Hey friends, well it's been quite some time since I've posted in this blog. The last time we connected, COVID was in full swing and influencing every part of our lives. For a short time in Ohio, dancing was illegal at weddings except for the bride and groom’s first dance. As you can imagine, the COVID pandemic damaged the hospitality and entertainment industries. It's only now that these sectors are coming back. Many people have asked me, how are bookings? How is business? The truth is, I'm as busy as I want to be thanks to the word-of-mouth referrals from many clients and friends.
I started DJ’ing weddings and other events in the late 1980s. At that time, my mentor and trainer, Dennis McNulty, had me accompany him to the events that he had booked for himself. I trained with him for a year or two before we began booking solo gigs for me. From that point on, I've been a DJ entertainer in northeast Ohio ever since. By my calculation, I am closing in on 35 years in this industry. I estimate that I have been the DJ entertainer at over 1,500 events, about half of those being weddings.
When I meet with prospective clients, I don't hide the fact that I'm 57 years old. I realize that some folks will want a younger DJ. What I've also found, however, is that many people prefer to have an older more mature person controlling the music and making the announcements. I have been shocked, quite frankly, that my inquiries have not gone down as I age but in fact have gone up. I always imagined when I was younger that clients would prefer a young DJ and that as I got older the business would dry up. I have been blessed that I have had the opportunity to work steadily in this field all these years.
The thing that COVID taught me was that I enjoy being home on a Saturday night to tinker around the house or simply enjoy a hobby. I have allowed myself to slow down and book fewer events each year. In part, it's because working in this space is very exhausting and if you do your job right, you'll be quite tired at the end of the night because you give your clients everything you have up until the very last minute of the event. It takes me longer to recuperate from gigs now that I’m in my late 50’s, especially after working weddings that can be 10 or 12 hours long.
I have also been blessed all these years because (except for a few years here and there) I have had a full-time job aside from DJ’ing events on weekends. Some of you know that I worked in nonprofit social services for over two decades and then moved to higher education teaching at the college level which I still do to this date. When I began DJ’ing in the late 80’s and early 90’s I desperately needed money for college tuition. Into the 2000’s, my DJ income was used to save money to buy a house and build a reserve account. Now, the bulk of my DJ income is pushed into my future in the way of retirement investments and some of it is happily given to my favorite charities. It's been a lot of work over many years, many sacrificed weekends, but I don't regret a minute of it. I still find it a joy to help people celebrate significant moments with music.
I imagine in the next few years I will be scaling back even more so, doing only a handful of weddings each year and an assortment of fundraising events for my favorite charities. At this point, I can't imagine stopping completely. Helping people celebrate with music will always be in my DNA.
