"This pandemic ruined my career!" "Quarantine caused my business to fail!" These are maybe things we've heard from others or literally heard in our heads and then hopefully we disagreed quickly and shook those thoughts away. Yes, this is a time that will test the winners and tigers in any industry. I believe it will also test how truly in love you are with WHAT you do.
Here are the ways I've pivoted to make things work for me and also a few ways I've seen some of my successful partners stay on top of the game:
1) Offer Virtual Parties! A great DJ/MC can literally run a complete Zoom party by scheduling the event and then invite the crowd or let the client invite their specific guests lists (emails, Facebook event page, eventbrite, etc). Don't forget to adjust your audio and video settings to ideal levels for the best customer experience! You should be running sound directly from your controllers or mixers into your professional sound cards or into a line input if using a solid desktop pc.
My primary tip for when you are doing these is to keep interacting with guests on the microphone! Get to know them with questions. Run trivia and games (a scavenger hunt was very fun and successful). Acknowledge someone when they are getting into the music. Lots of people can play music for a couple hours, not everyone can keep peoples' attention utilizing the mic.
2) Go Live!
Many musicians and DJs are simply going live across one or several platforms and just doing their thing. Restream.io is one of the top places currently since you can push your feed to several platforms at once. Don't forget to take requests and interact with your viewers! Requests, for me, is the surest way you'll make tips. Offer viewers your Venmo, Cashapp, Paypal, Zelle info, etc! Again, don't forget to tweak your video and audio settings to be ideal...no one will stick around in a bad-quality stream.
I have one entertainment partner that started doing a Podcast and video talk show where he'd bring on local guests from different industries. This has put him in the spotlight to where bigger players are asking him to be a speaker on their shows. Create synergy with your partners and other vendors!
3) Offer Parade Party services!
For DJs and musicians we can still setup in clients' front yards and create a 'mini block party' for their special occasion. Several parents are doing this for their childrens' birthdays and it's a great way for loved ones to drop off gifts personally to the guest of honor. These parties are normally kept short and run only 1-2hrs since physical distancing has to be respected. It doesn't mean that the family and neighbors can't enjoy a little fun music and dancing! Bring a fan, these normally occur during the sunny afternoons and...it's HOT.
4) Do more Mentoring!
We can't exactly go speak to a packed classroom at this time. However, if you're a guitar expert, for example, teach virtual lessons or even better, record entire lessons to be sold as a package. Go Live to give some free quick tips and then share the info for people to buy lessons or your full lesson video package! There are plenty of tutorials on how to record quality video even from a newer iPhone/Samsung. You can even record excellent video footage (sometimes limited to 5 minutes) on older Nikon, Canon and Sony DSLR cameras. If you don't want to get into the video editing pit of time consumption, try selling lessons or tips you've created as documents or PDFs. Just send the person the zipped files once they complete payment. It's worked for others.
Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope some of these tips assist others in the industry. I'm keeping positive that events will be back to normal before we see 2021. For now, let's continue to create. One of the simple secrets is to never give up!
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We're NOT just a DJ service.
We're highly interested in all ways we can further help you and create long term relationships with our clients. We bring the right vendors, entertainers and teams in to create your ideal event.
Contact us to celebrate something special for you at home or book us for your South Florida parade party!
Blogger: Grant "DJ Gannon"
Gannon Events
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