How it began...
I started DJing in 2016, and it started by accident! It was my local social running group Stannary Hash House Harriers' annual 'Winter Warmer' event, where traditionally the more elder members would bring along their vinyl records and each do a short set on the decks, but each year the musical selections were becoming more sparse, so I offered to bring along my laptop containing a fairly vast collection of music in digital form, I put together a selection of music reading from preferences of my hashing friends, my first experience of taking requests and learning the importance of reading the room!
Then the word started to spread - I found myself being asked by friends and family to DJ their birthday parties, New Years Eve and garden parties - using borrowed speakers, various old second-hand lights and a collapsible office desk!
Actual Paying Clients!
What happened next was unexpected, friends of friends who had attended these parties were getting in touch, asking how much I would charge to provide entertainment at thier parties! I was then asked to DJ in a really cool Barbican venue DJing for my local Swing dancing group (my wife Amanda & I have been swing dancers for many years).
At around the same time I happened to meet my now good friend Richard Vale, who happened to be a well established professional DJ based in Cornwall. We immediately hit it off and he was delighted to pass disco jobs to me whenever he had an enquiry for a date he couldn't fill.
The Gigs Kept Coming
I found myself buying my own speakers, upgrading my lights and buying my first deck controller - I even ditched the office desk and built a (crude but functional) setup into a professional road case. A couple of years and lots of birthday parties later things were really starting to gather momentum - but then a pandemic happened!
DJing had been a great side-hustle for a while, and worked well alongside my day-job as a farmer. But the pandemic offered an opportunity to realise that I could make a viable business from this new passion, so while there were no parties happening, and when I wasn't farming, I was researching & investing in gear & music, using my previous background in IT to build a website and business platform, honing my skills and getting ready for what was expected to be a flurry of weddings after the lockdowns had eased.
Wedding Ready
Like many people have experienced after the lockdowns, returning to social norms was a struggle, and believe me, having hardly socialised for months and then having to entertain a room full of people at my first wedding gig had me feeling extremely anxious. But this was the best day of the client's life and it was my responsibility to facilitate that, and that's exactly what I did, weddings, birthdays, more weddings, becoming more and more confident and using my anxiety to focus on being the best I could be.... And I was nailing it! Since then I've had a steady flow of monthly gigs and getting better and better with every party.
However, this steady flow of gigs was not enough, I knew this was my calling and it was time I started promoting myself commercially, to explore the potential of being a full time facilitator of the best parties in the South West! I started networking with more DJs, upgrading my gear and learning as much as I could about the business as well as *and this I have discovered is the most important thing* learning what I can achieve professionally as a person, discovering what DJing is really about and how it's so much more than selecting and playing music (more on that later) so I started attending conferences, seminars, networking events, meeting music producers, watching other DJs and getting advice from the most successful and influential in their careers - all being the 'right kind of different' to really make a difference.
Then I even had the opportunity to reduce my hours working on the farm so I can focus on ForCelebrations and eventually make a full-time career from it.