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DJ Graffiti: Bold Beats Breaking Barriers · The Bold Lounge

0:08
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Bold Lounge Podcast.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: My name is Lee Burgess and I will be your host.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: If you're anything like me, you love hearing inspiring stories of people who have gone on bold journeys and made a positive impact in the world.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is all about those kinds of stories.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Every week we'll hear from someone who has taken the lead or embarked on an extraordinary journey.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: In addition to hearing their stories, we'll also learn about their bold growth mindset that they use to make things happen.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: Whether they faced challenges or doubts along the way, they persisted and ultimately achieved their goals.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: These impactful stories will leave you feeling motivated and inspired to pursue your own culture.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: I believe everyone has a bold story waiting to be free.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: Tune in and get ready to be inspired.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Bold Lounge.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Today I have DJ Graffiti.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: He is a DJ and marketer, and I'm so excited to introduce you to him and also for you to learn about what he's doing and how he is pioneering in the world today and being bold every day.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for being here.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, Lee.
1:16
SPEAKER_02: I am here and ready to be bold, excited to be bold.
1:20
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for inviting me on.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: Great.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: So I'd love for you just to introduce yourself to the audience who may not know you.
1:26
SPEAKER_02: All right.
1:26
SPEAKER_02: So how do I give an introduction of myself?
1:28
SPEAKER_02: You kind of said it.
1:29
SPEAKER_02: The two things that define me, I'm a DJ and I'm also a marketer.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: And I've been doing both of those things since the exact same amount of time.
1:37
SPEAKER_02: And my it was my sophomore year in college where I started DJing, and that was also where I declared my major in marketing.
1:44
SPEAKER_02: So I kind of jumped into both, and I've been both of those the same.
1:48
SPEAKER_02: But in addition, I would say those are probably the things that define me more than just my career is uh being a husband and being a dad and just trying to be a good friend to people around me.
2:00
SPEAKER_02: I think that's that's the most important way to introduce me, and that's how I would present myself first.
2:04
SPEAKER_02: But I do spend the majority of my time being a DJ and a marketer.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: And and thank you so much for taking the time.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: We've basically met on the surface so far.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to get to know each other, and I've met you through your music, which is to me, that probably is one of the best ways to meet you.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: And so we connected on LinkedIn, and and it's a wonderful space to be connected with people who probably you wouldn't bump into in other spaces.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: And what really was profound to me is, you know, how open you were, how engaging you were, and then how accepting you were.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, I say that just with kind of like people throwing out what they'd like to hear, and then you somehow fitting it into the sets.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: And some of the sets that I've been part of are the ones where it's just like, you know, giving people a boost of energy or doing something to raise money for a great cause.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: And I'm always attracted to that energy and that good vibe of doing good for others.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited to get to know you better and to continue getting to know you through the podcast and outside of it.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: So one of the things that we start off with is our definitions of bold.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: And there's some commonalities in some of the things that I'm hearing from different guests, but would love to learn for you, for DJ Graffiti, what it means to be bold.
3:19
SPEAKER_02: All right, so man, I had to think a little bit long and hard about this one because that's an important thing to define and then put some words around.
3:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:28
SPEAKER_02: But for me, another thing, my my spirituality is an important part of who I am.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: And so when I think about being bold, it really has something to do with stepping out on faith, right?
3:37
SPEAKER_02: It has something to do with kind of, even though this may not be the easiest, most comfortable thing to do, you step out and do it anyway.
3:46
SPEAKER_02: Right.
3:46
SPEAKER_02: And you do it, you know, as confidently as you can, and you summon up all the uh, you know, the authority and everything that you have to kind of step out and do something that's not common.
3:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:57
SPEAKER_02: Right.
3:57
SPEAKER_02: And so that that's how I would define being bold is just stepping out and concentrating down everything that you have to put it into your your being and be like, okay, I'm gonna step out and I'm going to step out strongly on this.
4:11
SPEAKER_02: That's what I think about and being bold.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the belief without the proof.
4:16
SPEAKER_02: Right.
4:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yes.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: And that's not easy to do.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: And any not at all, any shape or form.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: And that's what means faith.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the things that, as I've seen you just, you know, during your sets is the engagement and how you connect.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: And so when you think about your faith and kind of where you are now, what's the first time you remember being bold?
4:36
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I kind of have a recency bias, and so it's hard for me to go back, think way back into the into the past.
4:45
SPEAKER_02: I'm always thinking about something that just happened a little bit ago, but I tried to dig up something a little further back than last year, you know?
4:54
SPEAKER_02: It's all good.
4:55
SPEAKER_02: It's all bold.
4:55
SPEAKER_02: So the let's see.
4:57
SPEAKER_02: So the first time that I can remember really being bold, I would say, and it kind of still falls in line with me being a DJ.
5:06
SPEAKER_02: I graduated from law school.
5:08
SPEAKER_02: So I went to business school and then law school, and then I decided I'm going to be a DJ.
5:13
SPEAKER_02: So I have a law degree from the University of Michigan.
5:16
SPEAKER_02: And no, I'm not gonna do anything with that.
5:18
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna go over here and DJ.
5:19
SPEAKER_02: To me, that was bold because who does that, right?
5:22
SPEAKER_02: That's that's not a normal, that's not a normal thing to do.
5:25
SPEAKER_02: And uh, if you talk to my parents, it wasn't normal for them either.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: They were like, they probably didn't think that was bold.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: They had a different word for that.
5:32
unknown: Exactly.
5:33
SPEAKER_02: They they're starting with an S and then a T and then a U and then a P, you know.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you can carry it on from there.
5:39
SPEAKER_02: But but for me, it it was bold because it required me to have some confidence in myself of being able to make something happen, even though it was flying in the face of what was, you know, common knowledge.
5:51
SPEAKER_02: And it did take a leap of faith, right, to do that.
5:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: And in I think a commonality of some of the definitions is you're doing something unexpected that maybe not everybody agrees with or understands.
6:03
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And that might have been that move for you, but you were also being bold by following your passion, following something that I I'm assuming brings you great joy just by what I see and how you do it, and also making sure that you're in alignment with who you want to be and who you are.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Would you agree with those additives to that?
6:24
SPEAKER_02: I do.
6:24
SPEAKER_02: I very much do agree with everything you said, is is right along with who I try to be.
6:29
SPEAKER_02: So I think what you've seen is not always the DJ that I was, right?
6:34
SPEAKER_02: So most DJs, people not everyone will know this, but most DJs are introverts, myself included, right?
6:41
SPEAKER_02: So when I'm interacting with the audience and talking to everybody, I enjoy talking to people, but it takes a lot, right?
6:47
SPEAKER_02: Most DJs are kind of the people in the back of the room.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm an introvert.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:51
unknown: Okay.
6:53
SPEAKER_02: So we play the music, we kind of stay in the back somewhere, and you don't usually see us, but you experience the, you know, the vibes and the music music that we play, but we're kind of behind the scenes people, right?
7:04
SPEAKER_02: So right now I'm leaning a lot more into exploring who am I as a is putting my personality out there.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: And that is a bold step that I've taken more recently.
7:15
SPEAKER_02: But just choosing to step out on something that I was passionate about and connected with, really just trying to be the best version of myself at any given time and take what gifts I've been given and share those with others.
7:30
SPEAKER_02: That's what I'm always about, and that's something that hasn't changed over time.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: And and being a DJ as you're starting off can't be easy.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: So that's another bold thing, and very entrepreneurial, right?
7:42
SPEAKER_00: So, in the sense of like having to, you know, I shared a little bit about my entrepreneurial journey really quickly, but I started with like a list of 15 people that knew me, and then from there I met people, and not every person I talked to wanted to work with me or had a job right then and there, but it was like the relationship building and the connectedness and some of the things that I think people underestimate some of um our professions and how they're actually very connected, and really it starts with the base of relationships and and you know, human-to-human contact and and getting to know one another.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: So when you think about your role and some of the things that you just said about putting yourself out there and kind of going, and I have an introvert that it just pops up every now and then, like you wouldn't know that someone would think I'm an extrovert, you know, I'm always talking and out there and meeting people, but it takes a lot of energy out of me.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: And so, like, I reboot uh in small groups for sure.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: So I can't I get that.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: When you think about the confidence that you have and kind of the role that you're playing now and doing in being a DJ in a different way, which I want to get to because you're you know, you started off by probably I'm assuming doing events and and smaller venues and then working up, or like how does that how does your path go from like where you were?
9:00
SPEAKER_00: Like, where did you start and where is your world focused now?
9:03
SPEAKER_02: Right.
9:03
SPEAKER_02: That's that is a great question.
9:05
SPEAKER_02: And I love how you mentioned you wrote down 15 people that you already had a connection with and just that documentation and brainstorming and writing down your goals and visualizing where you're going.
9:20
SPEAKER_02: That's such an important part for me of what I've been able to accomplish over time.
9:25
SPEAKER_02: So, but to answer your question about DJing, I started out in college, so dorm room parties and then house parties, and it was all the college stuff.
9:35
SPEAKER_02: From there, I moved on to clubs, and that was when my marketing, well, I guess probably even before that, but I would say that was when the marketing and DJing started running together hand in hand because one of the events that I remember most was with a crew that we had put together and we created a party that was a launch of a video game.
9:58
SPEAKER_02: It was Def Jam Vendetta, it was a wrestling video game.
10:01
SPEAKER_02: Def Jam is a record label, right?
10:03
SPEAKER_02: And so this was a record label that it connected with a video game company to do something that had to do with wrestling, and we were launching this at a college party, right?
10:14
SPEAKER_02: And so there was a party where people are dancing and listening to music and then also playing this video game at the same time.
10:19
SPEAKER_02: Right.
10:20
SPEAKER_02: So that was the very first time that I kind of saw a vision of how my world has more so come together now, where it was marketing and a launch of a product at the same time.
10:30
SPEAKER_02: It was bringing people together.
10:31
SPEAKER_02: It took us a lot of promotions to get everybody to come out.
10:35
SPEAKER_02: It was the marketing side of things where you know who is your audience, and so we were clued into this certain market, college market that we had a handle on, and I'm DJing, playing music, and all of this is happening at the same time.
10:49
SPEAKER_02: So that was kind of a foreshadowing of where I am.
10:52
SPEAKER_02: So from there, you just move it forward.
10:54
SPEAKER_02: I did concerts after that, and I became kind of the go-to guy for big name hip-hop concerts in the Detroit area.
11:01
SPEAKER_02: And that's really where I made my name, and then also creating mixtapes and mixed CDs where, you know, I would take the best music of the time, mix it together, and then put it out on a CD and then sell it to everybody at all of the concerts that I was DJing on.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: And then right around, let's see, I think this was like 2007 or eight, I decided, okay, this is going really well.
11:25
SPEAKER_02: I got the opportunity to go out on a couple different tours and I got on the road and I had some of the best experiences of my life.
11:32
SPEAKER_02: And I also realized this DJing thing is not for me full time because everybody else that I knew that had gotten to that place was like, oh, I had my first taste of really being out on the road and traveling.
11:45
SPEAKER_02: As soon as they came home, they were like, I gotta get back on the road.
11:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:48
SPEAKER_02: For me, I was kind of like, I gotta go sit down somewhere, right?
11:50
SPEAKER_02: This this was fun, this was this was exciting, but it didn't the the sh doing of the shows didn't fill me up so much that it was more than the tearing me down of just being constantly on the road and like just do a show, go to the hotel, sleep for a couple hours, get back in the tour bus and drive again.
12:10
SPEAKER_02: You know, that wasn't for me.
12:11
SPEAKER_02: And so I said, okay, I need to lean on this marketing.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: Right.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: And so then for the next 10 to 10 to 12 years, I ran a marketing agency and still DJ'd, but just I wasn't pursuing it as a full-time thing.
12:23
SPEAKER_02: It became my really well-paying kind of in my back pocket hobby.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: And I focused on marketing up until COVID.
12:30
SPEAKER_02: And then when COVID hit, I got to do DJing from home.
12:34
SPEAKER_02: So right now, not everybody can't see me, but I'm in my basement studio.
12:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
12:38
SPEAKER_02: And I perform for people all over the world from my basement.
12:41
SPEAKER_02: I do some, I still do some in-person stuff also, but this gave me the ability to just come down here, play for an hour, and then go right back to my family, go right back to regular life.
12:51
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, wow, this is amazing.
12:53
SPEAKER_02: And so it transitioned, and I kind of had to make a bold move to step away from the marketing agency that I built for 12 or 13 years to then say, okay, I'm back to this DJing full-time because I really love doing it.
13:07
SPEAKER_02: And it's bringing together the marketing piece, it's bringing together a passion that I have for DJing and the newly found kind of performance aspect of it, right?
13:17
SPEAKER_02: Because before, like I said, I was in the background just playing music and nobody could see me.
13:21
SPEAKER_02: But now I'm interacting with audiences and it fills me up so much more to talk to people and chat and go back and forth with them.
13:28
SPEAKER_02: So that's kind of like the the long and the short of my my DJ career.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: And like if you've ever seen DJ Graffiti actually perform, like he is a multitasker of all different sorts.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: Like he's got his phone set up, he has his multiple screens, obviously.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: He has his DJ equipment, he's reading the feeds, he's interacting, he's taking requests.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: I I I mean, I'm a multitasker, but I don't know if I could do all of that.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: So just kind of seeing you operate is is really, really cool in the sense of all that you can do at one time.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: And then having the opportunity, I think, with the pandemic, and there's there's definitely pros and cons.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: And so, not to say that there weren't negatives from it for sure for many, there are opportunities that have come from a business perspective for people to do things differently or to look at it differently.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: So being able to bring the power of like one of your sets to a meeting or conferences and things like that online, having a set in between and having that break, I think it brings so much energy back into the environment, even if it is virtual.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: So I want to talk a little bit about music and the power of music because it's just something it it is my like go-to medicine.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: I'll just say that.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: Like, I you know, it is what I use for my mental health, my physical health, like music really, you know, I listen to it, all types of music, but it really brings me energy and joy.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: And I've been I love live concerts.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: One of my things I've been to over 250 and continue to go excited to have them back in person now with everything going on.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: But I think one of the things that I think is it's it's very powerful.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder what your thoughts were.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you've been in different situations and kind of you know, just being able to almost change the energy of a room or how people interact with changing a song or bringing a song in from one to another.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: Can you talk a little bit about that from your perspective of what you think the power of music is?
15:23
SPEAKER_00: And then the second part of that is like, and what have you seen it do?
15:27
SPEAKER_02: Wow, so that is an extremely good question.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: And the last three, four years here where we talk about COVID, that was what really pulls me all in on DJing is the power of music, yeah.
15:41
SPEAKER_02: And seeing how, like you said, it for everyone else, it was healing, but also for me, right?
15:50
SPEAKER_02: Just and I think it's it's a combination.
15:52
SPEAKER_02: So there's the music side of it, and then there's people coming together around music.
15:57
SPEAKER_02: I've seen so much happen throughout my years of life that that's that's a very deep question.
16:04
SPEAKER_02: So let's get into it and start pointing out some specifics.
16:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:06
SPEAKER_02: All right.
16:07
SPEAKER_02: So I would say the very first thing that I saw music do, because if you look back, is music that is is around times of in times of crisis, in times of when you're going through something.
16:21
SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna can I speak openly and freely?
16:24
SPEAKER_02: Can I just Okay, cool?
16:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:26
SPEAKER_02: It's like I I I want to sugarcoat things and I want to ease things in, but it's just easier to just come right out and say it.
16:33
SPEAKER_02: I'm a black man, right?
16:34
SPEAKER_02: So when we look back into the history, and we look back into history and we look at what people have gone through, music was what got people through during times of slavery, right?
16:43
SPEAKER_02: They sang spirituals and sang hymns that helped them, that also allowed them to share messages to other people.
16:49
SPEAKER_02: So that came there.
16:50
SPEAKER_02: Then I was born in the late 70s, where you have certain other things happening, and then you know, there's songs about war, there's songs about peace, there's songs about love, there's songs about just about any emotion that you have or anything that you're going through, there's songs that tie into that and that align with that, right?
17:08
SPEAKER_02: And so when we jump forward, for me, rap music was something that I saw kind of change change people's perceptions, right?
17:18
SPEAKER_02: So I would say I think we've made great strides, once again, speaking as a black man, from an area of racism, and I saw rap and hip hop music bring people together in ways that their parents weren't brought together necessarily in that way.
17:33
SPEAKER_02: But then when everybody was listening to the same music and enjoying that together, it was bringing people together and letting people see, hmm, even though those folks over there don't look like me, we enjoy this same music which is bringing us together.
17:46
SPEAKER_02: Right.
17:46
SPEAKER_02: Right?
17:47
SPEAKER_02: Right.
17:47
SPEAKER_02: And so then if we come forward, jump forward, and I'm skipping over lots of stuff, but when we jumped forward into COVID, that was for me personally.
17:56
SPEAKER_02: I just I started out just hopping on Facebook and playing music for people, just because it was like, hey, we're all locked down.
18:03
SPEAKER_02: And so I started playing music, and people would just jump in the chat and say, I really needed this.
18:07
SPEAKER_02: You don't know how important this was.
18:09
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
18:10
SPEAKER_02: This just, you know, changed my whole feeling.
18:14
SPEAKER_02: This uplifted me.
18:15
SPEAKER_02: This was so great.
18:16
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
18:17
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, wow, because at the same time, I was falling into sort of a funk or a depression because of just all that was going on around us.
18:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:25
SPEAKER_02: And their energy filled me up.
18:28
SPEAKER_02: And at the same time, me playing the music filled them up.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:32
SPEAKER_02: Right.
18:32
SPEAKER_02: And so that was before I actually started kind of performing a little more.
18:37
SPEAKER_02: You talked about how I have like 17 different things going on.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: At that point, I was just here playing music.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: Right.
18:43
SPEAKER_02: And if you see the videos of it, I'm straight faced.
18:45
SPEAKER_02: I'm always very serious looking when I'm DJing if I don't pay attention to what's going on with my face.
18:51
SPEAKER_02: Right.
18:51
SPEAKER_02: So I'm just playing music, but people loved it, and everybody couldn't wait for the next time I would hop back on.
18:57
SPEAKER_02: But then once I started to jump into chat rooms and have more people in the virtual events, people's energy filled me up, and I just started mirroring that back to them.
19:09
SPEAKER_02: And so that's where you get me just smiling and being excited.
19:14
SPEAKER_02: And I realized that if I kind of I call it smacking people in the face with a wall of good energy.
19:20
SPEAKER_02: When I can bring that to what I'm doing, people just reflect it right back to me and we have the best time.
19:25
SPEAKER_02: Right.
19:25
SPEAKER_02: And it can completely change.
19:27
SPEAKER_02: People say, you know, I wasn't having a terrible time, and then all of a sudden I came into this set and I just couldn't leave.
19:33
SPEAKER_02: And it was so amazing, and it just really lifted me up.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: And when you look into clinically what music can do, it's used when someone's battling dementia, right?
19:43
SPEAKER_02: They'll put headphones on somebody who's, you know, not really all the way there and coherent.
19:48
SPEAKER_02: And then all of a sudden, the music will bring them to a place where they start speaking and start dancing a little bit.
19:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:54
SPEAKER_02: Right.
19:54
SPEAKER_02: And so there's so much that you can do with through the power of music.
19:58
SPEAKER_02: I think it can meet you where you are and and either just give you a hug, right?
20:03
SPEAKER_02: So it can, it can, it can meet you right where you are and just be like, I'm here with you, and hear some music that speaks to what you're feeling and what you're going through.
20:10
SPEAKER_02: Right.
20:11
SPEAKER_02: But by the same token, it can take you to a place that you never thought was even possible.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Right.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: And I think it allows you also to, and speaking personally, just to embrace your emotion, whatever it is.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Like if you're sad, then it lets you be sad, right?
20:26
SPEAKER_00: And I know what song, and I'm even getting a little verclimp right now.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Like, I know what song will make me cry if I play it because it's connected to a memory or connected to a person or connected to a moment in time that was maybe even joyful, but the person's gone, right?
20:40
SPEAKER_00: Or something like that.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: But it it connects me to other people.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: For me, like it takes down some walls.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like we're all like here together, we're all enjoying this music.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: We have that in common.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we don't look for commonalities, we're always looking at how we're different versus how we're the same.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing that I think I love about music and the power of what you do and in the environment that you do it, whether it's virtual or in person, I cannot wait for us to do our first event together.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: And we will, I'm manifesting that right now, DJ Graffee.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do an event where like just in person, like it just like you can see it turn like a moment in time that goes from almost like very bland or very not connected to extremely connected.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: And I know you've seen this a hundred times over, if not more, in your experiences, but to me it it just breaks down, it breaks down walls and allows us to be human and to have a little fun that we probably don't get to have that often on a regular basis or as often as we should.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Would you agree?
21:45
SPEAKER_02: I fully agree.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: And you said something that is an important thing that I'm always trying to create in every set that I do.
21:52
SPEAKER_02: You mentioned how music you always attach it to a memory or to a moment, and so it can make you cry because you attach it to.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: A certain memory, right?
22:01
SPEAKER_02: That that brings up that emotion, or that you can relive that moment and then it brings you to an emotional space.
22:07
SPEAKER_02: For me, with every set, I'm trying to create memories, right?
22:11
SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to say, can we do something special?
22:14
SPEAKER_02: Can we experience something together that will never happen again just like this?
22:18
SPEAKER_02: Because we won't be the exact same people.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: We won't have those same people saying those same things, requesting those same songs in that same virtual or in-person space.
22:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:28
SPEAKER_02: Right.
22:29
SPEAKER_02: So that for me, I always wanted to say, can I remember, can I think of a point of that session that was memorable that makes somebody want to go and talk about it?
22:40
SPEAKER_02: Right.
22:40
SPEAKER_02: Because it was such a special moment in time that we were able to capture.
22:45
SPEAKER_02: And so that I'm actively trying to create that in every set that I do.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: And then just trying to bottle it.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, just trying to bottle that like feeling that moment.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, I know I've been at weddings, I'll use that as an example.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: We don't want them to stop playing.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: Like we're having so much fun.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: We're having a good time.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: We've met people we haven't met before.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: And I'm using this wedding analogy, but it can certainly be used in the corporate world.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: Or we haven't seen, you know, like Bill dance before, and you know, like I don't care how people dance.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't, you know, I don't think I'm a good dancer, but I'll get out there and dance.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: But I mean it's just like a little bit of freedom, and I think being real and people letting down their guard, it has the power, I think, to help people get to know people and be real.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's just the most important.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: The life's too short to not be real.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: That's why, you know, I'm all about speaking like we would normally speak because I think it's important to do that, and I think music again has has power in that.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: So tell me about what you're doing now, really in the entertaining enterprise, really within the corporate events, because I think that's what I want our listeners to know the most about so that they can learn about it and learn more about how it can make a positive impact in their organization.
23:57
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
23:58
SPEAKER_02: So the first things first came me being in clubs.
24:02
SPEAKER_02: Then I opened up for lots of big name hip hop artists, including, let's see, Jay-Z and Eminem and Snoop Dogg, and then like Beyoncé and younger artists like J.
24:13
SPEAKER_02: Cole and Big Sean, I did Dave Chappelle.
24:15
SPEAKER_02: So, like lots of people that that was where I got started.
24:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I would say probably the most formative times were at weddings, because that was where I got to extend my ability to really take a wide audience and try to play for a wide audience at the same time and still create those moments.
24:34
SPEAKER_02: So I'm playing for someone's little cousin at the same time, their great grandmother is here, right?
24:40
SPEAKER_02: And I'm trying to bring everybody get together and have a cohesive experience and make sure everybody gets what they came for and at the same time has a good time and doesn't feel like, well, oh, he's playing for this audience right now, we have to sit down up.
24:54
SPEAKER_02: He's playing for that audience.
24:55
SPEAKER_02: So that was what got me to a place where I can do what I'm doing now to pull from all these different songs, and people are asking for different genres.
25:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:02
SPEAKER_02: And for me, the challenge of pulling all that together, and it's a very inclusive thing to be able to play for a wider audience in age ranges and geographic regions and genres of music and do it all at the same time.
25:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:15
SPEAKER_02: Right.
25:16
SPEAKER_02: So that taking that and bringing that into the corporate space is really what I've done.
25:21
SPEAKER_02: And I think, like I was saying, the inclusivity of it, I didn't foresee that.
25:26
SPEAKER_02: I didn't see that in advance.
25:28
SPEAKER_02: That wasn't something I was trying to do, but it just is something that worked.
25:32
SPEAKER_02: And because everybody loves most everybody loves some sort of music, right?
25:37
SPEAKER_02: And then giving people the ability to jump into the chat or, you know, request songs and just say, This is what I enjoy, right?
25:44
SPEAKER_02: That brings everybody together because you start saying, like you were saying, hey, wait a minute, is that Bill over there dancing?
25:49
SPEAKER_02: We've never seen Bill dance before.
25:51
SPEAKER_02: But even from a virtual perspective, it's like, oh, you like that band?
25:55
SPEAKER_02: I didn't even know you knew that's something we may have in common, or I learned something about you that I wouldn't otherwise know because you requested that.
26:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:02
SPEAKER_02: Right.
26:02
SPEAKER_02: And so from a corporate perspective, it's been about one, just something that can bring people together, whether we're in person or whether it's virtual or hybrid, it doesn't really matter.
26:14
SPEAKER_02: The ability to gather around music really does bring people together.
26:18
SPEAKER_02: And my, even when in person, I'm actually developing something.
26:23
SPEAKER_02: I can't really let the cat out of the bag yet, but I'm developing something that still allows everybody to interact like they will virtually, because that was something that I had never done before was talking back and forth to people while playing music.
26:37
SPEAKER_02: But for me, it's really just all about capturing that energy, giving people that boost of good energy, playing music and trying to reach out and thinking about all of the different people that are there, and how can I bring everyone together and have a collective experience that's memorable and that everybody wants to talk about?
26:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
26:55
SPEAKER_02: Really.
26:55
SPEAKER_02: That that's really that's really it for me.
26:57
SPEAKER_02: And so I'll say I don't know of any other DJ who has you know a resume similar to mine, meaning that you could go out and travel the world and you've opened up for all of these people who are household names and icons of music, who chooses to then say, okay, I'm going to specifically focus on enterprise corporate events.
27:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
27:19
SPEAKER_02: Right.
27:20
SPEAKER_02: And so I and I'm doing that.
27:21
SPEAKER_02: That's the marketer in me saying, Hey, I'm one of one over here, at least as of right now.
27:26
SPEAKER_02: I'm one of one.
27:28
SPEAKER_02: And so I am going to be this, and this is my market, and I'm going to live into it.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: No, and you're bold.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: And probably some people would say, You're crazy.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: You know, why aren't you on tour and why aren't you doing this?
27:39
SPEAKER_00: And you could make 10x or whatever it be, but that's short-sighted in the sense of like what the opportunity is here, especially in the way that you're doing it, the way that you've entered the market, the way that you have the savviness of understanding the business side as well as the the DJ side, which I don't know that.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: I wrote down what do you look for?
27:59
SPEAKER_00: Like, how do you know the ingredients or the formula?
28:04
SPEAKER_00: Because it's different with every event, right?
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Like, there's probably some commonalities.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I know this one is a good transition, or or this or that, but I'm assuming, and you correct me if I'm wrong here, like every set is different, every event is different.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: So you're you're you're looking for certain things.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: Is that accurate?
28:22
SPEAKER_02: That is accurate.
28:24
SPEAKER_02: I think not every DJ is that way.
28:26
SPEAKER_02: There's different people who have different formulas that they use.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: So if you are a you know, stadium DJ and you're this huge stadium presence, then you usually play the exact same set in every place.
28:38
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
28:38
SPEAKER_02: And part of that is because there's a whole stage show and a light show and fireworks going off at certain times.
28:45
SPEAKER_02: And so everything kind of has to be exactly the same for all of that to sync together.
28:49
SPEAKER_02: You know, but I came up in in nightclubs, which was we carried four or five crates of records, and then you played off the audience and it was an interaction, kind of a unspoken conversation between you and the audience.
29:02
SPEAKER_02: You play something people like, and you're like, okay, cool, let me play something like that, right?
29:06
SPEAKER_02: It's something that keeps that vibe going and allows people to continue with where where they started.
29:12
SPEAKER_02: And so for me, I just I'm doing the same thing that I've been doing.
29:15
SPEAKER_02: I think if I hadn't been doing it since 1997, right, I couldn't do it so fluidly now.
29:20
SPEAKER_02: But that's what allows me to come into an event and say, I don't even know what I'm going to play.
29:25
SPEAKER_02: Right.
29:25
SPEAKER_02: If if I have the ability to interact with the audience, I'll start out playing a few songs and they can tell me where we'll go and then we'll end up where we end up.
29:34
SPEAKER_02: But I I do have some, you know, I think it's kind of like a sales call from that perspective.
29:39
SPEAKER_02: The best salespeople have scripts, right?
29:42
SPEAKER_02: Now they don't talk word for word verbatim where they're reading a script, but they know I gotta hit these key points and we need to get to these places before we're done in order for me to close the sale.
29:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:52
SPEAKER_02: But having that script and having that firm foundation allows me to kind of freestyle it a little bit and just be present in that moment and allow it to go wherever it's going to go.
30:03
SPEAKER_02: So that's how I I view it.
30:04
SPEAKER_02: That's so there's always those little parallels where sales and marketing and uh DJing and music and personal development are all mixed in there together.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: There's a connectedness too to the energy, I would think too.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: Like when you see like the energy drop or go up, it's like, okay, I need more of that and less of this.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: Right.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: Again, I go back to just kind of watching some of your sets of like, you know, some people can throw out some funky songs, and maybe even I do that don't they're good songs, but they don't fit with kind of the flow, right?
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Of what's going on.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: And I think people can extrapolate that into some of their actions too.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: Like, you may have a really good idea, you may have a really good strategy, but it's not actually gonna be good to add it to the flow right now because of just where people are from whether they were enjoying the last song or whether the last one was a good, something different's needed to go in between.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: So when you're thinking of kind of like that moment where it's like, oh, I gotta go left when I thought I was gonna go right, is there anything you look for when you're doing that or anything you observe from like human energy behavior type of way?
31:06
SPEAKER_02: Are you sure you're not a DJ Lee?
31:08
SPEAKER_00: I listen to a lot of music.
31:12
SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, exactly what you said.
31:14
SPEAKER_02: I was talking about the kind of you know, non-verbal communication that happens.
31:18
SPEAKER_02: I mean, when you play a song that doesn't hit quite so well, you get, you know, the energy drops.
31:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
31:25
SPEAKER_02: Whether even though I'm not in the room with people, if it's virtual, the chat will slow down.
31:30
SPEAKER_02: You know, when I play something that people love, they'll get to typing, you know, and the people will be like, I love this song, right?
31:36
SPEAKER_02: And it pumps you up.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
31:38
SPEAKER_02: So, so yes, you you can definitely feel the energy.
31:41
SPEAKER_02: You can feel things change in the room.
31:43
SPEAKER_02: But I think it's also important to take people on a journey.
31:46
SPEAKER_02: That's always important because if if it's always just high, high, high the the entire time, that's that'll tire you out.
31:52
SPEAKER_02: It's too much, yeah, right.
31:54
SPEAKER_02: You have to be able to take people up and then bring them down.
31:57
SPEAKER_02: And you actually can experience higher highs that way, right?
32:00
SPEAKER_02: So if I if I bring you down and kind of chill you out a little bit, then I can take you up really high, right?
32:06
SPEAKER_02: And then I can, you know, bring you back down.
32:08
SPEAKER_02: So it's all about really going on that journey and creating those moments.
32:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:11
SPEAKER_02: And so the whole time you were talking about that though, I'm hearing the marketing go side by side with the music and the performance and the experience there.
32:20
SPEAKER_02: And I think in general in life, I would say we always have those things happening, whether you know it or not.
32:27
SPEAKER_02: You're a marketer and you're a salesperson, even if you don't realize it, right?
32:31
SPEAKER_02: So whatever it is that you're choosing to be bold about, that passion comes across and it's going to reach someone else, and they're going to feel that differently than if you didn't have that boldness and if you didn't have that passion behind it.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: And so I think from a musical perspective, I feel like I've had people say, I don't even like that song, and then you played it and I enjoyed it just the way that you did it, right?
32:53
SPEAKER_02: Because you put it between two songs that I love, yeah, and then now I actually enjoyed it when I'm like, I before this, I was saying I could go my whole life without ever hearing that song again.
33:04
SPEAKER_02: Right.
33:04
SPEAKER_02: So I think something about how we present things is is important to how people receive them.
33:11
SPEAKER_02: But then what's also super and very important is everybody is viewing the world, life, through their own kind of colored lenses, right?
33:21
SPEAKER_02: All of the experiences we've had in the past that shapes and how we perceive and what we want coming to us right now.
33:28
SPEAKER_02: So from a marketing perspective, you don't just throw out there whatever you want to do.
33:32
SPEAKER_02: You really do need to get that feedback from people on the other side, and they'll tell you if they're if they appreciate it, if they're enjoying it or not.
33:39
SPEAKER_02: And I think a bad DJ, a bad entrepreneur, a bad is somebody who just only does what they want to do and never takes into consideration what the other side, you know, the feedback that's coming back.
33:52
SPEAKER_02: If you never take that information into consideration, then that's when you fail, right?
33:56
SPEAKER_02: And so the bad wedding DJ is the one who gets up and is just keeps playing the same stuff, even though everybody's straight-faced and sitting down and it's dull.
34:05
SPEAKER_02: But the one who's everybody loves, it's not so much just about like your skill level, it's about the fact that you played something that everybody loved, so you gave them something else that was kind of similar to that, right?
34:15
SPEAKER_02: You let them kind of guide and lead, and you were able to read the feedback they were giving you and have that point of communication.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then you're also being a leader by going off your own script, right?
34:27
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, I had a script, I had a plan, but I have to like make the decision in the moment, and we've got to switch.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: And to me, that's leadership too, in the sense of like, man, there's so we should you should write a book.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: Like, I think there's a lot of analogies between what you do, how you do it, and connected connecting it to like how we lead in organizations, how we operate with humans, with empathy, with understanding, with kindness, and not non-judgment.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, like mean like there's a lot there.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, you as a DJ, you don't, like you said, you come in with a plan, you know, straw man of what you want to do that's solid, but you know you're gonna have to potentially go off script based on the people out of there because not everyone's the same, not everyone receives a message the same.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: I think another important thing you said is being open and being present, and then being able to mix and match things that normally maybe not they don't go together, right?
35:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, so they may like at times seem like very, very far uh ends of a continuum, but you bring them in or you kind of mesh them together, and this could go with teams or how you work together around initiatives, like you're showing like actually how it can meld together and it it flows.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a really cool thing that you do, I think, through your work and with organizations and the power of that for people to kind of see the power of not only the music but the bringing together of ideas and mixing and matching personalities and you know, things that people think one way and then they get exposed to it and they have an openness to something different.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, so a lot there that I think is very powerful.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: One thing that I think, and I'll end with this, and our time's going really fast, which always means it's a really good conversation, is how music, especially in the corporate world, there's a lot of talk about being our authentic selves and being able to have our own personal brand and be accepted, you know, for who we are, how we are, without having to be different, which I think music is extremely powerful for that.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: So when you think about some of the the jobs that you've done with organizations and the corporate environment, what's one thing that you think that I just want people to hear this because I think there's power in the work that you do in speeding up some of the things that organizations need so that people feel belonging and feel that they can be their authentic self.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: Anything you'd want people to know about the power of what you do and how it can support that?
36:57
SPEAKER_02: I think in this time that we are in right now, the where there are so many things that are unsettled, but just having something that can ground you and bring you back to a space of just being okay in the moment and wherever you are, I think that's so important, right?
37:17
SPEAKER_02: So the energy is is very important, but just the the fact that we can take time out and take our minds off of, I think often that's what we try to do, you know, and it it can it can fall into a positive space, it can fall into a negative space, but you know, we we can lean on other things to take our mind off of the problems of the world or the difficulties or the burnout or the you know whatever it is, just the uncertainties, right?
37:44
SPEAKER_02: So back when we everybody was in an office, they knew what that felt like.
37:49
SPEAKER_02: Then now it's like, oh wow, some people are in the office, some people are not in the office, some people are you know moved all over the place.
37:56
SPEAKER_02: And so now we don't know, we we don't just collect by the coffee machine and have this conversation.
38:02
SPEAKER_02: So, how do we bring people together?
38:04
SPEAKER_02: We need to find ways to do that.
38:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I found that my DJ set allow people to do that because when else is everybody in in a room all talking and really sharing in a joyful moment where they can talk to each other and really have that shared experience if they're a distributed team, right?
38:21
SPEAKER_02: So that's one thing.
38:22
SPEAKER_02: Another thing is a lot of times corporate meetings are boring, right?
38:26
SPEAKER_02: It's like for for better or for worse.
38:29
SPEAKER_02: It's just that's just that's just what it is.
38:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean, sometimes, you know, if you have a very passionate person who's presenting, right, they can change, change that.
38:37
SPEAKER_02: If they're great at storytelling, they can change that.
38:40
SPEAKER_02: But sometimes it's just it's like, okay, we know we need this information, we know we're gonna come here and this this is necessary for where we're going, but it's just boring.
38:48
SPEAKER_02: So, like, can we add something in that's less boring that gets us excited, yeah, gets us pumped up, that fills us up so that we're ready to to receive what comes forth, right?
38:59
SPEAKER_02: So sometimes, I mean, in the morning, you know, I've had people say, Well, in the morning, jump up and just do some exercise, right?
39:05
SPEAKER_02: Just do some some push-ups, some sit-ups, and run in place for a little bit and just get your day started.
39:09
SPEAKER_02: It just gets your your blood pumping, gets you ready.
39:12
SPEAKER_02: And then so that's what I kind of feel like my sets can be throughout the course of a day, where I have certain clients that bring me in quarterly, just to just kind of it's like a tune-up, yeah, right?
39:23
SPEAKER_02: It's like you had a we finished up this quarter, let's bring in DJ Graffiti, and we just have a party and we just come together, and it's a joyful moment that people can look forward to so that I'm you're not just sitting in the midst of things that sometimes can feel heavy, yeah, right, and you get to lift yourself up out of it.
39:38
SPEAKER_02: But one of the things that you said I wanted to touch on, this was in an and we kind of gotten away from it, but you talked about doing things that no one else does.
39:50
SPEAKER_02: We talked about how I'm kind of one of one in the space of being a DJ that's focuses specifically on corporate audiences and how belonging was an important part of it.
40:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
40:01
SPEAKER_02: When when I think about how I create those special moments, it is often because somebody requests a song that nobody else would ever think to request, that it's like no DJ in their right mind would ever play in the middle of a set with everything else that's going on, but that creates a special moment.
40:19
SPEAKER_02: So it's like if if I'm playing all uh, you know, a set full of pop and rap and RB, and then somebody comes out of nowhere and says play a poker song.
40:27
SPEAKER_02: At first, it's like, no, I'm not playing a poker song, but then it's kind of like, wait a minute, has anybody ever heard, you know, a rap song mixed with a poker song in a certain way and made it cool?
40:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that becomes something like, can you believe he really just took that and that and it actually worked?
40:43
SPEAKER_02: And so the person who asked for the poker song, they're they're probably not, you know, they know that they're going out on a limb to put that request out there.
40:51
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, right.
40:52
SPEAKER_02: And everybody else is judging them when they put that out there, but then that becomes the highlight of the entire session.
40:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that's the kind of thing that can happen when we're thinking inclusively and we're thinking just how can we bring people together instead of tearing people down?
41:04
SPEAKER_02: How can we make this all work together?
41:06
SPEAKER_02: And then somebody else might have said, Man, I thought I I didn't think I liked poker, but now I'm gonna look into some stuff because that was pretty cool, right?
41:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what do you call that?
41:14
SPEAKER_00: What's the is there a technical when you mesh something that's from one to another?
41:18
SPEAKER_00: What is that called as you move from one song to another?
41:21
SPEAKER_02: So there's a transition as you go from one to another, but then there's also mash-ups, which were really popular for a while, where you take two songs from completely different genres and just bring songs or vibes together and you kind of mash them up together.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just like, I'm thinking of your book, man, the leadership lessons from a DJ, from DJ Graffiti.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, one of them, the chapters is mashups, you know, like because as teams we're constantly mashing up different personalities, different experiences, different expertise, and we're figuring out how they work together in concert to make what would be a beautiful song and music, but a beautiful outcome or a project, or you know, the delivery of our strategies.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of deep stuff here, man, that I would love to talk more about.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: But real quick, I want people to know like for those that can't think, well, how would I do this with my team, or what could I do?
42:12
SPEAKER_00: What are the things that you do with teams from small, medium, large?
42:15
SPEAKER_00: We talked maybe about the the larger events or kind of coming in and doing things on site, but what are some of the the moments, the micro moments that they could do with you, just so they know what the opportunities may be?
42:27
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
42:27
SPEAKER_02: So we'll lay it out like this.
42:30
SPEAKER_02: I operate in three different domains, right?
42:33
SPEAKER_02: So there's virtual events that are live, right?
42:37
SPEAKER_02: So I'm here in my studio playing for an audience that's live, and that can either be, you know, sometimes it's five minute segments that I get hired for to jump in on a virtual event and I pop in and out for five minutes here, five minutes there, 10 minutes or whatever the time frame is.
42:51
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
42:52
SPEAKER_02: Or it's an hour, a one-hour-long session where we really get in and it's kind of a deeper dive and we bring everybody together.
42:58
SPEAKER_02: That happens there virtually.
43:00
SPEAKER_02: Then you've got in-person, right?
43:02
SPEAKER_02: Which is in-person events, and that's either, you know, a club or a concert, or not a concert, but a club or a mixer or something like that, or just in a hall full of people where 500 or 1000 or 5,000 or 10,000 people are just watching on stage, right, and ready for the keynote speaker to come on stage.
43:23
SPEAKER_02: And then you put me there to just fill the room with good energy and create an atmosphere, right?
43:28
SPEAKER_02: So that's more of in-person.
43:29
SPEAKER_02: Then, of course, there's in-person slash hybrid, because sometimes that's recorded and broadcast to people.
43:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:35
SPEAKER_02: But then there's also the the pre-recorded sets.
43:37
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
43:37
SPEAKER_02: So I also have clients who say, all right, we're going to do a one-hour, you know, webinar that is going to be kind of dry, and we really want you to pump it up.
43:46
SPEAKER_02: So can you record two five-minute sets for us?
43:50
SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, we'll just drop those in.
43:52
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I'm not actually there live with everybody, but my presence is felt there, and everybody just has a great time and it changes the atmosphere around.
43:59
SPEAKER_02: So those are the three different areas.
44:01
SPEAKER_02: There are other options, but I will say the other thing is I also do some consulting and kind of creative direction on how do we bring this to life.
44:10
SPEAKER_02: So that's where the marketer and me kind of comes in, is talking with people who are either event planners or executives or whatever.
44:16
SPEAKER_02: This is the vision that we have, and this is what we want to create.
44:19
SPEAKER_02: Can you help us make this happen?
44:20
SPEAKER_02: And we come and create some things that never were expected otherwise, but only seen as something to kind of solve that problem.
44:28
SPEAKER_02: So sometimes I'm bringing in celebrity speakers to be involved in things or other musicians and performances, and then just delivering a finished thing, product, whatever that is, to the company.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I have a lot of ideas right now, just in the sense of things that I know I have going on in the future with my company that would love to sit down and kind of just think through like, here's where I would love to like have energy, or what do you think differently about you know this transition to the next transition?
44:55
SPEAKER_00: Again, I think there's a lot of application of what you do and how you do it uh to many different pieces of our world and business and all different types of business.
45:05
SPEAKER_00: Because I do think music is a common language, and I think that's the piece that that's powerful for what you do.
45:11
SPEAKER_00: So I'm so excited that you're doing what you're doing.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: I cannot wait to work with you with what we're thinking about as a company.
45:19
SPEAKER_00: I hope others also look at the information below, reach out to GJ Graffiti and learn more how he can make a difference for your organization, your events, and and the things that you do are really around your company or around your personal life.
45:32
SPEAKER_00: I think there's so many applications for this.
45:34
SPEAKER_00: I think it's it's really a lot of opportunity for people to dig into.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
45:39
SPEAKER_02: All right.
45:39
SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you so much, Lee.
45:41
SPEAKER_02: I really do appreciate you for having me on.
45:43
SPEAKER_02: And thank you for being bold enough to step out and create this podcast and letting me share my story.
45:48
SPEAKER_02: I would encourage everybody to come find me on LinkedIn.
45:51
SPEAKER_02: That is the place where I'm most active because that is where corporate enterprise corporate.
45:56
SPEAKER_02: That's where I sponsored.
45:58
SPEAKER_02: That's our space, right?
45:59
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm on.
46:00
SPEAKER_02: You can go just about anywhere and find me at DJ Graffiti, but on LinkedIn is the main place where I'm active.
46:06
SPEAKER_02: So look me up there, look for DJ Graffiti, Martin Smith, and you'll find me.
46:09
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: And that information's all below for everyone to click on as well.
46:13
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, DJ Graffiti.
46:15
SPEAKER_02: Right, thank you.
46:15
SPEAKER_02: Have a great one.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Bold Lounge Podcast.
46:21
SPEAKER_00: Through the continuum of bold stories, vulnerability to taking the leap, you will meet more extraordinary people making a positive impact for others through their unique and important stories.
46:31
SPEAKER_00: By highlighting these stories, we hope to inspire others and share the journey of those with a bold reason.
46:36
SPEAKER_00: We hope you've enjoyed this podcast and look forward to sharing the next bold journey with you.