How three DJs got booked without getting better at DJing
Skills are only a small part of the booking equation
Back in 2010, I got into one store at Nordstrom.
The event lead there had me spin a few months before, and she shared my info with the rest of the event team. I went from one store to three off one recommendation.
But it was one move that got me into the whole Southern California region.
One of the event leads was in charge of a meeting where all the store managers and department managers of the So Cal region gathered. They tapped me to DJ the event and introduce the VP of the So Cal region.
That meeting went off without a hitch. Everyone felt the energy I brought to them. It went over so well that all the store managers wanted me to spin at their store.
In that one moment, I expanded from three stores to twenty.
I’d love to call that luck. I can’t. I was visible to the right people at the right time, and that one room changed the shape of my career.
Back then, that was the only way to do it. Social media wasn’t what it is now. If you wanted a real career, you had to physically get in front of the people who could book you and hope the room was the right room.
You don’t have to hope anymore.
You can build that visibility on purpose.
Three DJs in the IG30 Blitz group did exactly that over 30 days. They followed the plan. Here’s what came out of it.
Josh closed a $2,300 wedding in three days because his profile did the work when he wasn’t in the room
Josh meets a guy at his barber shop on a Tuesday afternoon. They get to chatting and the guy mentions he’s getting married.
It just so happens that Josh DJ’ed his barber’s wedding two weeks prior.
The barber talks him up, pulls out his phone, and shows the guy how packed the dancefloor was. That footage came from the content Josh paid to have captured at the gig.
Josh hands over a business card. And that’s the end of his part.
He doesn’t have to be in the room for what happens next...
The guy goes home and starts digging. He starts with his Instagram profile, then his website, and then he listened to a mix. That same night, he emails Josh asking for a sales call.
Josh sends a calendar link instead of playing the what-days-work-for-you game. Guy picks Thursday at 8 PM.
He takes the call and gets the contract signed. $2,300.
All in three days. You know that most couples take at least three weeks, if they don’t ghost you first!
Consider the parts that Josh controlled. He paid for wedding content two weeks before this guy popped up. He posted consistently within the 30 days so his profile held up under real scrutiny. He made booking a call as easy as one click.
None of that happened in the room. All of it decided the outcome.
Shanghai beat a DJ with real industry connections because the organizer looked them both up
Shanghai was up against another DJ for a nonprofit event.
That DJ’s dad is a big-time radio DJ with Bad Boy connections. She was the clear frontrunner and everybody knew it.
Then the organizer did what every client does now. She pulled up both Instagram profiles.
Shanghai had been putting in work for three weeks straight. Her profile was active with gig recaps, mixes, and real footage from real rooms. Her page looked like a DJ people hire.
She booked the gig. One hour for $500.
On a call, she shared with the group her take on her market: the radio DJs get everything.
Not that day.
Connections can definitely get you places. That’s real, and it matters. But once a client is looking at both of you side by side on a phone, the connection stops working and the profile takes over.
In the same weekend, she met a caterer at a birthday party who throws large events quarterly. That caterer looked at her profile too and now wants to work with her going forward.
Two clients in one week. Both for the same reason.
Hitman gained 20 followers and started getting calls from the people who book DJs
Twenty followers in 30 days may not sound like a lot. But what happened next mattered more.
He noticed an increase in calls, and he paid attention to who they were coming from.
They weren’t from other DJs looking to hang out. They were wedding coordinators, people running their own DJ teams, and even somebody who wanted a wedding consultation.
These are vendors, the type of people who feed DJs work all year round.
He also told us something important that I want you to sit with.
People are watching even when it doesn’t look like it. Folks bring up his posts to him in person. When he skips a day, they tell him they missed it. None of that shows up in a like count.
Here’s the honest part. Hitman can’t prove those calls came from Instagram. He doesn’t have hard data on it, and I’m not going to pretend he does.
So I told him what I’ll tell you. Ask every single lead how they found you. Write it down. Most DJs are guessing about the one thing they most need to know, and the answer is one question away.
The bigger point here is what his profile attracted. Coordinators and vendors were calling him. He so happened to gain twenty followers doing it.
That should tell you something about what the follower count is actually worth.
What all three DJ have in common
Nobody went viral. Nobody has a big following. Josh works around a family. Shanghai’s market defaults to radio DJs. Hitman gained twenty followers.
The only thing that changed is that when somebody went looking, there was something worth finding.
Your skills matter. That’s facts. But none of these three got better at DJing this month, and all three got more calls. Once you’re past decent, more practice isn’t what’s holding you back.
Getting seen is.
And right now, Instagram is where the people booking you are doing their research.
These wins came out of the first IG30 Blitz group. Thirty days of posting with the tools, the direction, and a group of DJs keeping each other honest, so it feels like something you can actually keep doing instead of a chore you quit in week two.
The next group starts September 14th.
If you’re tired of hoping the phone rings, spend 30 days making it ring: ig.spintosix.com
To Your Success,
Shammy