital courses and content for industry peers
- “Community over competition” philosophy
- Mentoring within and beyond the industry
9. Business Structure & Back Office Essentials
- The importance of legal and financial structure
- Formation of LLCs, securing domains, trademarks
- Responding to legal claims and the value of having counsel
- Necessity of back-office tools and advisors
- The critical roles of CPA, lawyer, financial advisor, CRM
10. Acquisition as a Growth Strategy
- Sir J’s first acquisition (DFW Neon)
- Opportunity arising from industry network
- Seller’s motivation and the synergy between businesses
- Learning from previous attempts/acquisition negotiations (profit & loss reviews)
11. Access to Capital and Funding
- Discussing sources of capital for business growth
- Business credit, grants, and capital management
- Importance of building business credit
12. Pricing and Profitability Strategies
- Evolution of pricing across different business lines
- DJ pricing scale (from hundreds to over $3,000 per event)
- Photo booth pricing and margin targets
- Calculating costs and desired profit margins (aiming for 55%)
13. Self-Development and Industry-Specific Skills
- Developing skills for new verticals (e.g., event activations)
- Learning through doing, research, and networking
- Exposure to new business opportunities via trade shows
14. Serving Clients and Impact-Oriented Business
- Emphasis on serving clients and team impact over just income
- Business as a vehicle for serving and uplifting others
- “Leave a thumbprint on as many people as possible”
15. Podcast Closing Remarks
- Hosts’ reflections and gratitude to Sir J
- Takeaways for creative entrepreneurs (mindset, business structure, scaling, mentorship)
- Inviting listeners to join the Creative Corner community and newsletter
- Call to action: like, subscribe, and repeat podcast mantra
Links & Resources:
- [Business Funding](https://www.creditsavnt.com) - Get your creative business funded through Credit Savant.
- [Creativepreneur Gear](https://www.whatstheirony.com) - Get your creative entrepreneur apparel from What's the Irony.
Closing Remarks: Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Minding My Creative Business Podcast! We hope you found valuable insights and strategies to apply to your own creative journey. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, follow, share, and review our podcast. Stay tuned for more enriching discussions and expert advice in our upcoming episodes. Keep creating and stay inspired!
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ABOUT US We’re Ron & ShySpeaks, two music industry creators marching to the tune of entrepreneurship. Our goal is to help our creative peers keep in step by taking them behind the brands of some of wildly successful creative entrepreneurs. Our interview-styled podcast gives access to the strategy and structure that turn creative arts into viable 6, 7, and even 8 figure business!
Transcript
Introduce myself as a man who loves God first, loves his wife second, loves two beautiful daughters third.
Speaker A:I'm a creative at heart.
Speaker A:Love to just find new things, specifically things that people don't see every day.
Speaker B:You own three companies, right?
Speaker B:Would you say that at this point you are already at six figures?
Speaker A:I was a schoolteacher and I'm looking at my second born.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Coming into the world.
Speaker A:We're in the hospital and I'm like, this is what I made as a DJ this year and this is what I made as a teacher this year.
Speaker A:I got a decision to make.
Speaker A:You know, I want to have peace of mind when we go out.
Speaker B:A lot of creative entrepreneurs need to go from freelancer to entrepreneur owning an actual system.
Speaker B:And the best way to do that is to create another entity.
Speaker C:Welcome, welcome, welcome to the mind of my creative business podcast.
Speaker C:The number one podcast for creators to learn strategy, structure and self development.
Speaker C:I am your co host, Ron ironically.
Speaker B:Jr. And I am your co host, Shy Speaks.
Speaker B:And you are in for a treat on this particular episode because y' all know I always say it, but this is about to be fire.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:Because this creative medium that we're going into, this format that we're talking about, this creative entrepreneur is spanning like Music, DJ, 360 Booth, Event World, a signage, like, listen, I'm telling y', all, lean in.
Speaker B:Introducing none other than my buddy, Sir J. Y' all clap it up for him.
Speaker B:Appreciate that, Sergey.
Speaker C:Yes, welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker C:So, Mr. Sergey, that's how we would introduce you, right?
Speaker C:How would you introduce yourself?
Speaker A:Man?
Speaker A:I'll introduce myself as a man who loves God.
Speaker A:First, loves his wife, second, loves two beautiful daughters.
Speaker A:Third, I'm a creative at heart.
Speaker A:Love to just find new things, specifically things that people don't see every day and figure out how to get it out to them and then use that process of getting cool things to people to help other people do the same thing.
Speaker B:You just want to create things, be cool, help cool people.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker A:That's it, right?
Speaker B:I love that too.
Speaker B:Love God, love his wife, his kids, beautiful kids.
Speaker B:That's beautiful.
Speaker B:And he didn't say anything about like owning these companies.
Speaker B:Cuz some people can't wait to say that they the CEO of you know or you know, so.
Speaker B:But he's a CEO.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Talk about it too.
Speaker C:No, I doing some big things.
Speaker C:Big things.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, we have fun.
Speaker B:Let me say, let me say he probably like CEO count.
Speaker B:Sounds serious.
Speaker B:Let's say he's the owner of three.
Speaker B:Not one, not two, but three companies.
Speaker B:So you didn't mention that in, in your, in your lead in.
Speaker B:But we have to let you guys know.
Speaker B:So I want to go through your story from company number one to company number two to company number three, and how they all tie in together.
Speaker B:These are not like different worlds, so to speak, but they all have their own, they all have, have their own space.
Speaker B:And the reason why I want to go that way is because it's like a foundation was laid and then of course, you build up on it.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so let's, like, let's get in.
Speaker B:You ready to go?
Speaker A:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker B:All right, so before we, before we start the first company, you own three companies, right?
Speaker B:Would you say that at this point you are already at six figures?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So that.
Speaker B:I just wanted to get that out there.
Speaker B:So we know we listening because we talking to a six figure business owner right here.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Are we headed towards seven?
Speaker B:Are we, Are we at seven?
Speaker B:Come on, let's listen.
Speaker A:No, I'm not at seven.
Speaker A:Okay, okay, seven.
Speaker A:While it's not necessarily it's difficult to achieve seven figures, it's not as difficult as most people might think.
Speaker A:I think more importantly, reaching seven figures just brings about a different level of responsibility of the earner.
Speaker A:And I'm sure we'll talk a lot about that.
Speaker A:You know, structure, right.
Speaker A:Strategy, all those things.
Speaker A:So mindset.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:No, we're not there yet.
Speaker A:I think it's weird to say, praise God, we're not, but I feel like to whom much, just giving, much is required.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:I think if I were there right now, it'd be crazy.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'd be experiencing much more fire than I experiencing now.
Speaker B:And you say, praise God, I'm not.
Speaker B:I love that because it's different phases and stages.
Speaker B:So right now you have little kids.
Speaker B:So you.
Speaker B:I heard, I think it was like.
Speaker B:Was it.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:I don't want to say his name.
Speaker B:I think it was David Shands or one of those other type of like business expert type of persons.
Speaker B:But they talked about how they don't want to go to a billion, for example.
Speaker B:I don't want to be a billionaire because to be a billionaire it could happen, but I'd have to like, the energy and time and effort that I'd have to focus on building business and getting to that level would take away from like what I'm doing as a husband, what I'm doing as a father, and maybe even some of my own spiritual goals.
Speaker B:Like he has some spiritual practices that he wants to Stay true to.
Speaker B:And that would for, for him, not for somebody else.
Speaker B:They may be able to do all that, but for him to get there, it would, it would cause him to have to lean from those buckets.
Speaker B:And he's like, I don't, I don't want to do that.
Speaker B:At this particular point in time, I don't know if I'll ever want to do that.
Speaker B:And then I can say, like, it's, it's a whole nother level of responsibility, I'm sure.
Speaker B:Not sure that I want to have for my own mental clarity in space.
Speaker B:So I love that you said that.
Speaker C:Counting the cost.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:And that's, I think a lot of times, you know, people don't count the cost.
Speaker C:So it sounds like you're at a place where it's like, no, I'm counting the cost.
Speaker C:Not saying that I may not get there, but at this moment, yeah, I.
Speaker A:Think in addition to accounting the cost, I think there's a level of contentment that you have to understand for yourself and especially when you have a family, understand what that looks like for your family too.
Speaker A:And for me, coming up the way I did and not having much where I'm at now, I feel very much contented.
Speaker A:Like, all right, if this was the ceiling, I'm straight, so I'm not necessarily feeling a sense of I have to get to a million dollars, but I have to get to.
Speaker A:It's more.
Speaker A:So I guess, speaking to mindset, more.
Speaker A:So what are we gonna do with what we have in the now and what we're projected to have in the near future?
Speaker A:You know, I like that.
Speaker B:Stewardship.
Speaker B:Look at him.
Speaker A:There we go.
Speaker A:That's a word.
Speaker B:I say that because I've actually known this current business owner since he was a.
Speaker B:Since he was a young boy, you know, so 16.
Speaker B:16.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Like, wow.
Speaker B:I look the same, though.
Speaker B:Don't.
Speaker B:Intelligent.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay, let's get.
Speaker A:That's a Snapple cat fact.
Speaker B:So, okay, so let's, let's hop in.
Speaker B:So we.
Speaker B:Most people know you as Sergey dj.
Speaker B:Right now you're Sergey the multiple, multiple business owner.
Speaker B:And that the, the, the business ownership have come in the past five to six years in a different way.
Speaker B:But at first, the foundation was Sergey the dj.
Speaker B:And so the reason why I want to talk to you specifically, we haven't had any other DJs on here because we try to make sure we're exposing people to, you know, creative entrepreneurs, to people who are basically business bonded and they're operating their creativity as a business.
Speaker B:And that's one thing I can say about you.
Speaker B:At some point you were freelance dj, and then you were like, he, he was like, okay, I need to turn this into like a actual company.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And so that's when it became.
Speaker B:What is it?
Speaker B:What's the.
Speaker B:What's the company behind sergeant Is it, Is it Sergey the dj?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Yeah, great question.
Speaker A:So I own a holdings company called your Turn Entertainment that actually umbrellas over all the other businesses, all the other ventures.
Speaker A:My wife and I also own some real estate.
Speaker A:And then the companies DFW360 booths and DFW Neon are all underneath the holdings company.
Speaker A:But the original brand was Sergey the dj.
Speaker A:That literally was just.
Speaker A:I started in college.
Speaker A:I went to University of North Texas, majored in radio, television and film production.
Speaker A:And I was working at an apartment complex at the time.
Speaker A:And one of my co workers, we did like a car washing event for all of our tenants bring their cars down.
Speaker A:One of my co workers brought his board out and I was like, that's kind of hard.
Speaker A:I've been a music person.
Speaker A:One of the funniest conversations on music has actually been between me and Shy because I was talking about never owning a secular music CD or something like that in my life.
Speaker A:And you were like, hold on to that.
Speaker A:But I was always at that time, the kid burning CDs for people.
Speaker A:You know, Sergey, what's this song?
Speaker A:Especially in the Christian hip hop scene or whatever.
Speaker A:Like, I was very much immersed in that since I was like a kid.
Speaker A:So music has always been a part of me.
Speaker A:And so I saw that board that my co worker was using.
Speaker A:I asked him about it, ended up blowing some refund money on it.
Speaker A:Went to guitar center, went crazy and was just doing like church events.
Speaker A:And all my friends at the time were young adults getting married.
Speaker A:So I would do their weddings.
Speaker A:Graduated school.
Speaker A:And then it was kind of like I'm doing it on weekends when I'm free or whatever.
Speaker A:I still have like my daytime jobs.
Speaker A:And eventually it got to a point to where I earned up to a decision at that point.
Speaker A:I was a school teacher and I'm looking at my first, my second, second born.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Coming into the world, we're in the hospital and I'm like, this is what I made as a DJ this year.
Speaker A:And this is what I made as a teacher this year.
Speaker A:I got a decision to make.
Speaker A:You know, they're close enough to where it's like, but one gotta go.
Speaker A:I'm also coming up on 30.
Speaker A:I think I was 27, 28, and I had always said that when I'm 30, I'm gonna have to make a decision.
Speaker A:This is either gotta go or it's gotta go.
Speaker A:And I made a decision to go quit my job.
Speaker A:I was on paternity leave and told him, hey, I'm not coming back.
Speaker A:Just jumped full fledged and started with the DJ company.
Speaker A:For my birthday the following year, I bought a 360 booth.
Speaker A:That's just like an add on to what I was doing as a DJ.
Speaker A:I committed to only DJing weddings because I felt like that was a great way to be a part of people's special day.
Speaker A:And while I was doing that, I noticed I Learned from other DJs that like add ons, lighting up lights, monograms, those kind of things kind of helped you add to your business.
Speaker A:At the time, I might have been charging $800 for a wedding, but how do I get that $800 to $1,600 where I can do this lighting and this monogram and this photo booth?
Speaker A:So bought a photo booth, bought a 360 booth.
Speaker A:And I'm looking at that and I'm like, Covid hit.
Speaker A:I have a little more time to sit at the crib and like strategize.
Speaker A:Oh, all these companies exist in the wedding entertainment field and they all converge, all these services, right?
Speaker A:And so One Stop Shop is cool, but at this point, I'm looking at how do I build something that I could one day hand down if needed or get rid of it if needed.
Speaker A:I'm never going to get rid of DJing.
Speaker A:I'm always going to want to DJ.
Speaker A:But if I start a photo booth company that's separate from the DJ company, then I'll have the ability to either sell that off and hand down the proceeds to my children if I want to, or, you know, whatever.
Speaker A:And so I started a separate entity.
Speaker A: boost from there in: Speaker C:Go ahead.
Speaker B:So here we go.
Speaker B:So he, he says, I was trying to increase the value.
Speaker B:So I have Sergey.
Speaker B:DJ was not just freelance.
Speaker B:And at some point that became a llc.
Speaker B:This is the actual DJ company.
Speaker B:And then it's like, okay, I need to.
Speaker B:Most people, when we have them on here, we.
Speaker B:When they get married or they had them kids, they start figuring out, okay, how can I make.
Speaker C:That's it, that's it.
Speaker B:One part that he's not saying.
Speaker B:I remember being on the phone with you one day.
Speaker B:We were talking, you were like, before you bought the.
Speaker B:You like, man, I just spent.
Speaker B:No, you said, I just Spent some money on the booth.
Speaker B:I don't know if you remember that.
Speaker B:Yeah, you was like, it was crazy too.
Speaker B:He was like, whew.
Speaker B:But I think it's gonna work because he was explaining to me how if you, like you said, be a one stop shop dj, like that's one thing.
Speaker B:But everything is wrapped around Sergey the dj.
Speaker B:How can I take one of these?
Speaker B:And it's its own separate company.
Speaker B:And he made that.
Speaker B:You had something you want to say.
Speaker B:But I know, because I know.
Speaker C:No, you already know how good.
Speaker C:But no, it's that level of self awareness, right.
Speaker C:Where he was like, okay, if I'm only bringing in 800 per gig as a DJ, he's like, what is it that I can now add on or upsell to where I can still do the same amount of work, but now I'm able to increase my revenue?
Speaker C:Right, and that was just for you?
Speaker C:Was that something just that was internal for you or like I said, was those outside conversations that you were having.
Speaker C:And I always ask that because sometimes, yeah, sometimes we have those aha moments where it's like, okay, I was just in my head figuring it out.
Speaker C:But then sometimes we're surrounded by people or we have mentors or somebody that, you know, offers a suggestion and then a light bulb goes off.
Speaker C:So for you, how did that happen?
Speaker A:Most definitely.
Speaker A:So I can't take credit for all the ideas.
Speaker A:I've had mentorship since I was a kid.
Speaker A:But as it related to business, I'm just really big on networking.
Speaker A:So I have to shout out a guy named Demarcus Latcher, AKA DJ Bowtie.
Speaker A:He's the goat to me.
Speaker A:Like, he sat me, he agreed off of a random DM for me to just like go sit down and have coffee.
Speaker A:And he just gave me the game, which is unheard of in a lot of industries.
Speaker A:Hey, let me, you know, sit down with my competitor and show them how to do it.
Speaker A:But, you know, he was cool enough to sit down and show me where at the time, I had literally nothing between him and another gentleman who took me to my first bridal show expo.
Speaker A:His name is Ray Canty, AKA DJ Tagman.
Speaker A:He was looking to actually build his business out and have DJs work underneath him.
Speaker A:And he was our wedding DJ.
Speaker A:And so I was at that point, again, we just got married, hadn't had our first kid yet, but I was actually thinking about quitting DJing when we got married.
Speaker A:And he's like, nah, come with me.
Speaker A:So Ray, at that bridal show is where I First saw, these are the additional add ons, the things that he sells outside of just, hey, I'm a dope DJ and I can make these blends and cuts and scratches work.
Speaker A:I can also provide this love letter sign or you know, monograms, blah blah blah blah.
Speaker A:And so I learned a little bit from him working with him.
Speaker A:And then DJ Bowtie, he kind of.
Speaker A:Cause he's a really dope dj.
Speaker A:He kind of sat me down and showed me like this is how I price all these things.
Speaker A:And so from building out the DJ wedding, DJ side of things, I credit those two for like giving me those ideas of like how to build that out on the DFW360 booth side.
Speaker A:Like, you know, turning that into a separate entity.
Speaker A:That was just like a wild like creative idea.
Speaker A:The conversation we were having, I was like, ah, I spend all this.
Speaker A:I spent 10 bands on a 360 booth.
Speaker A:And it was wild because it was.
Speaker A:If I do it, I want to have the best equipment.
Speaker A:Like I don't want to get out here and play around with people.
Speaker A:I'm not buying any.
Speaker A:I didn't even know what Alibaba was at the time.
Speaker A:I'm not Amazon in anything.
Speaker A:Like I want to have peace of mind when we go out.
Speaker A:And so I bought the first booth.
Speaker A:It was 10 grand.
Speaker A:But I had a little bit of a background in like videography.
Speaker A:I went to school for production.
Speaker A:And so when I first saw a 360 booth had a phone on it and I was like, okay.
Speaker A:And then I don't think I ever saw a GoPro after that.
Speaker A:But some people have GoPros too.
Speaker A:And I'm like, why not put a. A7SIII on there, shoot this 4K120 and do that right now.
Speaker A:Crazy idea because now I'm editing these large files for people at their weddings.
Speaker A:I'm, you know, I'm going crazy, right?
Speaker A:But again, Covid hit.
Speaker A:I have a little time.
Speaker A:I can do this little social distance wedding, do this video, you know, 30 captures or whatever, edit it and go crazy on social media too.
Speaker A:Cause I have the time.
Speaker A:And so that's kind of where the idea of the light bulb, as you put it, went off on DFW360 boost.
Speaker A:More.
Speaker A:More so than like the surgeon, the DJ.
Speaker A:So I can't, I can't credit all my like, you know, I guess blow up shua on the DJ side.
Speaker A:Some of my stuff that wasn't entirely my idea.
Speaker B:I think like first of all, like when it comes to, to Strategy, like you said, first of all, how can people want to figure out how they can make more?
Speaker B:And sometimes making more is not doing more.
Speaker B:And so Sergey being a DJ and me knowing him for many years, he.
Speaker B:He used to, like, help me sometimes.
Speaker B:He would come DJ with me when.
Speaker B:As an artist and then.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:But it, like, that may be on a Friday night or they may be on a Saturday.
Speaker B:And he realized, like, I already had.
Speaker B:I had other DJs that I could call, but he was like, sis, you're gonna probably have to call them because I'm gonna have to say no to this, because I'm about to make money over here doing this, and I want to focus in this lane, and I want to actually be just a wedding dj.
Speaker B:So I think that's a.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That's one thing too.
Speaker B:You have to say no to something.
Speaker B:The second thing is so.
Speaker B:So he could have tried to just do more.
Speaker B:Like, oh, I just need to be working with more indie artists like her, and I'll just be doing more.
Speaker B:But at this point, pay rate, it'll take how many of these to make the money I'm trying to make.
Speaker B:So it's like.
Speaker B:Or I can focus over here because I'm already getting these gigs and I'm making more money here.
Speaker B:That's first about recognizing.
Speaker B:And I think people don't sit down and look at.
Speaker B:They don't mind their business in that way, saying, okay, If I'm making 200 over here, and then that.
Speaker B:That's going to top that time.
Speaker B:But if I say no and I can go do this wedding for 800, I just increase my income by 600 on a Friday night.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B: to: Speaker B:How can I be more value valuable?
Speaker B:How can the product.
Speaker B:How can I add more value to this product?
Speaker B:And so you weren't.
Speaker B:You didn't stay longer.
Speaker B:You didn't.
Speaker B:You know, it's the same amount of time I'm going to be there, but I'm offering more.
Speaker B:But that required him to have to invest in those things.
Speaker B:So he's like, I can just add up.
Speaker B:Like, you didn't add up lighting.
Speaker B:You had to invest in the uplighting.
Speaker B:You have to pay for the uplighting.
Speaker B:You have to pay for all these different things.
Speaker B:I think a lot of times the.
Speaker B:The misnomer when it comes to, like, creatives, unlike any other industry, we think that we're just gonna, like, create our way into success.
Speaker B:And some people do that just like that.
Speaker B:That one level I'm just gonna scratch to the point where I'm like.
Speaker A:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker B:Like, you gonna scratch your way to like a million dollars, which maybe somebody did, but it's like.
Speaker B:Or I'm gonna be creative in a different way.
Speaker B: And so now I moved to the: Speaker B:So I think that was something that was worth pausing to talk about.
Speaker B:Saying no to certain things so that you know where the.
Speaker B:Where the main income is coming from so that you can actually have a niche and a focus and then.
Speaker B:Then increasing your value.
Speaker B:And then the last piece where we introduced the DFW360 company, deciding at that point that I'm going to not attach it to me having to be there.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:Because that's the thing too, how we're helping creative entrepreneurs.
Speaker B:We have to help them move from freelancer to entrepreneur.
Speaker B:Meaning that I don't own a job.
Speaker B:I own a system.
Speaker B:And so now I can own this company and I can create this360.
Speaker B:This is way we do it.
Speaker B:Whatever you said about F stop, some kind of camera, something that's a certain thing, what time we get there, what time we take it down, how much we charge at this point, moving it from being a wraparound service that's attached to you, the dj.
Speaker B:And so now it's its own entity.
Speaker B:You don't just own it as a job.
Speaker B:Like, this is my job.
Speaker B:I own it as a system.
Speaker B:And so it has its own system.
Speaker B:It has its own invoice, and it has its own book of business.
Speaker B:People that's reaching out for specifically that they may not need a DJ.
Speaker B:They may specifically just need a 360 booth.
Speaker B:And I don't have to be the person that go.
Speaker B:Go and operate it.
Speaker B:I just got to figure out what our system is and let somebody else go.
Speaker B:And I think we want to talk about that.
Speaker B:I feel like it's so important for us to do this mind in my creative business podcast, because a lot of creative entrepreneurs need to go from freelancer to entrepreneur, owning an actual system.
Speaker B:And the only.
Speaker B:The best way to do that is to create another entity that can operate outside of your hands doing it.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:But so you.
Speaker B:You started this.
Speaker B:Let me say this.
Speaker B:Before you started DFW 360, did you have some people like operating the booth kind of still up under the Sergey?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, I did.
Speaker A:So as Sergey, the dj, whenever I would book a package that included a photo booth or 360 booth, I actually brought on two people.
Speaker A:The first two were co workers of mine at the school I worked at.
Speaker A:So the school librarian who was an aspiring photographer, and then my dog, Dane, DJ Dame, he's been DJing as long as I have.
Speaker A:We both teach similar things.
Speaker A:Actually, he's just seventh and eighth grade.
Speaker A:I'm sixth grade.
Speaker A:And we chit chat.
Speaker A:I run in this room all the time for lunch.
Speaker A:And we talking about gigs over the past weekend, whoop da whoop.
Speaker A:And so I will bring them in to help me run the photo booth while I'm DJing, if they're free.
Speaker A:And again, in interest of all of my companies being there to serve those who are affiliated with it, she's now my assistant.
Speaker A:Her name's Marie, but she was actually my first photo.
Speaker A:She was a librarian.
Speaker A:She wanted to be a photographer.
Speaker A:So my wife and I, who's also a photographer, blessed her with her first camera and said, let's go.
Speaker A:That's the thing about interacting with us too, is like, hey, if you say it, it's go time.
Speaker A:Because now I'm gonna put it in your hands and we gonna see, you know.
Speaker A:And so my wife donated a lens.
Speaker A:I had an old 60D that I wasn't using anymore.
Speaker A:And I was like, hey, we put it in a bag.
Speaker A:I pulled up at school one day, was like, let's do it.
Speaker A:Also, photo booths have cameras.
Speaker A:All of ours have cameras in them.
Speaker A:So you'll learn your ISO, your f stop, your depth of field stuff, backdrops, yada, yada yada, lighting.
Speaker A:You'll learn that on site with me.
Speaker A:And so they became kind of like my first contractors through Sergey the dj.
Speaker A:Whenever I offer those packages, and then whenever I started DFW360 booths, they were like the first two teammates on board.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker C:No, I love that I'm hearing a lot of the similarities and just kind of your story as far as, you know, you.
Speaker C:You being in education.
Speaker C:No, I'm not directly a teacher, but just one working with young people and whatnot.
Speaker C:I'm hearing that.
Speaker C:And then just the being mentored, but then also mentoring as well.
Speaker C:So that's real big.
Speaker C:No, my mind's all over the place.
Speaker C:Because I'm like, I'm loving hearing that, right?
Speaker C:Where it's like.
Speaker C:Cause you're investing in them personally as well as professionally, right?
Speaker C:So now you're setting this young lady up, She's a librarian, right?
Speaker C:But she has this desire and this passion to be a photographer.
Speaker C:So it's like, well, hey, come help and support me, right?
Speaker C:So now I'm getting an asset, right?
Speaker C:That I can utilize.
Speaker C:But also she's developing skill sets that now she's developing and can grow and do other things outside of you.
Speaker C:But because you've invested in her, there's some loyalty there as well.
Speaker C:To where now she comes on another capacity, I. E. Shout out to our, you know, our production manager over there, Shaquille, where it's like the same thing, like I bought him his first camera.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker C:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker C:So it's like, no, this, this is, this is, this is dope.
Speaker A:I think to add to what you were saying about understanding where you are financially and knowing what the next step would be to build business.
Speaker A:The foundation of everything, not just in business, but in life in general, is like, God, put it on my heart to be.
Speaker A:To have a thumbprint on as many people's success as possible.
Speaker A:And that like, that like, pushes every mission forward.
Speaker A:And so anybody that's affiliated with us, like I make every teammate submit with their W9 a written list of goals, a one year, five year and a lifelong goal that we're going to assist in you accomplishing because that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker A:I honestly have found out the hard way, I guess, that money is out here to be made.
Speaker A:We can make money, you know, And I've seen my success doing it as a sole proprietor and making money and being like, oh, okay, guy, cool.
Speaker A:You know, that was nice, you know, but now being or feeling responsible to people and helping them become successful is like a different kind of motivator as opposed to just like a money driven business, you know?
Speaker A:Cause you look up and it's like, oh dang, we made all this money.
Speaker A:Now what if you don't have anything else to go with that?
Speaker A:And I feel like you, you just kind of stay on the train of making more money.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker C:So that leads me to this question.
Speaker C:Maybe you haven't thought about this, right?
Speaker C:Or maybe you have, but what I hear you saying is that's a, that's a passion of yours, helping other people.
Speaker C:So do you see yourself going into that coaching space to help others?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:And so, funny story, as it relates to the photo booth industry, I'm kind of seen as odd, I guess.
Speaker A:Like there's a going phrase, community over competition, right?
Speaker A:And a lot of people that say it don't necessarily mean it because it, you know, if that's the case, when you call them like DJ Bowtie, you know, when I called him and asked them, hey, what's your price?
Speaker A:And how are you doing this?
Speaker A:Then like they want to hide it, they want to, you know, keep it to themselves.
Speaker A:I'm an open book with it.
Speaker A:And that actually led me to be.
Speaker A:Someone advised me to start coaching.
Speaker A:It was Jean, the young lady who does social media for us.
Speaker A:She was like, you have so much like information.
Speaker A:Like we should just record this and put out a course.
Speaker A:So I've actually been doing on a course for like the last two years.
Speaker A:It's my mapped and all this other stuff.
Speaker A:We just never shot it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But I don't know if coaching directly like coming into your office and walking you hand in hand through what as much as just like creating that coursework or maybe just content that we release for free on our, you know, platform would be fine too, you know, But I think that's something I would love to do because that's just another step.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like I would, I would love to be known, if I'm being honest, on the 360 booth side of things, I would love to be known as like a figure or a voice in that industry, you know, because I think that's another way of helping people.
Speaker A:I can use that platform to show people how to, how to go about it.
Speaker C:And you don't necessarily got to do the, you know, walk in your office and do it personal.
Speaker C:I mean, are you familiar with Think Media?
Speaker A:No, no, no.
Speaker C:So yeah, look into thinking Media.
Speaker C:Their format.
Speaker C:Yeah, their format.
Speaker C:Because they do long form content on YouTube and then they also have digital courses and whatnot.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:That they do.
Speaker C:So you already have, you know, that digital creation space.
Speaker C:So that's definitely something you can lean into that I know you would add value.
Speaker C:And now you're creating revenue utilizing your skill set without you having to be hands on and it can be evergreen and this.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know the reason why we wanted to.
Speaker B:I wanted to invite you because I know, I was like, I know that you know a lot about creative based businesses.
Speaker B:To me, creative based businesses run a little bit different than the standard run of the mill, for sure.
Speaker B:Car, car lot, for example, or just something, you know, so there's a different nuance that's there.
Speaker B:And one of the things that I love that you're talking about with creative based business is that you're always inner working and interacting and collaborating with all these other creators, creatives.
Speaker B:How about I help propel them along the way into whatever it is that they're doing.
Speaker B:And I think that that needs to be a part of the creative industry, period.
Speaker B:So whatever it is that you do, if you're not doing any of these companies that we're talking about.
Speaker B:I want you to implement that, like leave a thumbprint on as many people as possible and helping them build, build upon wherever they're trying to go.
Speaker B:I actually love that about you.
Speaker B:I wanted people to hear from you because like I said, we talked about just going From Sergey to DJ to having the DFW 360, making a hefty investment and saying okay, but now I have to like make this money back.
Speaker B:And so then now that probably puts a fire up under you.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:But I know that there was another move that happened right where you went from.
Speaker B:Okay, I have Sergey and Vijay going and I got the wraparound services with it, created that value and now I have DFW 360.
Speaker B:But then we have this third business and we're going to talk about that DFW Neon.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Introducing the third.
Speaker B:The third business just walked in the room.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:So now before I go to that though, how we get to that?
Speaker B:One of the things that you saw earlier that really stuck out to me is that you said you always had mentors.
Speaker C:You want to know the one thing that's holding most creative entrepreneurs back?
Speaker C:It's not the talent, it's not even the vision, it's the lack of capital.
Speaker C:Every day I watch brilliant creatives miss life changing opportunities simply because they can't access business funding.
Speaker C:Traditional banks, they really don't understand creative business like that.
Speaker C:And most lenders, well, they don't care.
Speaker C:But guess what?
Speaker C:That ends today with the minding my creative business partnership with Credit Savant.
Speaker C:You can Access up to $150,000 in business credit.
Speaker A:You heard correct.
Speaker C:Up to $150,000 in business Credit.
Speaker C:They have 0% interest options with 30 plus funding programs designed for creatives just like you.
Speaker C:So what I need you to do is visit credit savant IO now, tell.
Speaker B:Them MMCB sent you, somebody is listening to you, hoping for a strategy for you to drop as a dj or how to get into this photo booth space or this event and wedding space.
Speaker B:But this real strategy is some get a mentor.
Speaker B:Some of y' all know facts.
Speaker B:Some of y' all need a mentor Facts.
Speaker A:I think even if it's not a business mentor, just having somebody to help you keep a cool head on it.
Speaker A:I'll give a very like small example.
Speaker A:On a personal level, I needed somebody to talk to when it came to dealing with my frustrations from things within the industry.
Speaker A:So when we started DFW360 booths, we started it around the time as someone else who named their company DFW360 Photo Booth.
Speaker A:And a lot has come from that actually.
Speaker A:I mean we can get into the structure and all of that stuff.
Speaker A:When I started, I was not playing.
Speaker A:I bought the domain, I got the Instagram, I got the domains of every other possible business name.
Speaker A:I got the LLC and did all the filings in multiple counties.
Speaker A:Like I was not playing.
Speaker A:I wanted even got to the point of applying for the trademark and found out that I can't own DFW360 boost but because 360 boost is owned and trademarked by a company in Florida.
Speaker A:So it's like you can operate with that name but if they come knocking, they shoot 360 videos of cars.
Speaker A:But if they come knocking and saying hey, you're impeding on our business, we can find it in court.
Speaker A:But for the most part it's like, hey, you gotta shift.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:But anyway, I know I don't own a trademark.
Speaker A:So when another company sends a cease and desist, I'm like, what from a lawyer?
Speaker A:And I was like actually really hard pressed and like, like upset about it for a little bit.
Speaker A:And more recently the owner of that company actually shows up to one of our events at Globe Life Field.
Speaker A:We're in the middle of the recent.
Speaker A:I don't know what it was, I wasn't there but one of my, one of my guys calls me.
Speaker A:It's like, hey, a lady is up here with her shirt on and saying like she has paperwork to shut us down and we need to get you.
Speaker A:So I'm frustrated by that, that stuff because it's like, man, you're impeding on our business.
Speaker A:It doesn't look good for any of us, honestly in a mentor, somebody to keep.
Speaker A:Help me keep a cool head.
Speaker A:You know, they don't understand anything about photo booths.
Speaker A:They don't care about f stopping in ISO.
Speaker A:Right, right about lighting any of that stuff.
Speaker A:But they care about me and they care about, you know, me understanding as a person and especially as a man, a guy, how to carry myself not to call that woman going crazy, you know, not to go and take unnecessary legal action and spend a bunch of money.
Speaker A:You know, mentors can kind of.
Speaker A:They're there to help you in that regard.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:So having them within the industry is great and I have to.
Speaker A:Having them outside of it is just as great in my opinion.
Speaker C:Now you didn't took me down somewhere else.
Speaker C:I want to know how did that.
Speaker C:I know, I want to know how you rectified that situation.
Speaker C:Cause that's big, right?
Speaker C:Because that's you talking about ip, right?
Speaker C:But yeah, we.
Speaker C:Yeah, I ain't gonna go on.
Speaker C:We have to talk about it.
Speaker A:It's a very quick answer.
Speaker A:It's not.
Speaker A:It's nothing to be rectified.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker A:My lawyer, when the cease and desist came, I.
Speaker A:Again, I'm in the middle of trying to trademark.
Speaker A:So I'm like, the initial contact was through dm, right?
Speaker A:So I'm like, I'm not even taking a dm, so I probably saw it months after it was even said.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:But then I just took a screenshot, sent it to my lawyer.
Speaker A:He said, ask for a registration number.
Speaker A:They couldn't provide it, of course, because it's already trademarked.
Speaker A:And so my lawyer advised, hey, don't give your money or attention to that.
Speaker A:That's not real.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker A:That's not something to be upset about.
Speaker A:Which also helped me in addition to the mentor store.
Speaker A:In my head, it was kind of like, hey, man, just go do your thing.
Speaker A:Continue to go help people, because you.
Speaker C:Already took care of everything to take care of.
Speaker C:And that's part of it.
Speaker C:Preparation is key.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:And having, Having the, Having a lawyer to tap things in.
Speaker B:We would talk about having structure.
Speaker B:Sometimes I want to talk about the back office of things, but that's a part of the back office too, is at least having somebody on hand that you can reach out to to handle things for you.
Speaker B:And so like you said, in this case, it's like there's really nothing to handle because sometimes people will make legal claims that they don't really have anything.
Speaker B:Yeah, there's no stand up on it, but I want to go off in it because I ain't know how.
Speaker A:It's not.
Speaker A:I'm not like, I'm not mingled with those people.
Speaker A:The closest interaction I've had was again, my guy a couple weeks ago.
Speaker A:You know, they bumped into him there and he did a great job of diffusing the situation.
Speaker A:He walked away from the activation.
Speaker A:We were.
Speaker A:We were managing.
Speaker A:He.
Speaker A:She walked off or whatnot.
Speaker A:And he called me and let me know, and that's it.
Speaker A:I'm not.
Speaker A:No restraining orders or anything.
Speaker A:I actually still wish them well.
Speaker A:Like, I think there's such thing as.
Speaker A:It's gonna have to be a such thing as us both existing.
Speaker A:And that's fine.
Speaker A:You know, there's a Dove soap and there's a Dove chocolate, and yeah, that's fine.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:Because I wanted to get.
Speaker B:So you talked about activation.
Speaker B:So you had to.
Speaker B:Now when you take on this new company, right, so you now have Sergeant D.J.
Speaker B:is wrapped around with you with the photo booths.
Speaker B:You have contractors, but now you actually have the DFW 360 rentals.
Speaker B:It has its own brand, it has its own name, it's his own entity, and it's its own world to a degree that's separate from.
Speaker B:From your world.
Speaker B:So you had to learn about that.
Speaker B:I want to ask you a self development question.
Speaker B:How did you get your mind wrapped around how to do an activation or how to offer some kind of service to people that's, you know, general or custom?
Speaker B:Like, how did you learn that?
Speaker B:Now I know how you was exposed to it because earlier you said you.
Speaker B:You went with somebody to like a wedding trade show.
Speaker B:And that's a strategy too, for people.
Speaker B:I would encourage people to go, oh, yeah.
Speaker B:Position yourself in areas.
Speaker B:So that's that.
Speaker B:If you didn't get it winded back, we're moving forward.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:How did you.
Speaker B:Because you had to develop like a whole nother skill set to run this side of things.
Speaker B:What was that like for you?
Speaker A:So as it relates to activation specifically, that idea was coupled with an inquiring client and my creative madness.
Speaker A:They had reached out to us from Atlanta and they were like, hey, we're coming in town to do our national convention for four days.
Speaker A:Have you ever done something like this before?
Speaker A:And it was a.
Speaker A:It was an activation from espn.
Speaker A:And I was like, no, but I. Yeah, yeah, right.
Speaker A:And so I literally was like, that's dope.
Speaker A:I got a better idea because the activation was actually not a 360 booth activation.
Speaker A:It was just like some trusting and ESPN signage all over it.
Speaker A:But I started reaching out to my connection points.
Speaker A:Which network?
Speaker A:This is the beauty of networking.
Speaker A:I can hop on.
Speaker A:I can literally just get on Facebook and be like, who y' all got?
Speaker A:And recommendations come my way.
Speaker A:But I'm also.
Speaker A:I can't believe I didn't mention this.
Speaker A:I'm the co director of membership for the national association of Catering Events and the Dallas Fort Worth chapter and within NACE and a few other guilds that I'm in, I have a great network, you know, to find something if I need it.
Speaker B:You weren't in those things.
Speaker B:So this.
Speaker A:Well, at that point, I was so.
Speaker A:Well, yeah.
Speaker B:I had to learn to get in this stuff.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker A:I started with one called the chic Network.
Speaker A:Very small, community focused, but great network within the industry.
Speaker A:And within that, I was able to Just like reach out and say, hey, who would you all recommend?
Speaker A:And someone recommended who is now our main manufacturer for a lot of our activations, recommended her for that company overseas.
Speaker A:And we knocked it out the park, got that activation.
Speaker A:We've done that event every year since.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's, that was a, that was the largest contract at the time too.
Speaker A:Five figures.
Speaker B:It was nice, a five figure deal, like a one day deal.
Speaker A:It was a four day, two days of operation, but it was a four day contract.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Set up and striking all that.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker C:No, so, so mentoring and networking is kind of what I'm hearing is like, okay, now you have that mentorship, but then it's also important to network.
Speaker C:And you can't network at the crib per se.
Speaker C:You got to go outside.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:You have to go to find what different events are going on within your industry.
Speaker C:And sometimes that's not an industry.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:There's some things that may make sense where this is complimentary to this industry.
Speaker C:So let me go and see.
Speaker C:So no, that's, that's, that's key.
Speaker C:That's huge.
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker B:Okay, so you started getting in networking groups and learning about it that way.
Speaker B:Did you like take any courses?
Speaker B:Did you get like mentors specifically in that space?
Speaker B:Like what did you do to learn everything?
Speaker A:The cool thing about the networks that I'm in is they are, they have educational meetings regularly.
Speaker A:And so let's just take naeps for an example.
Speaker A:They do, they meet on the first Wednesday of every month and they're educational meetings.
Speaker A:And then they also have happy hours in between.
Speaker A:So it's nothing but networking at those happy hours.
Speaker A:But at the educational meetings, there's a speaker that's flown in from wherever to talk about how to, you know, get your CPA or your affairs in order and why you should have a CPA or recently we had a meeting.
Speaker A:My guy Saludo, who's actually my trademark lawyer, he does life planning, estate planning.
Speaker A:So he came and talked about how that can be structured for entrepreneurs.
Speaker A:And so at those educational meetings you grab a lot and then while I'm there I'm chit chatting with people who do this and that.
Speaker A:I set up a coffee meeting on the side with them too, you know, and just kind of learn that way.
Speaker A:And also got my mentor shout out.
Speaker A:Lance Patton.
Speaker A:He's, you know, he's a great dj but just phenomenal guy.
Speaker A:He's like a human chat GPT.
Speaker A:He, he knows the words.
Speaker A:Yeah, I find to be like him.
Speaker A:So I met him in A networking deal and just asked him straight up, we be my mentor.
Speaker A:And so.
Speaker B:Okay, okay.
Speaker B:So we didn't get a chance.
Speaker B:We haven't talked about this acquisition.
Speaker B:And we have to talk about it because I called it at first I was just saying it's another company.
Speaker B:But what I didn't say is that this creative entrepreneur created two companies and then decided at some point with all this knowledge that he has to acquire another company.
Speaker B:Tell us about that.
Speaker A:Yeah, it came by way of a gentleman I met.
Speaker A:I call him a friend.
Speaker A:I met him through the networks as well.
Speaker A:But he.
Speaker A:We were doing lunch like we do every now and then, and he was like, hey, look, I'm gonna sell this.
Speaker A:I haven't told anybody, but I want you to have it.
Speaker A:And he told me the reason that that was the case is because he had been paying attention to my business in a way grew in the team that I have.
Speaker A:I got a photo booth company, neon signs go hand in hand at weddings, people, the Williams, the Spears, the whatever.
Speaker A:So he's like, I want you to buy this if, you know, think about it, pray on it.
Speaker A:I know what you're gonna do.
Speaker A:You're gonna pray and talk to your wife.
Speaker A:And I did that.
Speaker A:And I decided it'd be a great, you know, opportunity to acquire some.
Speaker A:I low key, had an aspiration to acquire a business.
Speaker A:And I also have always wanted to, like I mentioned before, sell a business, but I was, I guess I was kind of putting the cart before the horse and that I always thought about like selling something that I had built from the ground up.
Speaker A:Never thought about acquiring anything until the opportunity, you know, showed his face.
Speaker B:And so, so did you.
Speaker B:Now I'm gonna go, did you acquire a.
Speaker B:This is six figure figure business at the time, or is it something like, okay, it's bit a little low.
Speaker B:It's low five, like five figure.
Speaker B:But I feel like I can get it there, like for sure.
Speaker A:Five figure that I knew we could get to six figures.
Speaker A:We haven't gotten it gotten there yet.
Speaker A:It's still very much in the infancy stage.
Speaker A:I think another big.
Speaker A:What I know another big reason he got.
Speaker A:He sold to me is because he was so proud.
Speaker A:He was doing everything by himself.
Speaker A:And he was like, I want to.
Speaker A:He literally told me, I know I'll make more money because he still, he still hosts us my revenue share.
Speaker A:He's like, I know I'll make money selling this to you and maintaining a small percentage than I would trying to hold on to this myself.
Speaker A:And so he was like, because you've got a team and y' all can go out and do it, you know.
Speaker A:And so it again, still in infancy stages, but we made the acquisition happen and then, you know, now it being linked to all of our other brands underneath that your turn on umbrella.
Speaker A:I think we'll get into six figures pretty soon.
Speaker C:But that, and that speaks volumes to this you and kind of, you know, what you bring to the table.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:The fact that he said, I want to sell this to you.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:It's not that it's like I'm selling it and you know, it's like, no.
Speaker A:I want name in the hat.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's like, you know, so he saw I said, just your character and your work ethic and things like that over the years and seeing what you've done with your businesses.
Speaker C:So just, I mean this as a man, how did that make you feel?
Speaker A:Oh, made me feel great, you know, and it made me feel great to be tied to something that was well known.
Speaker A:While it may not necessarily have had great books and you know, made six figures and all of that, it was, it was a very well known brand, especially within our industry.
Speaker A:So that was great.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:All right, so we, we are like, it feels like we, we have so much to add and so what I'm about to do, and we're out almost out of time, but what I'm about to do do is take you through a rapid fire questionnaire.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So number.
Speaker B:So, okay.
Speaker B:Because I got to make sure that people get this juice before they go, before we out of here.
Speaker B:If someone is looking, they're a creative entrepreneur and they're in a space, you're in the event space, event industry, wedding events.
Speaker B:But maybe they're in a different industry, but they have an opportunity to acquire a different type of creative based business.
Speaker B:Now knowing what, you know, what's something that they need to have in place, like from a back office perspective, because that's a CPA hands down.
Speaker A:Gotta have a cpa.
Speaker A:You, you want to structure your business.
Speaker A:This wasn't the first acquisition I sat at the table for.
Speaker A:I sought to buy another photo booth company out once.
Speaker A:And when I sat with the owner, I asked him for a profit and loss statement and he couldn't produce it for me.
Speaker A:So the deal was off the table.
Speaker A:And then that was a six figure deal potentially, I'll be candid, it was a quarter million dollar deal and he couldn't produce a profit and loss statement for me.
Speaker A:And so he's like, I talked to my CPA once A year.
Speaker A:And that's, you know, without.
Speaker A:Without structure.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You're not really operating in good business.
Speaker A:So having a cpa, having a lawyer, having a financial advisor, and then having some access to capital as well.
Speaker B:Okay, Having some access to capital.
Speaker B:Now, we know you were making capital, some earned capital, but did you have some other capital that you were able to access, like visit business credit or some grants or some investors or what?
Speaker A:How.
Speaker B:What was the other capital?
Speaker A:You know, what's cool is I would love to get into grants more.
Speaker A:Literally.
Speaker A:My younger sister sends me a new link like every other week.
Speaker A:Like, you need to apply.
Speaker A:I'm like, I do not have time to apply for grants.
Speaker A:We've been, as they say, out of the mud for the majority of my tenure, you know, as an entrepreneur.
Speaker A:But we do have a little bit of capital from our bank.
Speaker A:It's not a crazy, you know, endowment or anything, but it's enough to.
Speaker A:If things get shaky with payroll, bless God, I've always been able to make payroll, but if stuff got a little shaky, we'll be fine.
Speaker A:I'm having that in the tuck has definitely been helpful, you know, but there are resources and products that are available, lines of credit.
Speaker A:If you got good business credit, which is something I'm also working on building just good business credit, especially when I was buying booths for $10,000, that would have been a perfect time to actually build it out.
Speaker A:I just didn't know at the time, hey, this is.
Speaker A:I'm just buying the cash and moving on.
Speaker B:Which is actually a perfect point for us to bring this up.
Speaker B:And that is the.
Speaker B:The sponsor of our podcast is a company called Credit Savant IO.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker C:Okay, okay.
Speaker B:Because of the thunder, I tried to, like, talk over it a little.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And that's the perfect time is where you started.
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker B:Make sure it's good.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And that's the perfect point for us to introduce this concept and this company that we've been talking about.
Speaker B:The sponsor of this podcast is Credit Savant Credit Savant IO is where you can go if you want to actually get access to funding, business credit.
Speaker B:It's actually a company that run and I own a part of as well.
Speaker B:And so we thought it was important to like, not just give people strategy and structure and self development tips, because some people have all of that, but what they need is money.
Speaker B:They just need funding any capital.
Speaker B:And like you just said.
Speaker B:And so what we decided is that, hey, we want to start offering that.
Speaker B:And so this company is sponsoring this podcast.
Speaker B:And if you're listening to this and you just heard what he said.
Speaker B:It's like, okay, I guess I need to get that capital because I can go spend 10,000, but I don't have the 10,000 capital like he has.
Speaker B:If I can get a business credit card for 20, I can go buy something for $10,000 and build my business credit from there.
Speaker B:Go to credit savant IO So I just had to.
Speaker B:That's a definitely not a shame.
Speaker C:Unsane.
Speaker C:Yeah, no, same.
Speaker A:Don't be afraid of credit either.
Speaker A:I think I've heard of companies, I have connections to certain companies that are hundreds of millions of dollars up and some hundreds of million dollars in debt.
Speaker A:And that's normal.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Couple of quick questions for you.
Speaker B:So what's your minimum?
Speaker B:We know where you started with DJing.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:What's your base package for DJing right now?
Speaker A: DJ, I'll start at: Speaker A:If I go, I'll.
Speaker A: Yeah, it'll be: Speaker A:It'll come with some uplighting and things like that.
Speaker A:But for me to do your wedding, it's gonna be 300.
Speaker A:3100.
Speaker A:I have a few associate DJs that work with me as well.
Speaker A: They'll start at: Speaker B:How many, how many DJing gigs would you say you do a month?
Speaker A:My sweet spot is literally one a month.
Speaker B:Oh, that's you.
Speaker A:Like, I don't want to do more than one.
Speaker A:Yeah, because you bring.
Speaker A:I have, yeah.
Speaker A:And I'm needed here, here and here.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:At my price point and you know, at the value that I know I'll bring to a wedding, one a month allows me to focus on bringing that value to the wedding.
Speaker A:It also gives me enough space to operate in all the other capacities I need to.
Speaker A:And then most importantly, it allows me to give business to my, to my teammates, my associate DJs.
Speaker A:They, they can go out and knock it out the park.
Speaker B:So, so me, I feel like we didn't get to talk about associate DJs.
Speaker B:We didn't talk about.
Speaker B:We did talk about pricing a little bit.
Speaker B:Okay, so with the DFW, the, the DFW360, what's the base, base package for that?
Speaker A:Our most popular package is a thousand dollars.
Speaker A:And it's a360 booth.
Speaker A:We were DFW360Boost.
Speaker A:And it sounds like all we do is 360Boost.
Speaker A:But the concept of that is a actually all around photo boothing.
Speaker A:And so this magazine booth now is the new rave, right?
Speaker A:Everybody Wants that we do regular photo booths.
Speaker A:We have some not so regular photo booths, the phone booths, all kinds of things.
Speaker A:But the most popular package that goes out is our Quickspin.
Speaker A:It's a thousand dollars, a three hour, 360 booth operation.
Speaker A:It comes with an attendant, some lighting, all the cool stuff.
Speaker A:But yeah, thousand dollars to get you.
Speaker B:Right now at some point you needed to shift over to doing this custom package like you said.
Speaker B:That client that called and it was a five figure deal.
Speaker B:How did you know how to price that or did they kind of give you like, what?
Speaker A:Oh, that's a great question.
Speaker A:Because we've had different things happen for different deals.
Speaker A:On that particular one with the ESPN deal, I figured if you were sending me this, you have some money and shouts out to the young lady who she was over diversity, equity, inclusion for that.
Speaker A:For that business.
Speaker A:And she was, she yelled at me over the phone because I was kind of trying to be nice.
Speaker A:And she was like, you're a small business, right?
Speaker A:And I was like, yes, ma'.
Speaker A:Am.
Speaker A:She was like, well, they're not.
Speaker A:They got it.
Speaker A:So she kind of pushed me to charge a little more, which got us up to the 10, $10,000 mark for that particular, you know, activation.
Speaker A:But knowing how to price that came out of a bunch of research just in, you know, I take, I do try to make a 55% margin, profit margin at all of our sales is what I try to shoot for.55.
Speaker C:And that's good.
Speaker C:So y' all hear that he.
Speaker C:Profit margin.
Speaker C:So he's trying to make that 55%.
Speaker C:So knowing he knows what the equipment is gonna cost, he knows what his staff is gonna cost, he knows all these things that insurance that I'm paying out, but I'm going to now tap on that 55 so that I can walk away with a profit.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:So this month.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's, that's, that's good.
Speaker C:That's good.
Speaker B:When it comes to dfw Neon.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Okay, so with that, like, what's your, like what.
Speaker B:I know we know you say your goal is like six, six figures, but what's your goal as far as like the, the amount of volume you want to be able to.
Speaker B:Because that, because the volume is based on like the team to support it.
Speaker B:So you have to advance your team.
Speaker B:So what will be the sweet spot for volume for you for that in.
Speaker A:Terms of like what kind of revenue we bring in or how many, how.
Speaker B:Many, how many we produce use per month?
Speaker A:So man, that's a great question.
Speaker A:We just started Warehousing in Irving.
Speaker A:And so now that our str.
Speaker A:Our structure, we're structured in a way that we can actually run all of our rentals because we do rentals and customs now that we can do pickups and drop offs at our building, the sky's the limit.
Speaker A:I really don't have a cap on it.
Speaker A:If we were doing 10 rentals a day, I would be just fine to do that starting tomorrow.
Speaker A:It's just more so about the marketing to get that off the ground.
Speaker B:And what's one tool from a, from a back office perspective that you feel like you, you have to have, like to run.
Speaker A:Oh, got a CRM.
Speaker A:You have to have a good working.
Speaker A:I mean if you're going to be in anything service related especially you got to have a good CRM as a customer relations manager is, is vital and have one that's specific to your industry because they'll have certain features and settings that really help you create a solid workflow.
Speaker A:Automation has been a major part of our business's success even before I came here today.
Speaker A:Just making sure that all the emails went out to get the custom designs that we need for enclosures and activations.
Speaker A:Making sure we have a phone booth that's going out tomorrow.
Speaker A:Making sure that the custom greeting that people hear when they pick up the phone and leave a message is in there.
Speaker A:So that is all managed through CRM.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's number one.
Speaker B:Number one.
Speaker B:Number one.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:I had to put you through some of those questions so that when the people listen, they like, okay, I'm taking this in.
Speaker B:I'm taking this in, but I know we can't.
Speaker B:We would love to keep going on and we may have to have you back.
Speaker A:Oh, please do.
Speaker A:I'd love to come back.
Speaker B:So at some point in time because especially as you're growing and expanding and even reaching into the place of like figuring out how, how to even help more creatives than the ones that you're able to immediately impact.
Speaker B:I'm sure you're going to have so much more to say, but I just want to say this for right now, thank you for everything.
Speaker A:Thank you for having me.
Speaker B:Everything that you represent as a, as a, as a man, as a company owner, like the, the just like your overall presence and your, your goal for having impact over income.
Speaker B:But we still focusing on income.
Speaker B:But the fact that making sure that that's there.
Speaker B:I oftentimes, and I'm going to say this, take my liberty as a woman, I most of the time hear women talk about making sure that there's impact there.
Speaker B:Most of the time, men is money, money, money, money, money, money, money.
Speaker B:And so it was very, it was very enriching and encouraging to me to hear, hear you say that.
Speaker B:So I just got.
Speaker B:So thank you so much for coming on the mind and my creative business.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Before we go, right, like as we're wrapping up, what's one thing that you want to leave our audience with where like, okay, if you get this one thing, you'll be good.
Speaker C:I mean we know it's more than one, but if you can just narrow.
Speaker A:It to one at the heart of every endeavor, business or otherwise.
Speaker A:But even in business, there's a person, multi billion dollar company, Fortune 500, whatever, a decision has to be made by a person.
Speaker A:So if you're a service provider, you're gonna have to get down to speaking to a person and satisfying the need or solving the problem of the person.
Speaker A:And for us going even deeper into that, serving somebody.
Speaker A:So a harder service will take you further than you might think.
Speaker C:I love it.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker B:That's true too.
Speaker B:That's so true.
Speaker B:We always think about this product.
Speaker B:This, this is a five figure deal.
Speaker B:This is a ten.
Speaker B:On the other side of that deal is somebody that needs to, to be satisfied or something that needs to be satisfied.
Speaker B:So yeah, man served.
Speaker B:I love it.
Speaker B:I appreciate it.
Speaker B:So, so thank you for giving our audience that.
Speaker B:And to our audience, I want to thank you guys so much for sticking with us this, this entire time.
Speaker B:Thank you for listening to everything that he had to say.
Speaker B:If you're a DJ out there and you're trying to figure out how to grow, maybe it's a price increase, maybe it's wraparound service, maybe it's starting the entity outside of another entity, maybe it's an acquisition.
Speaker B:But just know that there are funds to be made out here for, for, for DJs the creative mind as basically what he said is he's just an overall creator, right.
Speaker B:From film, TV, DJing, music, just all of that.
Speaker B:There's a way for you to tie all of that.
Speaker B:But as long as you mind your creative business, listen, there's funds there.
Speaker B:So I just, I thought he would be a perfect example for that.
Speaker B:So thank you guys.
Speaker B:Also, we want to encourage you all to do something.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Join the Creative Corner community.
Speaker C:If you go to our website, www.mmcbpodcast.com, i.e.
Speaker C:Www.mmcbpodcast.Com, you can join the Creators Corner where you will get a newsletter as well as be involved with a Facebook community where you're surrounded by other creators that are going to help you just to, to just grow.
Speaker C:Probably find some mentorship like, like was mentioned here earlier, as well as just accountability and things like that.
Speaker C:And then the newsletter gives you strategy, structure and self development that you need to grow as a creative entrepreneur.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Yeah, so.
Speaker B:And also we want to encourage you to, if you have not already.
Speaker B:It is so, so quick.
Speaker B:It's gonna be real quick.
Speaker B:Just hit like, like the video, like the video.
Speaker B:Hit subscribe.
Speaker B:All you gotta do is hit the subscribe.
Speaker B:This is a one click boom.
Speaker B:We're right there.
Speaker B:Now, before we get out of here, there is one thing that I like to do.
Speaker B:You've been listening, we've been talking.
Speaker B:But we want to give you an opportunity to talk as well.
Speaker B:I want you to say this mantra with us that we say at the end of every episode, okay?
Speaker B:And then everybody said, Sergey included.
Speaker B:All right?
Speaker B:So here's what we're gonna say.
Speaker B:I want you to repeat after me.
Speaker B:All it takes.
Speaker B:All it takes is intention.
Speaker C:Is intention.
Speaker B:Consistency.
Speaker A:Consistency.
Speaker B:And laser focus.
Speaker A:And laser focus.
Speaker B:To mind my creative business.
Speaker A:To mind my creative business.
Speaker B:Peace.
Speaker C:Peace.
