MBLVX Seminar: 12 Steps To Better Performances

First seminar I attended was a good one. Hosted by Dean Carlson who is a well established US Mobile DJ. This was Deans first time talking at Mobile Beat, and he openly confessed that no more than 7 years ago he was a homeless, jobless, drug addict with nothing to his name… he is now a very successful multi-op and came to share his tips. The introduction sounded very inviting:

Do you find yourself struggling, unable to make that solid connection with your clients or their guests that creates the energy and synergy making it a truly memorable event? Having trained nearly 100 DJs, Dean Carlson will show you that it’s not about being “on”, but rather a matter of small steps enhancing performances in a short period of time.

It all started with 2 very capturing quotes: “If life gives you lemons – make lemonade” and “Get knocked down 7 – get up 8″ this was Deans way of highlighting the importance of striving and continuing to fight and on go with improving yourself and your performance to ultimate create an outstanding show. The seminar focused on 12 steps which I will now outline

1. Admit you are not nearly as good as you think you are – If we already think we are the best then we stop learning as we feel we have nothing to learn. No one is perfect and there is always room for improvement. Have a slice of humble pie….
2. Understand there are people better than us out there –  Why not try and find a mentor (As part of SEDA this is exactly what we are all about)? There is no need to be so closed with sharing your idea also, say as a mentor you think you have an “original idea” chances are someone else may well have done it too in a slightly different way, but thats exactly what you (as someone looking for a mentor) should be looking to do: find an idea you like, take it and evolve it and make it your own. Having a mentor also proves invaluable as its an outside source of information, a new perspective on the way you do things and something you might have missed. To set up a good relationship with student/mentor there are 3 things:
   • Give Permission – When people offer advice with out being invited you can often feel offended, so give your mentor the opportunity and invite them to make suggestions and comments. If you have a suggestion for someone else , ask, something like “Hey Barney, I saw your performance and I thought based on my experience I might have something that could be of use to you, would you mind if I share it with you”
   • Humility – Don’t always take a defensive stance such as “thats how i’ve always done it” or “thats just the way it has to be done”. If you don’t welcome and accept comments you can’t expect to receive future honest feedback next time!
   • Trust – A point of confidentiality is vital. If you always have the feeling that “what if he posts it all on the forums for all to see” your relationship needs work
3. Take a searching & fearless inventory of your show – Examine what you are doing, highlight the good and the bad. Its important to look at the good also as it can often be heard “I’ve been doing it for years now, and my clients like it and it gets the job done” is OK, but thats all it is. If you want an outstanding performance you need to really get a good list. Get your mentor to be brutal, you want to hear it all! There are mainly 2 ways to go about doing this:
   • Get a DJ to shadow – If you get a friend or mentor to come along and shadow you this will prove to be a great way to get all the information needed as its not limited in capturing the moment (so to speak), although it can also be slightly incorrect as knowing you have another DJ shadowing you prompts you to sharpen up and act slightly differently
   • Video your performances – perhaps a lot more convenient than having a shadow but still requires time to be taken to watch the video and also doesn’t really capture the moment of the event.
4. One thing at a time – So we now have our big list of things to work on. Hitting all the points at once is going to do you no favors as you can’t really work out what element has influenced the change. Find one aspect that your slacking in, and work on it solely. Work on 1 aspect for a year to force your memory to make it natural – then you can live in the moment of it rather than a scripted attempt.
5. Get into the classroom – So we have all had the experience of the guy at a wedding who comes up to us and says “Hey I’m a DJ too” there can often be a bit of hostility to this chap as you question why would you feel the need to tell me. But rather than taking this negatively why not ask him @how did you get into it?”… “What did you do to get into it?” these can serve as valuable overlooked information. Now Dean went on to say how this happened to him and he saw the “DJ” go off and start note taking. This guy was actually taking tips from the Dean at an event, this guy was obviously clever as there’s no point trying to reinvent the wheel. So this step is all about keeping your eyes and ears out to always be learning, its not a once done its done, its an on going process. This extra knowledge is an added bonus and strong encouragement to your potential clients, after all if we are the professionals shouldn’t we know the answers to related questions… a great question was asked “Do you know why the tradition of cake cutting takes place” only 2 people put there hands up out of hundreds. Dean then said he used his cake cutting piece to help seal many deals with clients.
6. Practice makes near perfect – Practicing is good, but its never as good as the real thing. To look at the way we learn we must image a growth chart, where we learn something new, we go up, then we go down a bit as we come to accept our new found improvement, then there is a plateau where we strive to improve but just cant. Later the process is repeated again and again
7. Getting Intentional – Simply learn to visualize your successful event. Image it: get to the room, set up a nice rig, then thing about as the guests enter the room, the buzz to find their seats, opening the mic usage, the great grand march going perfectly, the crowd all pumped up, entrances all go well, Bride and Groom with big smiles, a full dance floor… all these visualization are strongly pushed by many successful people in being the encouragement and motivation they needed… try it.
8. Getting to the edge – You need to push your self to the very thing line, the edge. Take your performances to NEARLY ridiculous and then pull it back a bit, just a bit. Push your self hard, and you will find its a lot easier to to come back. If you feel you can’t do, just try it… push yourself out of your comfort zone to push for the better performance.
9. Wave the white flag – As mentioned in 6, these plateaus and improvements take longer to come to, and the better you get the hard it becomes to improve and see that jump of excellence. Don’t resist the change, accept new technology, accept new customs, accept new performance changes
10. Play with a childs heart - Get down to a childs level. Sometimes we thinks as are professionals we must always be on our professional level, but using a childs playful heart will really bring your performance into an emotional level
11. Mastermind – get connected! - Exchange ideas, ask others, discuss… lets say you have a problem; you struggle to get women up to do the flower toss or think think that your grand entrance needs work. Ask the question, get the answers and evaluate them to come up with your own concepts and way of working.
12. Give it back! – Share… there is nothing quite like the feeling of some one asking you for advice, don’t be a scrooge a give it to them! This is what we are SEDA are all about, about sharing as a community of Mobile DJs. Take take take isn’t the way of a community, we need to work to give and take. Offering our own opinion on some aspects

All these are made from the notes I made during the seminar, it was quite hard to keep up (all that came form 45 mins) and if some of it doesn’t make sense or doesn’t sit well… it did at the time I just cant remember the connections. So why not get started on your outstanding performance

Barney
Party Events Unlimited (Mobile Disco)