DJ Company Multi-Ops with Mary Nisi – E129

Welcome everybody to the Wedding Songs Podcast. I’m Matt Campbell. Have you ever thought about running a multi-op, meaning having multiple DJs under you? Today we’re going to be talking about just that. To help me along is Mary Nisi from Toast and Jam DJs based in the Chicago area. Welcome to the show, Mary. Thanks so much for having me on.

Memorable Wedding Moments

I’m going to start off with the way we start off every podcast can you just give a heartwarming or memorable wedding moment? The most recent 1 I had, I don’t really book myself out much anymore. And a couple of weeks ago, we had a situation where a DJ called me at 11:59 on a Saturday morning and was like, I just tested positive for COVID, and, the funny thing is I kind of pride myself on our very extensive backup system.

We always have a DJ on call every single day that we have a wedding and, that Thursday, we realized that we do them so far in advance. And that Thursday, we just didn’t, and we have not needed a backup DJ in a year. And so we’re like, ah, screw it. We haven’t needed a backup DJ in a year. We’re gonna be fine. But the DJ that, calls me at 11:59 and is like, I’ve got COVID. So I reach out to every DJ that wasn’t working that night and they were all not available. And I’m like, well, I guess I’m doing this. And so she called me at 11:59 at 3:30.

I was walking into the venue. It’s almost like the universe was making it happen because this wedding was totally my people. It totally ruled the DJ that they had is probably way better than me at this point, because a little bit rusty, as 1 might be at this point, if they haven’t done a wedding in a while. And, I walked in they’re always very excited to get me. If I wander in there, no, one’s mad. They got the owner of the company, which is nice, it was super fun. They had their taste in music was amazing. And, Let’s see from that 1, there were so many amazing things that happened that night.

But, 1 thing that was super fun, maybe heartwarming as part of it, but it was just kind of a fun thing where I went up to do my pre-speech thing. If someone’s going to touch a microphone, I’m talking to them about how to use a microphone. I’m not just winging it and hope that uncle Larry knows how to use a microphone.

So I went up to the father of the bride Hey, hold the microphone, have a touch of chin, have an uncomfortable close to your mouth. Don’t let it drift away. You know, like all the things that you say, he’s like, can I have walk-up music? And I’m like, sure. What’s your idea?

And he’s like, can you play Beautiful Day by U2? And I’m like, sure I have that song. And then I went up to talk to the best man and I was like, Hey, you know, hold it close to your mouth, blah, blah, blah. And it was, by the way, the father of the bride just said, he wanted to walk up music.

Do you want to walk up songs? I feel kind of weird only giving him one and not you one. And his wife is like Pony. And I’m like, okay, this will be hilarious. So I’m like, sure. I’ll play Pony. Then I went to the maids of honor. They were doing a dual speech. And I’m like, not to give you any pressure, but, the Father the bride, and the best man have walk-up music.

Let’s get 1 for you. And like, we all just went to see Fall Out Boy a couple of weeks ago. So then I really quickly, put together some key points. These are the moments where I’m like, I am really good at the job where I’m able to just, on the fly, and pull this all together.

And it slayed and it just was this other extra little thing that was probably all in, you know, 32 extra seconds of stuff that was brought in, but it was another thing that, made their wedding special. It made it seem like their wedding, not a wedding. And that was put their personality into it. And I feel like, that’s the kind of touch that, I know we bring to, an event and I would hope that any company can, but I don’t know if everyone can. Well, I think that, like you said, it’s being flexible enough too, that you’re having enough wherewithal to say, okay, I need my cue points.

I need to figure this out real quick. I need to make it happen. Yeah, and in those situations, I can’t just start from the beginning of a beautiful day. I have to come in on. It’s a beautiful day. Not like, you know, I had that in there, but I had to figure out, which of my 5 Q points that I have within that song just all the little things.

I don’t know. That’s stuff I love doing. I love the flexibility is definitely a thing. I very highly value DJs that work for me as well as me. So as the business owner, then what you’re talking about really?

Managing Weddings

I have to ask, do you have your fingers in every wedding that the company books? Do you know exactly what’s going on kind of the overall of each wedding? No. None of them, quite frankly. We really do treat the DJs as their own little, even though they are employees or W2 employees, once the client gets passed off to the DJ, the DJ is doing everything.

We run the company through DJ Event Planner. but I’ve got DJs that have been working with me for almost 19 years and, we get set in our ways. In fact, the DJ that I took that wedding over from was 1 of the DJs is working for me since I started the company and, she’s not.

Uploading her notes into DJ Event Planner. She’s not, which I get it. I would have a hard time with it as well. I don’t have to do it ’cause I don’t have any clients. But it was good that I took that wedding over because I could look at that DJ’s notes and I could, interpret them all.

I could see her playlist. I know what I’m doing. I don’t think that wedding would’ve gone the same if I had handed it off to a newer DJ who wasn’t as indoctrinated into the toast and jam way of doing things, but, I guess no answer question. No, I’m not involved in the planning of anybody’s events because I want the DJs to be doing that.

And it’s kind of what I’m paying you to do is to be on top of that. In theory, everybody should be uploading their notes into the DJ event planner. So that in an event like this, where we do have to pass a wedding off at the last minute, it will go smoothly. And then I was actually then able to use that event as an example of this is why you have to get your things into DJ Event Planner.

So now. We’re doing 1 on 1 with everybody right now. And we’re really hammering that in the 1 on 1 that you have to have all your stuff in DJ event planner because otherwise. What’s the point of it? Exactly.

Meet Mary Nisi

Before we get too far into it, can you just introduce yourself to our listeners?  my name is Mary Nisi. I’m the owner, president, DJ, or whatever you want to call me from Toast and Jam DJs. We’re in Chicago. We’re located in the Logan Square neighborhood in Chicago, but we service the entire Chicagoland area, the tri-state area, we service everywhere, but really mostly the Chicagoland area. How often do you travel outside of that? Is that very often? Yeah. we spend a lot of time in Southwest Michigan, Harbor Country. We’re in Wisconsin a lot, a little bit in Indiana. Sometimes we go to Iowa, but Southeast Michigan has a lot of barnyards and vineyards and things. And so we do wind up going there quite a bit.

Inclusive Website and Company

Let’s get with a hard-hitting question. I know in the past we’ve had conversations about you removing the terms bride and groom from your website.

Was that a branding decision? it was an ethical decision. If you really want to come down to it. I’ve always been a strong ally of the LGBTQ community. I have gay relatives. I mean, I’ve always had homosexuality has always been a very normal thing in my world.

 I started doing weddings in 2003 to date myself, which is weird because I was four years old. Anyway, when I was doing, when I was doing weddings, I would say 99. 9, actually all of my clients were straight. They were all white, mostly straight, cis-gendered, clients, which is just what the wedding industry was.

We started, I would say, around the mid-2000s, mid-aughts was when we would start getting, more of these, what were they called? Civil unions or, commitment ceremonies. maybe it started out, we’d start getting maybe one or two a year, and then we’d start getting, like, 20 a year, and then In 2010, I want to say, somewhere around there, civil unions got legalized in Illinois.

So then when that happened, we were doing tons of same-sex weddings and I did my 1st same-sex wedding around that time. And when I. It’s like one of these things like makes my blood curdle when I think about it, I got through the introductions and I was like, all right, folks, enjoy your dinner.

And I, hit the off button. The planner comes over to me and he’s like, they’re not mad. And I’m like, what did I do? And he’s like, you introduced him as the bridal party. And I was like, okay, cool. Oh my God. It was two men and I introduced them as the bridal party just cause I had always said bridal party when I was introducing people.

And I was like, okay, well that can’t happen again. So I went back to the DJs. I’m like, we’re not saying bridal party anymore. We need to start saying wedding party. And we can’t do that. And then, one day, I was looking at her website and I just saw bride and groom everywhere.

And I was like, not all of our clients have a bride in the relationship and not every client has a groom. And so I went through my entire website and I removed every mention of bride and groom and replaced it with newlyweds, the happy couple, and just interchanged and nobody said, no one noticed.

No one’s going to notice they didn’t see the bride or groom, no straight couple noticed it, but our gay couples, all of a sudden the number of gay weddings we were doing so the number that I usually use in this, we were averaging about 500 weddings a year, in that time.

And then as soon as I, Remove the heteronormative language and then, we put toast and jams, of course, gay weddings or marriage equality or something on our website. Are we sort of doing like routinely 200 more weddings a year? Wow. So while initially, it was because I wanted to make sure that everybody who looked at our website.

Could see themselves reflected in it and not just assume, because our website’s got I’m dancing piece of toast and a jamming piece of jam. it’s fun. And think a gay person could look at that and assume. That we were going to be cool, but I don’t think that’s.

Nice, fair, or right to. Potentially alienate, a huge part, and gay weddings are the exact same as any other, it’s their wedding. Love is love is love and it did work out for my bottom line, but initially, it was completely because that’s the clients I wanted. Gay weddings are the best, they’re always the best. Not all weddings, they’re all great, but, there’s different things that can happen at those that don’t necessarily happen at a cis-gendered wedding.

I think that that’s just the time that we’re in. I did a post recently because when I was at the Wedding MBA, I had a wedding music planner there and a wedding planner came over to my book and said, I can’t use this because I target primarily same-sex weddings. And so now I’m going to be releasing a gender-neutral wedding music planner.

But, you know, because it said bride and groom and exactly. I’m still using person. So yeah, person one’s processional person two is processional exactly what you said before, I’m using wedding couple, not bride and groom.

Newlyweds. We’d really tried to remove all the hetero-normative language out because it didn’t seem like they won’t wanna talk to me if they just keep saying bride and groom. And ladies and gentlemen, it’s like, I’m neither a lady nor a gentleman. Then I ended up hiring, I have some DJs that are trans and non-binary and they had asked to put their pronouns on the website and I was like, of course.

God, I can’t believe it took. For someone to ask me before I realized that was something we should be doing. And when we did that, a lot of our heterosexual clients were like, thank you so much for putting that on there because it shows that you reflect my value system and that you will be kind and open to all the guests at my wedding.

While I do think it’s great that we’ve attracted more clients that are same-sex, because I want to make sure that everybody feels seen and accepted by our company, clients will make sure that their guests are going to be respected as well. And they want to see their values reflected in their vendors. They want to give money to people that are going to reflect their values.

Brand Philosophy

That’s a great transition into what would you say is your brand philosophy. we actually came up with this a while ago. We haven’t really used it that much in our marketing. we want to be able to give people these sorts of, non-cheesy events that get everybody dancing.

We really want to make sure that we are, staying within the client’s taste. And having it not be, well, no, no, I want to make sure everyone’s happy. So play this terrible music that I hate, just because my family likes it.

And I don’t think that’s a real good reason to play a song because there’s other songs that can fill those holes that. The client likes, and so, it’s making sure that everyone at the wedding has a good time while staying within the parameters set by the client.

And that’s a very unsexy way to put it. but, I feel like the song selection is still important, and making sure as of this earlier on, but it sounds like their wedding, not a wedding. We came up with it not too long ago and it was pretty good. An inclusive company crafted exclusive events. That was the new core focus that we came up with was an inclusive company crafting exclusive events.

Creating Wedding Soundtracks

So when crafting your exclusive events, when you’re working with the couples, how do you create their wedding soundtrack? First of all, we work very closely with them to come up with to make sure that the playlist is reflecting their tastes. So if they’re like, ah, just put on Frank Sinatra during cocktail hour, I’ll push back on that and be like, is that what you want?

If you’re really into Sinatra and Rat Pack, I will play the poop out of that and I will make it interesting and great. But if you’re just saying Rat Pack because that’s what you always hear at weddings, well, let’s push a little, let’s dig a little deeper. And then they’re like, well, I don’t know. My taste in music is so weird.

I don’t, no one’s going to like it. I’m like, well, during cocktail and dinner, no one’s really listening. And so, except for the people who are listening. If you’re really into German kraut rock from the seventies. Actually have some good beats in there that would be great for cocktail hour and your grandma’s not going to notice that she just heard craft work at her grandson’s wedding, but your 5 friends that notice that I played, can go to be like, Oh, my God, did I just hear can at this wedding?

And I’ll be like, yeah, I did. And that’s the stuff that really makes, their weddings, a very unique, exclusive experience. And the can song that I’m playing at this wedding. And then next weekend, all they want is country and Dave Matthews. I’m not going to drop Can at that wedding because I did it that other one.

So, some people are, for lack of a better word, basic, and all they want is whatever pop music is and that’s great too. Those weddings are great because they’re easy. In many ways, the people who don’t have very specific taste is those are easy weddings.

I can go and I can look at the people and figure it out and go, but I do like. Challenging weddings, I like it when they’ve got a crazy taste in music, or they’ve got things I have to do. And I’m like, I can’t wait to, blow my own mind when I’m able to pull off some of this stuff.

But then also just take their crazy ideas and find a way to make them work. Cause I hear from other DJs are like, Oh, they asked for all this stuff that I know won’t work. And it’s like, first of all, how do you know it won’t work? You didn’t try it. Well, I’ve done it before.

It’s like, well, that was then this is now these are different people. I don’t know. That’s the reason why I love this job is be given all of this raw material and then figure out a way to turn it into an event that never happened before and will never happen again.

And, really giving the client exactly what they want and blow people’s minds. Small, small order, just blowing some minds. I totally agree. Even for a country wedding, we all think of standard stuff. You think Garth Brooks, you think Shania Twain, Brooks and Dunn, newer artists like Florida Georgia Line, but there’s so much great music out there.

Who’s to say if you’re in a 90s set, you can put on dust on the bottle and everybody goes, I forgot about this song. This one’s awesome. So it’s playing those hidden gems that, the crowd likes. Could I just. Get into 128 BPMs and play the last, 10 years of Lady Gaga and Ariana.

I can do that. I can do that. And everyone will have a good enough time. They will leave that wedding thinking they had a good time, but it’s the ones where I get to actually. You know, I dug a little deeper on the client and it’s like, me something like, well, we did used to do this dance routine to Backstreet Boys.

And I’m like, okay, that that is what I need to know, because that is the thing that’s going to, make your wedding amazing when, the girls have bunk, featherweight, bust out there. The dance routine they did for some reason is still in our muscle memory. 20 years later. That’s the stuff. And it personalizes it. Love it.

Popular Wedding Music

So what are you seeing as popular music in your area right now? It does feel like, it’s very 10 years ago. Taylor Swift is so huge right now. The stuff in 2010, I mean, you know, Dave Lander or digital Dave as the folks might know, him by his DJ name, his whole thing is that the music that people want to hear at weddings is the stuff that they were listening to from when they were 13 to 18 years old.

And, those people 2010 was their sweet spot. So, and then 2010 was such a great time for music. And so, it’s like the. Kesha, Calvin Harris, that stuff all is slapping, as the kids say. so yeah, it’s between Taylor Swift and ironically Calvin Harris, her ex-boyfriend.

All that is, pitbull. And his collection of songs. It’s so many, Flo Rida, all that stuff is kind of still, still kicking around. Cool. When couples are planning their music, do you give them any tips? Oh, sure. In many ways for us.

I want to know what you don’t want to hear. I want to know that if you hear it on the day of your wedding, it’ll ruin your day because it’s like, you know, I don’t want to make you have to think about what you don’t like, but, I’ve had people come running up to me and this song.

And I’m like, okay, you didn’t tell me that. I can only DJ to the most accurate list of stuff you hate. So many ways I want to know, did you get dumped at that Backstreet Boys song or Backstreet Boys concert in 2003 and you need to not hear them? That is the stuff I need to know.

But as far as cocktails and dinner go, I will play anything. I have played the most ridiculous stuff. It’s funny. I had a client once who was like, all I want is monster ballads during dinner and I’m like, oh, amazing. Like sister Christian and, more than words and,patience, these big monster ballads from late eighties and early nineties.

I loved it. It was one of the funnest. Because every time I hit play, someone would pull out a lighter. This is during dinner. I’m getting this kind of, you know, behavior. So, then I began to use that as my example of, I can get away with anything at a reasonable volume. I once did all monster ballots during dinner and then as a result, I probably did, 10 more weddings of all monster ballots because everyone thought that idea was so.

Funny so that was one thing I once had a client who, for cocktails and dinner, all they wanted was songs. You’d hear in a Home Depot, you know, exactly what I mean, it’s the nineties, like, breakfast at Tiffany’s and, barely breathing and so, when I was playing it, I had people all night long going, Oh, did they tell you to play this music?

Because this is exactly their taste in music. One of the things I think is really funny about this job is that the client will come up to me and be like, here’s my 10 must plays. I’m like, okay, cool.

And then I play them and then all night long, they’re like, how did you know? And I’m like, you literally wrote these down in a piece of paper and handed them to me, but if you want to make me seem like I’m a mystical wizard, I’m a mystical wizard, that’s the reason why I knew.

Single to Multi-Op Tips

So do you have any tips for wedding DJs that are single and want to become a multi-op? I’ve got a lot of things I could say to DJs who want to become a multi-op. I’m kind of in a broken record on this particular topic. so you maybe have heard me speak on it or complain about it loudly in some arena here or there, but, the job of event DJ or mobile DJ or wedding DJ. The U S government, the federal government doesn’t have. So there’s a NAICS code. Are you familiar with the NAICS code? So, for those who are listening, who don’t know what a NAICS code is, I think it stands for North American Industry Classification System.

I think that is what it stands for and every industry has its own NAICS code. And so it’s like, if you’re a construction worker, you have a NAICS code, and then associated with that NAICS code is whatever licensing you need to have, whatever kind of insurance you need to have, how you have to classify your employees.

There are all of the things that go into being that job. So if you’re like, I want to be, I’m a therapist and I want to start a therapy business. You can go and look at their NAICS code, and it’ll tell you if you want to have this job, these are the things you have to do. Well, there isn’t 1.

Employees vs Contractors

For what we do and so the 1 that my company is under is independent artists. And I’m assuming that probably anybody else that’s in this business, that’s what they also are. But that is not an accurate representation of what I do because my DJs are employees. They’re not independent artists.

I’m not an independent artist. But independent artists have nothing associated as far as regulation insurance, et cetera. And so, when I started this company, I had everybody as independent contractors. because that’s what everybody else did, and I was just doing literally what everyone else was doing.

And 9 years after I started the company, I got audited. I was 8 months pregnant and, I got audited by the Illinois Department of Employment Security they’re the ones who are trying to make sure that your employees are classified correctly because they want to make sure that they’re getting, their unemployment taxes and I’m like, oh, my DJs are independent contractors cause they, that’s what everybody does.

Going through my entire, it is one of the most invasive and is basically a business colonoscopy. And they, I lost that one. I also came to realize that auditors are not operating based on facts or based on whatever they think. And so, when I was going through this, there were 10 prongs that made up whether or not you should be classified as employees or independent contractors.I was very solid on 8 and I was in a very gray area on 2 it was on those 2. The gray areas that I lost that audit. So I wound up having to pay but what I wound up paying out between my lawyer, the 3 lawyers I had to consult and my accountant, it was $25,000.

That audit cost me $25,000. So I redid my contract with my subcontract with the DJs because the big problem was control. If you have any control over the person that works for you, meaning you’re telling them where to be, what to play, how to do it, any control at all because the idea of an independent contractor is like.

I’m sitting in my office. I don’t want to pay for it. You’re going to bring a painter in and you’re going to say, I want you to paint it pink, but I’m not going to sit there behind you and be like, make the stripes up and down. You’re doing, you’re using the wrong brush. The nap isn’t wrong right on that roller.

Like I’m not going to be telling you what to do. And so that’s what the role of an independent contractor is. It’s like, I’m coming in and I’m doing a service for you that I’m going to use my own expertise to decide how I do it. And then I tell you how much you’re going to pay me, not how much I’m going to pay you.

That’s the nature of an independent contractor agreement. So I lost on control and then, I changed my control. I started using different words to try to get around the idea of control. And then I got audited again, 2 years later, because when they get blood from a stone once, they’re going to get blood from a stone again.

That 2nd, when I lost on, I forgot what the technical term is, but it’s basically that the independent conductors doing what the business is. So, because I was a DJ company, and I was hiring out DJs, that person should be an employee. They’re doing what the job does. So, after that 2nd audit.

They’re right. I have DJs working for 19 years at this point. They only work for me. They had business cards. They were on my website. I was telling them how to do their job. If on Saturday night, they were having a panic moment. I was coming out and bailing them out.

It was an employer-employee relationship. And so in 2017, I made everybody into W2 employees and it’s expensive. And the thing is, is that because there isn’t regulation, because there isn’t. A clear cut. Rules around what it means to own a DJ company and what it should be. I wind up being the canary in the coal mine on regulation.

‘Cause I’ve got one of the biggest companies in the country. I definitely have one of the largest ones in Illinois. So I’m open up to more liability. When I made everybody into independent from W2, you have to get workers’ comp insurance. There were no case studies.

On DJ companies what happens when a DJ company has a workman’s comp policy? So they had no idea how much exposure I had. And so I had to pay at the highest percentage. So my 1st year’s workers comp policy was $25,000.

$25,000 seems to always be this number, but I’m always floating within, but the 1st one was $25,000. And the next year went down to 20 and the next year went down to 18. It kept going down because we were never filing claims, but, you have me to thank for your low.

Workers comp policies, if you have them now, because I’m the 1 that had to pay. Loads of money that I couldn’t charge back to the client. I couldn’t take it out of the DJ’s pocket. I guess the thing is, is that in the wedding industry in general, this isn’t just DJs, this is planners. This is everybody who works in the wedding industry.

Novice vs Experience

And this is a soapbox that I’m on a lot. So you opened kind of a giant can of worms with me about this question. But, there’s a very low barrier of entry to get into the wedding industry. If you’ve got a DJ rig, poof, you’re a wedding DJ. If you have a camera, poof, you can be a wedding photographer.

You have a video camera, poof, you can be a wedding videographer. If you’ve got a friend, Who is willing to roll the dice on an untested person in that industry and a lot of people are willing to do that because weddings are expensive. And so they’re willing to be like, let us throw a 100 dollars at my cousin who was a video major at Columbia and then all of a sudden, you know, that’s how they get in. But, it’s like when someone comes to you and I found, you’re charging $3,000.

Well, I found a DJ that’s willing to do it for 900 and it’s like, okay, go with them. Because when that DJ has my experience and my ability and the things I can do, they won’t be charging 900. So you go with your 900 DJ. Don’t love the same lines.

We did somebody’s wedding in 2011. And then their cousin comes to me now and they’re wait a minute. You charge my cousin 1200 dollars. I’m like, yeah, in 2011, I was charging 1200 dollars. I have now an additional 12 years of experience from that.

And so you’re getting a better product now. Imagine how good we were then. Well, we’re really, really good now. So you’re a way better product. It’s not making decisions inside your head. It’s talking to lawyers. It is getting into a networking group.

Taking Care of Employees

It is talking with other people in the industry to understand, what it is. Because, right now, I really do feel like I’m getting kind of screwed because I am trying to do things the right way. There are so many other businesses that aren’t and they aren’t getting punished for it. The thing is I prefer them to be employees. I offered them a 401k and the 401k was very important to me.

Cause I’ve got DJs, like I said, they’ve been working for you for almost 20 years. I feel the responsibility to make it so that when their bodies are old and dilapidated and decrepit, because of the hauling 50-pound speakers up onto poles or whatever, I want them to be able to not have to work until they’re 90. I don’t know if anybody else is feeling that way about their employees, but I sure do.

Matching Couples to DJs

Having multiple DJs, how do you match the couple to a specific DJ? You know, it’s funny, you should ask that question. we kind of famously, which is different than a lot of companies do my DJs were doing the sales. When a lead would come in, we would give the client. We’d be like, hey, this is how much they cost were available.

Are you interested? And the client would back and say, yes, I’m interested. And then we would send it to the DJ and the DJ would do the sale, but the DJ would get the deal across the finish line. That worked. 500-700 weddings a year. I mean, it wasn’t like it wasn’t working, but, 1st of all, we want to start offering more services because we were losing a lot of events because we weren’t doing lighting and photo booth. So I bought photo booths and then we added a lighting subcontractor, but then we were having a hard time getting those.

Additional services added to the events because the DJ was doing the sale and then the DJ doesn’t know how to sell lights. The DJ doesn’t know how to sell a photo booth, which makes sense. And so we were trying really hard to figure out ways to incentivize the DJs to try to learn to sell ’em.

And then, we started analyzing the DJ’s, close rates. I would say as a company, we have like a 30 percent close rate of just raw leads in, but then when they got to the DJs, it would vary between like 55 percent to 90 for some DJs.

And it’s like, okay, so what is different from the 90 percent DJs and the 50 percent DJs? From their reviews, there’s no difference. It was just their ability to sell and didn’t want to keep losing gigs because DJs didn’t know how to sell. So literally two months ago, we completely tore apart. Well, actually it was in February. We tore apart our entire. Sales process to kind of see where things are. And now we’ve brought all the sales in-house. And now the DJs are just handed leads.

They still have to book out far in advance. So if we get a lead for September 2025. We’re closing that sale and then giving it to the DJ and the DJ understands are on the hook for that. That works out surprisingly well. but the fun thing about us taking over the sales is that now we’re actually able to more customize, like, Oh, you were in marching band.

Our DJ Tabitha, actually was in the marching band and she actually still plays tuba. Let’s give her to you. And so we’re actually able to, customize that a bit more now, but I will say that before that, I think it probably had something to do with the close rates. my teachers are all trained and should be able to go into any event and be able to do anything.

When someone’s like, we want all Motown. It’s like, you don’t want all Motown. You think you want all Motown and we can play a lot of Motown and we will try to play all Motown, but you’ve got to give us the flexibility to, go out of that in case it’s not working. Do you want me to just playing a too proud to beg to an empty dance floor?

Is that what you really want? Because I will not be too proud to beg for you to let me play, love story by Taylor Swift. So in many ways, it can be agnostic because I do believe that any of my DJs should be able to go into any wedding and be able to give them what they want, but it is more fun now that we’re doing the sales internally that we’re able to kind of customize it to a certain extent.

And even though I do believe that client could go to any one of my DJs and do a great job, they think they’re getting someone and they and they are. The marching band client, I don’t know if they’re going to wind up getting a marching band music playing at their wedding, but they’re going to feel that they’ve got someone who’s a bit more akin to their little secret friend that’s going to blow their wedding up.

Just to clarify a little bit, are you having the client sign the contract and then sending the DJ or are they talking to the DJ and then signing the contract prior to this change? The client would talk to the DJ before we would go to contract. And now they have gone to contract. Now there’s actually another who the DJ has to go through.

We basically now assign the DJ to that client and then the DJ has to have a meeting with that client within 2 weeks of getting assigned because I feel like our whole secret sauce is the relationship that we have with the client. And so I want that DJ to meet with them now.

So that when their wedding happens in 7 months, their 1st meeting wasn’t. A month before their wedding, because I feel like, getting all that information at the 1st meeting is so important the person you meet at 7 months out and the person you meet 2 weeks before their wedding.

Are completely different people and so you want to get as much information out of them when they are clear-headed and excited and not stressed out and freaking out because their best man just said he wasn’t going to be there because. You know, like any reason, there’s crazy stress happening.

So you want to make sure that you’re getting information from them in a normal headspace and not freaking out. Just a little left turn.

Hiring DJs

What do you look for when you’re hiring a wedding DJ? Absolutely no experience. That’s not entirely true. I want them to have, some DJing experience. Almost every single time I have hired a DJ who worked for another company before they were for me, it was trouble. They have bad habits. For me, the number one thing I’m always looking for in potential DJs, is whether they have retail or food service experience. I won’t hire someone if they don’t have food service or retail experience.

Yeah. That’s so true. I worked the graveyard at a restaurant. You get lots of people skills then. Yes. Because the soft skills are, you know, I can’t have somebody out there acting as if that dance floor is blessed to have them there. If a grandma comes up and ask for brown-eyed girl, and you’re like, I’m not playing that.

Who do you think you are? What do you think this is? you have to have zero ego. You’d be willing to operate with drunk people yelling awful things at you. even though those bad weddings are few and far between, they’re very bad. I tell people that I’m a wedding DJ, Oh, that must be so much fun.

That must be so cool. I’m like, usually, usually it’s amazing. Usually, I cannot believe I get paid to do this. But then there is a wedding where if I had to do this wedding over again, there’s not an amount of money in the world that would get me to accept it. But then I still go back because, I’m still thinking about the other one, the 95 percent of weddings that are awesome.

And the clients are great. And everybody’s happy. And it’s usually those weddings where you can tell the client kind of hates each other, client kind of hates each other. Their family knows they hate each other and no one’s happy. This wedding’s happening. So everyone’s just getting wasted and taking it out on me because they can.

I’m a single woman standing behind a table and I can’t walk away. So I’m a really easy target for, it’s very humbling. I remember deejaying a wedding and the wedding couple decided right in the middle of dancing to open their presents on the dance floor. Guess this party’s over.

I have never seen that. I thought I’d seen everything. Yeah. They like to drag out all their presence in the middle of the dance floor. I’m playing background music. What can you do?

Becoming a Founder

To just kind of close things out then, is there something that we missed that you wanted to share about multi-ops? Well, when I started this company, I’m kind of unemployable. I’m not a team player. I am not a good employee. I started this company cause quite frankly, I didn’t know what else I was. Capable of doing. Prior to DJing weddings, I was doing improv comedy and I was a professional comedian, which as you can imagine, doesn’t really pay the bills.

And so then when I started DJing weddings and it and my degrees in art history, and I wasn’t going to go to grad school to become a curator, I hadn’t made a lot of strong financial decisions in my life, but I was always able to put money in my pocket with, waiting tables and basically running off of my wits.

And when I did my first wedding, I was like this, I have to make this my job because this combines everything I’m good at. And I have to make this work. And there were no examples wedding DJ companies didn’t really exist in 2003 when I started DJing weddings.

In 2005, when I started toast and jam, it wasn’t really at all. I had to make it all up as I went along. I didn’t have any. Mentors, I didn’t have anybody to help me. and so I had to basically make it all up as I went along. And, now there’s so much out there.

Becoming a Mentor

I personally have a online course to teach DJs how to grow and scale their businesses called the Toast and Jam Lab. And you got your Joe Bunn’s and your, Alan Burg’s. There’s so much more out there in terms of. Mentors and places. To help give you an idea of how to run this thing above board, and especially now that, I think the federal government last year, they just passed new rules on what it means to be an independent contractor.

And honestly, everyone should be moving towards having their DJ’s BW2’s because. Whenever they do wind up getting around to enforcing these rules, it is not going to be pretty, especially in the wedding industry, because I think we’ve all kind of operated in the fringes for many years. There weren’t a lot of wedding DJ companies or entertainment companies.

It was just like a guy with a rig and they DJ weddings until they got a real job. Because weddings have become such a huge thing in the last 20 years now, there’s a lot more money in it that comes from more scrutiny. And so if you want to start a company, that’s great. But do your research and reach out to everybody in this industry is so wonderful.

When I started going to conferences, I met you, all the people that I’ve become friends with, every conference I go to I, I learn more and more educate yourself, treat this like it’s a real job. Don’t let your parents get in your head and tell you, why didn’t you go to med school? Don’t make yourself an island, especially in this world, small world, everybody wants to help you, but you don’t want to alienate anybody either.

I totally agree. You don’t know what’s possible until you see other people doing it. And that means attending the conferences and creating those connections because the people are out there helping other people in the industry. For sure. And I love helping people. Ask me a question one of my DJs just left and started their own thing.

And people are like, aren’t you freaking out? And I’m like, first of all, no, she’s doing what I did. I wish her nothing but success. She’s perpetually going to be 19 years behind me. She’s not really my competition. And I don’t say that in a detrimental way.

 I’m at a different place in my career than they are. I will always help you. I love helping people. That’s why I’m in this job. In the first place is I like helping people. I love facilitating the best day of people’s lives. And so, the best way for me to be of service is to help people with the companies that I love it.

Ask me anything. Sometimes I’ll charge you. Sometimes I won’t. I feel the exact same way that I think that just comes with age. Ask me anything. I’m just going to tell you the way it is because I’ve been there and done that. So might as well. And also just ego is just bad. Like ego is just the end of everything.

 Karma is going to come back. So where can listeners connect with you and follow along? Well, my social media is run by someone else and it’s beautiful. I have nothing to do with it. so you follow me at Toast and Jam DJs, you’ll see my beautiful social media.

But if you really want to get ahold of me, it would be. @ MaryNisi is well at, Toast and Jam Djs is how you can find my company. you can find, me at Mary Nisi I have a podcast called All Up in My Lady Business. so you could listen there, you can DM me. You can, You can find me. I’m highly findable.

Mary Nisi. N I S I. And what about your lab as well? it is an online course to grow and scale your business called the Toast and Jam Lab. And it takes you from this is how you incorporate up to like, is how you discipline DJs. Okay. I have gotten great feedback on it.

It is like a little mini MBA, and honestly, I think people outside of the DJ industry could also, it’s not, even though I talk about DJs in it, it’s just basic business stuff that I gleaned from my many years of doing this. And I have had everything happen to me that a DJ can have happened to them and I’ve come out the other side.

I think the lab is awesome and I think you should buy it. And like you said, not every business is up into the right every single year. It’s surviving. When I made it out of the pandemic, the day of lockdown, we had 564 weddings on the books for 2020 that was a neutron blast on my business and I am on the other side, stronger. I’m forged in steel at this point. So, this person keeps emailing me trying to buy my business. They’re not in the wedding industry. They’re just a guy that wants to buy businesses.

I don’t think there’s a price you can pay me for this at this point. Unless there is a price, there’s a price, there’s always a price, but it’s in the millions of dollars. She’s my child now in a real way. Every bit. I feel the same way about my business. Just my child.

Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. Thanks for being on the show today. If you want to stay tuned next week for another interview with another wedding pro, and while you’re at it, please give us a five-star review on your favorite platform, Spotify, and subscribe on YouTube and Apple Music.

Thanks for listening and have a great day.