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Lights At Full: Welcome to the Lights at Full podcast. I am one of your co-hosts, Brian Smith, out of Boston, Massachusetts. And next to me is my co-host, Brent Schmidt, from Cleveland, Ohio. I had a threw.
Brian: All right. I know I got I I I know I got you on an intro recently, so fair game. Fair game. Good for you. Good for you for getting me.
Lights At Full: Absolutely. I I I had that idea last night and I was like, I I'm not gonna tell him anything. I'm just gonna do
Brian: Ha ha ha ha.
Lights At Full: it and we'll see what happens. And there it is. Live reaction on the show. my gosh. What's up, Brian?
Brian: man. what's up? What what's up, Brent? No, I'm Brent. You're Brian. Hey, we have the same
Lights At Full: Exactly. Exactly. We're switching roll stick.
Brian: we have we have the same bullshit initials, so it's fine. I don't
Lights At Full: Exact yes. Yes.
Brian: know about I don't know about you, but I always initial everything with my middle initial.
Lights At Full: My and then my middle initial would be B A B A I S. 'Cause technically my my real name is not or my name that you hear is actually not my full name. But that's that's for another topic, another episode.
Brian: Dropping dropping things I didn't even know.
Lights At Full: Yeah. Yeah. So
Brian: man, what what are we talking? You I I you threw me for a loop. What are we talking about today, Brent? What are we talking? What's what's on the menu?
Lights At Full: we're we we have so we have our our main topic today. We're gonna talk about when is it too much? When do you have too much on your plate? When is it time to release the reins, as they say, of like giving other people the the tasks, the the jobs when you are a DJ and also an MC and Sometimes a coordinator getting everyone ready and such, a sound guy, a lighting person, and on top of that, you have to throw an epic party on top of that. So we're gonna talk about that. But first up, I believe Brian's got some some some new fixtures that he's purchased from a past episode that we've talked about recently. So woo.
Brian: I I know. I I I know. I we I'm trying to like what which episode was it? I'm trying to think now, which episode was it? okay. It was recently. It was recent.
Lights At Full: it was in the twenties. Yeah, yeah. A couple of weeks ago.
Brian: yeah, let me see. wait, actually I think I I can tell you when I can tell you which episode it was. Hold on. it's coming, it's coming. yeah, episode twenty four. this
Lights At Full: Twenty four. Okay.
Brian: the surprising new lights that could revelate revolutionize your DJ setup is what the episode is titled. but this was this was our episode that we're talking about stuff that we saw secondhand from DJ Expo. And one of the things that really blew my mind, and and trust me, both on the show and offline, Brent and I have been talking about this, was those the Nexus lights, from GLP, you know, their foray into the DJ market. You know, I was really, really impressed by like these $100 battery-powered wireless up lights that run on an app. And I was like, I have to try these. with all that being said, they did reach out to us and we should be receiving some test product from them to further run through its paces, but I couldn't wait.
Lights At Full: No.
Brian: So so with my own money.
Lights At Full: Hard earned money right there. Woo.
Brian: I went out I went out and bought some. And I didn't just buy one. I think I have another one over here somewhere. yeah, it's it's still charging. man.
Lights At Full: We'll talk about that here too in a second.
Brian: Dropping things. Yes, I I bought I bought one.
Lights At Full: This is live.
Brian: Yes, it's definitely live. I bought I I have two of these because the only I got what I could because it's they're very new and not a lot of places have them in stock and this seems like stock is low, but yes, the This is the Nexus line. I also bought. So I have two Nexus lines. I bought four of the Nexus squares, which are actually at the warehouse right now. They're not here in the office. So I I don't have them to show off. but I took them out and ran them through their paces at a wedding recently. And I do have a little bit of video footage for it. I'm gonna try to, I'm not gonna try to share my screen with it now, but I'll send it to Brent to hopefully be able to pop some of this in.
Lights At Full: So for the people that didn't watch episode twenty four, which some may or may have not, what is the Nexus line? Is battery power, like what give us the nerdy
Brian: Yes.
Lights At Full: text.
Brian: Yes. These are battery powered. LED, obviously. They come with this frost filter on them. they also on the back, they have magnets. Magn Q
Lights At Full: yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm.
Brian: Q insane clown posse magnets. How do they work? so actually I think the back is actually really interesting. So I kinda wanna show off a couple of things since since I have you here.
Lights At Full: Yeah.
Brian: so we have The magnets and they're decently strong. you know, the venue that I used them in is a place that has has decent metal options for me to do this with, which and I knew it would be a good choice to try them out. they also have there are some holes here and some pins because they'd sell mounting bracket or they sell brackets that you can use to either be actual like mounting brackets so you can put them on truss or a stand or whatever. you can also connect them together to make shapes and designs with them. I don't have any of those brackets yet because they were all back ordered and whatever. I didn't need them for what I was trying to do for them. the other thing that I really like, let's see if we can hit the light just right. there we go. There we go. All right. USB-C powered. So you can charge them up USB-C. you can also run them like plugged in with USB-C. one button control on them get your QR codes for there's two different apps that you can use. I'm really confused about the
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fact that there's two different apps because they're the same, but they're just like different names. But I download both of them and they're exactly the same. So I don't understand what the point is there. the other thing too is like if you're doing installs in them, they do have they do have keyholes to for screws. So you can install these. the frost filter comes off theoretically this one's actually this is easier than the square. I haven't tried it with these. so again, we're doing this live.
Lights At Full: Fuck it, we're doing it live. Ooh Look at that. Yeah.
Brian: So comes off. You can have like the pixels. I mean, it's this is bright, this is bright AF like this. so I liked them. but I have some, I have some initial thoughts, and some of it maybe user error. one, this frost filter is very thick. and I think you do lose a lot of light through it. But I think that for most people, especially for the wedding DJs out there, like you're gonna want to use it with the frost filter. If you're doing a stage design, I think that that's where you can get creative and pull the frost filter off. you know, might not be able to see it well with it lit, but like this is black, so these could truly hide in a stage setup. but then the frost filter just connects right back on. there we go. so I use these, and I think one of the things that I wished was a little bit better was the brightness. they're not as bright as I wanted them to be or as I was hoping them to be. But I say that with an asterisk. so they have the app. If you've used Astera pixel tubes or any Astera light, the app is very, very similar to the Astera app. and you can set you can set runtime on these. So I set the runtime for six hours. And I didn't have them on for six hours. I literally only had them on for dancing. And I was like, man, these weren't as bright as I was hoping they would be. but when I got home, I was like, all right, let me play with it. And I set the runtime to two hours, it got much brighter. so
Lights At Full: Mm.
Brian: I think that that was something that I learned. I want to see what actually happens. I haven't tested it yet. If I set it to two hours with like a show running on it to see if it They really die at two hours, or if we get more time out of it. because I think that will definitely influence how I use them and how bright they can truly be. but one of the things that, you know, was was interesting and I didn't quite catch as much because I was DJing, but my assistant caught it. was, you know, we put them up in a kind of design aesthetic kind of way. these I actually had hidden. We put these up the then you that I have to do in it. We have to do a room flip for dancing. So I put these up during the room flip, but we the squares, they we had them up. And I think people just thought it was part of the window design. So the windows have are metal and they noticed them when they walked in. my assistant said a lot of people noticed, like, those are lights. That's cool. They were like he could hear people talking about it and commenting on it.
Lights At Full: Mm-hmm.
Brian: and they were like I said they weren't as bright as I would have liked. but they were great eye candy. so I you know, definitely still some more testing to do with it. I still think that these are gonna be good. I'm gonna integrate them into my setup. but you know, one or two of them isn't gonna do a lot for you. Like this is the kind of thing that you do need to and I think you're gonna need to invest in a kit to really get the impact that you want from them.
Lights At Full: Mm-hmm.
Brian: so those are kind of my first impressions on it. I ran everything off the app, I don't have the bridge yet. I didn't get the bridge to connect it to my Wolfmix. So I literally just sat there with the app open in front of me and just changed things on the fly. which was really weird for me to do because I have either run Wolf Mix or Sound Switch for every gig that I have done for the past seven, eight years. I mean, just a good portion of that was Sound Switch only. so I think that that was you know, it was definitely it was it was a little weird for me. But overall, I I like what I saw so far. I'm impressed with it. and I think that I think that there is a strong future for these in our industry and in the lightning industry as a whole. So and just remember, we're DJs talking about DJ lighting, but we love you lighting people as long as you realize that.
Lights At Full: This is not about festival or touring podcast. Find another podcast. They're not gonna even
Brian: No. Nope. This is Yep. There are
Lights At Full: see this because they don't watch the episodes anyways. But anywho.
Brian: Exactly. Exactly.
Lights At Full: Brian, you did point out something that I kind of wanted to pin at that those fixtures were eye candy. And that's I think what's I could be wrong, but JLP and Nexus, I think that's what they were kind of going for, is
Brian: Yes.
Lights At Full: they're not gonna be like your full Dance floor crowd wash. This is something that is gonna give you that like ooh and you can implement it around the room, like you said, on windows or any magnetic surfaces or stands, things like that. Eye candy. Don't expect this to see everyone on the dance floor. Eye candy. so and and I would say the same thing with with tubes. Like if you're Ape Labs, both, Esteras, Chauvets, like they're not gonna give you a full crowd wash. And you're gonna need multiple of them to really give you a full crowd wash, which is true. I have two sets of Astera AX ones and you need almost I mean, you could get it probably away with eight to wash a dance floor, but you need a lot more to fully give that effect. So crowd wash pixel.
Brian: And if you're in a small room in a small venue, and and Brent hasn't seen this video yet, and I think he'll get a better understanding of it, like that you could do a small room with just these if you have enough of them. but if
you're in your big hotel ballrooms, you know, they're gonna be eye candy. If you really want more color and wash, like you're
Lights At Full: Yeah.
Brian: gonna need to have washes.
Lights At Full: Yeah. So again, this first first hand experience. Brian has a couple of them. We're gonna be testing them here soon. So we're we're still in the research and development phase of finding out all that in that is Nexus Lights. so we're just waiting for the products to come in. We'll get tested, shoot video of course, and share the results with you. So but Brian went ahead and got a couple so that's his first hand experience with Nexus. Yeah, just take my money. but
Brian: Bur burning a burning a hole in my pocket. My like take my credit card. Yeah.
Lights At Full: kind of with that, like Brian, with you know, letting companies out there, this kind of goes into our next segment here of when you get product reviews and products to test out, what?
Brian: Hold on, hold on. We have to announce what the segment is though. This is
Lights At Full: go ahead.
Brian: this is a bitching segment.
Lights At Full: Bitching segments yeah.
Brian: So we're gonna rant. Yeah, we do. we'll
Lights At Full: We're gonna create videos, but anyway, that's a that's another day.
Brian: figure that one out. we're gonna rant on some we're gonna rant on some shit. So now, okay, Brent, go ahead.
Lights At Full: Okay, so the thing is is when you get products from companies to test out, they don't think about they think about just what they could actually give out. But they actually don't think about the actual applications and the end results of what we do in the industry, where nine times out of ten, we're not gonna just have one, or we're not gonna have odd number of fixtures. Now, there are some times, but you're not gonna have just one. one. You're gonna have two or fours or three or four and six or fives. But okay. I I don't want to lead any more from that, but Brian, you wanna kick off our bitching segment with product reviews. Let's go.
Brian: Yes. I've got I've got I've got I've got a line that is the through line for this. One light provided to a content creator is not a review, it's an advertisement.
Lights At Full: It's an advertisement, people. You heard that right here.
Brian: And this is no shade. I have created those videos in the past. You can find them, they're out there.
Lights At Full: Same.
Brian: this is no shade to the content creator that has received free product in exchange for doing a review. But as the consumer of it, I think you need to realize that they've got one of these, and you always, I wouldn't say all the time, but I would say Majority of the time you see them in their garage or their office or whatever, testing the light and showing you everything that it can do. And you don't see real live event footage of it because I think, you know, even as the creator, you realize like they sent me one moving head. What am I gonna do with one moving head that doesn't match any of my other moving heads? Like,
Lights At Full: Mm-hmm. Yeah?
Brian: so I understand why the companies are sending the product out. I also understand why the creators are accepting them and making the videos. Like I said, I've done it. Brent has done it. Like we get it. but I think you as the person who's not getting the lighting companies reaching out to you, trying to send you one light, I think you need to just take the take these reviews with a grain of salt. I don't think that the people that are making them are trying to Screw you or lie to you, but I think you just need to realize that they likely haven't really been able to test it the way they want to test it either. so I don't think you're really getting the full picture of what the light is and what it can do and what it can't do you know for you. So my request to the brands, whether you are Xiao Wei, whether you are ADJ, whether you are Nexus, although we already know Nexus is sending us more than one light. at least that's what they've told us. if you are both, if you are B Topper, if you are Sheds, if you are U King, I don't know how many other many more shinese brands I can name. V show. Actually, V Show doesn't send anyone shit. So 'Cause actually like their stuff. And I would like them to send me some shit.
Lights At Full: Yeah.
Brian: you know You can get you can continue to send one light and get the free advertising. But maybe you find that creator that is willing to take, know, take one or two more and really put something together. Like I can build a show with my existing setup around two lights that someone has sent to me. I will find some way to incorporate them into what I've already have running. And I think that's really the best way for you to be able to. Evaluate and review a light to see if it is really worth it and if it really belongs in their setup, or you know, seeing someone who has put it into a similar setup, like now you can get a better idea of whether or not these lights are worth it. You know, if you I know I think back to like the days, you know, late teens, early twenties of like, you know, our good friend DJ Barr, like putting out videos, you know, and and I think I think bar is the Brent equivalent to ADJ. like you know, I but you know, he was bringing out more than one light, you know, he's getting new lights, he's bringing out more of them and showing you them in real setups. And we've kind of lost that with these lighting brands sending out products for people to review. And I think it's a disservice to everyone.
Lights At Full: To both parties, yeah.
Brian: I mean to to everyone, the the creator. the company and the person who's watching it looking to see whether or not this is something they want to invest in. So
Lights At Full: Yeah. I mean, I've been on the end where it's like, okay, you get this one product and it's like we we want you to be creative and like really show off the fixture. It's like, okay, f from a creative
standpoint, it's like how can like, yeah, it it's great, it's a little great little test of my creativity, but also too, it's like the functionality of it. It's like how am I supposed to tell entertainers, DJs out there that this one product or this product I only have one quantity of which realistically the end user is gonna have to buy two or more. Like, how am I gonna show one when the real results are you need two or more? And I think that's the the the the the pull the tension right there of like just in in and instead of sending you know multiple products to multiple you know influencers or content creators, maybe slim down your your you know, who you're sending it out to and give them more so that they can get a little bit more creative. I mean, I've had the conversation with a couple of brands out there that said, hey, the more that you can give me, the better the results that I can do and and showcase. Because like to have, you know, a couple packs of this light and and that light, like you can do a really cool cohesive light show to showcase like, wow, this is a really cool setup. you know, I I would love to get into detail about some things, but like just how How my bank account is set up now. How how how things are set up right now, like I I kind of have to stay a little a little quiet on, but like it it it's just just help help all it it it it's like the circle of life.
Brian: Help us help you.
Lights At Full: Exactly. It's a circle of life. Like it's just it keeps revolving around around that. So we want to help you, you want to help us out, you know, whatever. so that's that's our our our our big shit. bitching segment of of of brands and content and end users of is sometimes hey what you're seeing on camera is not really what you could potentially have and do and see.
Brian: Yeah. And D you know, DJs who are watching this, I know that your feed is
Lights At Full: DJs.
Brian: DJs. I know that your feed is filled with these videos of people testing out a light.
Lights At Full: Yes.
Brian: You know, because they're filled with them. And I and I know some of these people personally. Like, and again, no shade to them. and no and really not no shade to the brands, but I just like we can do this better that benefits everyone more. so. That's our rant. Maybe we will never get another lighting product to try ever again.
Lights At Full: Probably not. But you know what? That's why we're here to show like the actual truth of like helping our industry. And that's what what what this podcast is about for event and wedding DJs.
Brian: But we're, you know, and Brent and I have talked about this. Like, we're not gonna sugarcoat something. Like,
Lights At Full: Yeah. No.
Brian: if we get given a product, we're gonna tell you our real thoughts on it. we're not gonna sugarcoat it. We're gonna be honest with you, we're gonna, you know, be straightforward about it. So yeah. So
Lights At Full: Yep. Hundred percent.
Brian: all right.
Lights At Full: Going into main topic today,
Brian: Main topic, yes.
Lights At Full: this kind of stemmed from shower creativity that I had one night. And I was like, I think this is something that could be really benef
Brian: Shower creativity.
Lights At Full: yeah. So some of my best work comes out of the shower. I'm just sitting there thinking, I don't know if it's just
Brian: I know.
Lights At Full: the steam from the hot water or what, but anywho, it is when is too much too much for your plate? so This kind of stems from when you are the hired DJ. And you also have to have, you have to do your announcing. You have to MC, you have to host. But then also too, you sold the big sound package. And you also sold the big production with lighting. You also have a photo booth. you might even have a strolling musician, a saxophone player or a percussionist, whatever. And you have to coordinate and be the main person for all of these things. When do you need to like sit back and be like, I need to bring in or I need to hire someone else to handle this so that it's one less thing that's on your plate when it comes to event day. Now let's be real. Some of us out there are probably superstars that can handle that and whatever, but there's others out there that it's like, maybe you put too much on your plate and something is gonna hurt. Something's gonna suffer. Right there. And I'll even raise my hand because I've had a couple of those as well. Where it's like I didn't want to spend the money to have X person come in or Y person and it's like I'll handle it all. But man, something definitely suffered. And nine times out of ten, it's either you missed the detail on your MC or it's in the the music's side of things where you just totally miss the mark. so All right, Brian. Give us give us your thoughts.
Brian: Yeah. You know, this is something that I routinely struggle with. I you know, I am ADHD neurospicy type of person, although I think a lot of us in the event industry are. So I you you probably recognize that. and I I know that I take too much on. you know, I grew up in I grew up in the punk rock world, the DIY like you can do it yourself. You don't need anyone else, like figure it out. And I love being that kind of person, but it also again, it affects you. And I mean I am someone who's in in my 40s now, right? Like doing all of this is a lot of work both mentally and physically. And You know, it's I I think it's a conversation that we need to have in our world. you know, for I think one of the biggest examples now I've worked with for almost all of my weddings and most of my events for the past, I don't know, probably six, seven years. yeah, I did six, seven for those that have kids. Yep. I've usually try to have an assistant with me and it's just a straight assistant. you know, help me carry stuff, help me set things up, give instructions. It's been great. A couple of years ago, I tried to kind of rework how my lighting and my offerings were. And I was it was a
very I was trying to do a lot of kind of high level lighting production as like the the standard, the standard offering. And that season while the clients were happy and we had good weddings, that season sucked. because it was myself and you know, one of my assistants, and I was getting frustrated with how long it was taking for to set things up and break things down and move things. And by the end of the season, I realized that the frustration really was with myself because I was pushing myself and my team too hard. so you know it take that step back and look at what you're doing and see what you can drop and see what you can delegate and see what you maybe need to start training people up on. you know, I think Brent has Brent has a lot more experience, I think, in this world, or at least in bringing in specialized people. so I'm gonna flip it over to Brent and let him kind of talk about this for a little bit, and then I kind of have some. more ideas for those of you that are just, you know, Jack of all trades assistants, assistant based
Lights At Full: Yeah.
Brian: right now.
Lights At Full: Yeah. I mean, I'll I'll say off the bat, w when it comes to me doing weddings, part of what I'm really good at is the music and the logistics and the tech side of things. I can talk on the microphone. I've done it before, how I started, but that is not my specialty. That is something that I now at this point, like I need to delegate to someone else. And it some out there that are watching and listening out there. will probably be like, well, like that's like part of, you know, whatever, like like your ni niche or whatever. But for me, that was a a weak point in my thing. and I have a really great business coach, Brian B, who we just had on the on the podcast recently. And When I found someone that was like, Hey, my strong suit is MCing and not the music side, I was like, this is gonna be a perfect like little marriage relationship because now that person can now handle being the front person, handling coordination with the vendors and the couples and getting everyone lined up in you know, order, pronunciation, things like that. While I can focus on the music side of things, the sound and the lights and things like that. But then when we start getting into bigger shows, we had one recently back in June where there was so much coordination and there it it this was legit it was a wedding but it turned pretty much into a theatrical show where like I had cues and lines that I needed to hit and make sure everything was just a cohesive production. And that wedding was a production. on top of that we had other companies that we were working with a sparcular company, a dry ice company, a lighting company And then I think there was two other photography, videography, and coordination, wedding planning type thing. So like there was many folks in in in that space where I was kind of being the front person of making sure they know what they were doing at the right time
while my MC was handling being the front person, making sure everything, you know, the announcements, things like that were getting said and things like that. So I brought in a third person to handle all of the sound. Like, hey, make sure you mic up the officiant, make sure you get the mic from the officiant, make sure, you know, it it's sounding good. Take the iPad, go out, you know, into the crowd, make sure that, you know, everyone could hear things like that. Because that took a huge thing off my plate where I didn't have to be like, okay, I have to unmute the microphone or I have to do this. I do that. And you know, EQ the, you know, the countryman microphone while they're talking to make sure it sounds good. Because guess what? We didn't get to do a soundtrack with the officiant. So like there are so many different variables that I felt less str going into the wedding, I was very stressed. But once we were in it, I actually felt less stressed than I really should have been because I had the right people in the right spot. So with all that to be said, is you know, if you have people in your company or in your umbrella of people that you trust, maybe you need to kind of, you know, release some money from that you're gonna make from that wedding. And pay those people to be on that show, especially if it's a big show that you're, you know, promising, you know, a lot of things, you know, you don't want to overpromise and under deliver. You wanna, what is it, underpromise and overdeliver and to give them an amazing product. So, you know, and if you don't have that network, you you need to start reaching out. you know, I've had a couple companies and and DJs out there reach out to me. It's like, hey Brent, like I have this big show coming up. Can you do the lighting for this or can you do the production? You know, and handle that because I either A, don't have the stuff for it, or B, I don't want to think and worry about it when it comes to the day. I'd say, absolutely, let me worry and stress about it. Because on top of that, too, it and it's not just like the the front face of like, okay, making sure everything is done, but like what happens if something goes wrong? Like you as the main person can't be, you know, troubleshooting while you're also trying to get everyone coordinated to get the grand entrance started because then that's can just push back all of the timeline. So you kind of have to have someone that is dedicated to be that problem solver to where it's you're kind of like you're hiring a wedding planner and you're kind of like the the the the couple. Like you're the couple, but then you have another wedding planner on top of probably a wedding planner there that is going to do stuff that you probably don't even know about until after you're tearing out and be like, you know, your tech is like, hey, by the way, you know, we lost one side of power, but you know, you didn't notice because I've been holding the bra The breakers so that
it doesn't trip anymore, that type of thing. Again, A, don't do that. That's stupid. But B,
Brian: Yeah.
Lights At Full: you know, things like that where it's like something happened, but you didn't even know it happened because they were ahead of the thinking and they weren't worrying about, you know, the stuff that you were because they had your back. So when you have these big shows, think about that. big weddings or even just a a normal wedding. Maybe you just have there's just so much going on there. It's like, hey, I need to hire that photo booth assistant to handle that because that's one less thing I have to worry about. Or sound or perco whatever the case may be, think, think about it. And it's I think definitely worth the investment to pay them for your sanity. So that you don't like have to be like, my God, like this is going to be, I'm going to quit. You know, this is the end. This is this is my last wedding I'm ever gonna do because of all the BS that you kinda went through. So yeah.
Brian: And in the touring and production world, what Brent is talking about, and because I don't know. Actually, I don't know if Brent has ever toured. I have toured. but
Lights At Full: Yeah. I've toured once. Corporate.
Brian: you know, this is called a production manager. Right. And it's a it is a very important job and is a job separate from everything else. You know, you have to choose what you like and don't like doing as a small Business owner, DJ, lighting person, you know, Brent is a great example. Like he didn't love the MCing part. So he's got someone to MC. And now he can focus on the tech and the DJing, you know, the sound and the lighting. Like I am someone who I really enjoy the lighting. I don't mind doing the MCing. but like the lighting is like something that for me is harder for me to want to give up. But like I was also a touring sound engineer. and so like I struggle with that too, but like I think that that's the easier thing for me to start to give up is because it's it's a little bit more cut and dry, I think, than figuring out how we're gonna rig up lights, what the programming's gonna be, what the colors, you know. There I and man, I I I know that the production people that watch this are gonna go off on this now between the sound and lighting thing.
Lights At Full: Let fucking go. What's Yeah.
Brian: But I mean I've lived I I I have lived in both worlds. I have been paid to be in both worlds. I get it. but I feel more comfortable letting go and letting go of the audio stuff. Now, for like those of you that like do have an assistant, you know, think about your future. Think about like where things are going for you, for your company. Like I said earlier, like I am in my 40s. Like I enjoy doing what I do. But it's starting to wear on me physically. Like it's starting to be, you know, tiresome. Like, I mean, one of the best things that I did was decide to stop using my large SUV as my main vehicle for transporting to gigs and only
having things in soft-sided cases and playing Tetris every night to saying, All right, we're gonna buy real road cases for everything, we're gonna rent a truck, and we're gonna put everything on wheels. That was, you know, that cost me money, but that was. being real with myself of putting too much on my plate or doing too much that and finding a way to fix that that actually made my experience better. And you know, most of us, we are the talent. Like
Lights At Full: Mm-hmm.
Brian: I think most people get into DJing because they enjoy the DJing part. Like enjoy being the talent. And as we said, you are the lighting guy, you are the sound guy. Sometimes you are the coordinator. of of everything not just your own stuff you know you are trying to do all these things and you're working 12 to 18 hour day and it can be too much so i it's you know you have to look at how do I stay sustainable in doing this and how do I prioritize what I want to do. So for me like I'm looking the way I'm looking at things now is Even on the lighting, like I'm getting willing more willing to try to hand that off day of, but still be part of the planning and the design for it.
Lights At Full: Mm-hmm.
Brian: I haven't gotten there yet, but I'm getting close.
Lights At Full: Yeah. It takes time.
Brian: but you know, I know that I want to prioritize being able to be the talent. I want to be able to spend more time focusing on that. I don't want to be. Super exhausted by the time it's time for me to actually play for the dance floor. so for me, that's something that like I need to figure out how I'm taking that off of my plate. So I have my I have a couple of regular assistants that I work with. And, you know, one thing that I've started to do is like I'm trying to make sure that they understand how my rig goes together and how what my preferences are and how they can do it so I can start to get a little bit more hands off and be able and let them run with it. And now it's gotten to the point, at least for me, where I can hand usually hand off the DJ booth and the sound setup to my assistants. And that way I'm focusing on the lighting part of it.
Lights At Full: Mm.
Brian: and I'm hoping that within the next year or two, I am really just focusing on being the talent and the production manager and having people who are taking care of you know the physical. And connection and building it all. because that that's how I'm gonna be able to stay in this.
Lights At Full: Mm-hmm.
Brian: So.
Lights At Full: Yeah. We're all not super super people. Like at
Brian: Ha ha.
Lights At Full: a certain point, like, I mean, I I'll be vulnerable here in a in a in, you know, in this episode. Like a couple of weeks ago, I threw out my back and like it was and it's currently still is like very difficult to move gear. And I did all of the right stuff, but it just so happened, like it was just that time of like, hey, now like you need to slow down here a little bit, buddy. so like You kind of see that
realization of like, whoa, like, you know, we're not all built, you know, like armor. and you know, at some point you kind of have to think. So don't get in your mind of like, no, these guys don't know what they're talking about, or you know, they're they're just, you know, whatever. Like, no, it's it's true. Like, I I I I have a client promise to my clients of how my DJ performance is gonna be. And if I'm worrying about six other things and I kind of forget about like what I'm truly there to do. Gonna have a bad experience or their expectation of what they were promised is gonna be broken. And and for me, that's just not acceptable. So you you have to put people there, and if that means that you either lose a little less profit, then hey, that's that's that's the give and take there for at least for for me. you know, and plus two, then you start building a relationship and then you get to the point where, like Brian said. you can start having those people more and more on jobs and then they can start handling those things. And then you can almost at to a certain point like show up like 10 minutes before doors open, drop your laptop, hit play and start going into it because you've built that trust and those people have that experience to set up your gear, test everything, make sure everything's good and you can kind of come in, do your thing. And then at the end of the night, if you wanted to leave, you can leave and they tear everything out and you get to go home earlier. So
Brian: So that is my dream.
Lights At Full: Yeah. And that's something I've also been currently thinking about for next year or in coming years, because it's like I don't have to leave the house at twelve o'clock in the afternoon. Maybe I can leave at four and get on site and spend more time with the family or do other things and like I don't know. But there's gonna be naysayers out there be like, that's just part of the job, blah, blah, blah. Which that's true. But also to realize that we're giving up our Fridays, our Saturdays, our Sundays, sometimes Thursdays, whatever whatever market you're in. Like a lot of things happen on the weekends. Like just this past weekend, you know, they had you know, they're closing down the pools. So, like, you know, they had little dog park, you know, swim thing. I had to miss that. And I kind of miss it because they're I'm kind of upset because I had a wedding, which again, that's the nature of the beast. But like at the same time it would have been great to be able to be there for an hour or two. So
Brian: I you know, I have to I have to miss one of my kids' hockey games this weekend, you know,
Lights At Full: Exactly.
Brian: and and I wanna be there for those. And you know, I think when you are for the younger listeners and watchers that are, you know, kind of starting and you know, haven't been in in the game for as long, like you have the energy. You have the stamina, you have, you know, you don't have the necessarily the family responsibilities. so this may not necessarily apply to you now, but you should start thinking about it. If you if this is something that you want to do for the long run, you should start thinking about it. I started thinking about it too late and I have realized that and now I am trying to fix it and get there so that, you know, I can be the guy that is walking in and most of the everything's set up. Or I'm, you know, walking in and I'm there when the guys are setting up, but I'm not having to do most of the physical work. and that's not a cop out. That's, you know, because I think the other thing that you need remember is that again, you are saving your energy. You are per protecting your energy and your stamina because, like, no matter what, it's a long day. Like it's, you know, if you're doing ceremony all the way through, like that's still, you know, six hours of straight, you know, that you barely get a break in. And then you add in setup before, you know. three, four hours loading your truck, breaking everything down, getting home, unloading your truck. I mean, that's a lot of work. And I think that, you know, one of the things that you might forget about is the value in you know being able to just focus on the performance and the the FaceTime, right? Being able to being able to have more FaceTime with your clients, their family. The other vendors, because you're not busting your ass in a sweaty mess. I I am a bigger guy and I am a sweaty mess. And I hate being a sweaty mess when my clients are there or when guests start to show up. And you know, I think it's important to kind of pick and choose your battles and start to focus on what you want to focus on. So, like for me, I want to focus on the lighting and the DJing. And you know, I also think I wanna get to the point that I'm focusing more on the design and the programming and the DJing and letting the physical stuff go to my go to my team as I build it and as I try to build up everyone's skill sets on my team. So yeah.
Lights At Full: Yeah. I think that's a good question to ask the the the viewers and listeners. Like, you know, leave us a comment like what is important to you that you do very well and what's something that you do that you don't like doing at all? Like, you know, that's why people sometimes hire CPAs to do their taxes because they don't like they either don't know how or they don't like doing it. So it's like it's that same mentality there. So what do you like? What do you don't like doing? And kinda want to hear from you and kind of you know, start the conversations that way and you know, of course we'll be in comments watching and responding to see what y'all are kind of going through and kind of be vulnerable. You know, it it's it's okay to, you know, open up and be like, yay, like I'm really struggling on, you know, being a better DJ. because you know, I'm a really great MC, but like when it comes to the DJ and, you know, w where can we stem from that? So, you know.
We'll we really love to hear from you about that because I think that's really important and to kind of open the door of conversations because someone that may not comment or you know is watching and will see comments that might relate to someone else or can relate to, you know, either myself or Brian or Brent, if you're watching from the beginning, you know, things that we're we're going through and what we're trying to do. I'll I'll just say this one last comment. It might be a little bit controversial. We'll see. But I personally think if you're not stressed or nervous on wedding day, you don't care enough for your clients. I I think that it like Nick Spinelli has said it the best. Like I treat my wedding clients wedding day like it's the Super Bowl. Like there is it's a zero feral mission. Like that's the same mentality. Like I at least one time in the day, like my watch goes off saying, Hey, your heart rate is you know going too much. Now I I I'm not saying that that's healthy. Yeah. I'm not saying that
Brian: Don't get me started on that.
Lights At Full: it's healthy, but I'm saying like it's because there's a specific moment that is happening that like I need to be laser focused in to make sure that it is good. And it's maybe because I'm thinking about two or three other things of like backup plans. Like, okay, if the if this microphone goes down, how can I quickly amend the situation? That type of thing. So again, is it controversial? I don't know. Let us know. I would love to know because That's just something that I kinda go through every single wedding because I just personally think that it's something that I wanna make sure that, you know, there is zero flaws. Now again, it's a live production, it's a live show. Stuff is gonna happen, but it's how you react to those situations that happen is what's true.
Brian: Yeah. And I think one last thing to cap it off, just based off of what Brent something that Brent just said that just popped into my head as a you know former medical professional as well. you know, you do ex burn calories and expend energy thinking. Like your brain is your brain needs to be fed. and you know, you are the thinking the thinking burns energy as well as the physical. so
Lights At Full: Yep.
Brian: when you can put your mind at ease because you have good people and a good team and redundant systems and you've built your rig to be, you know, to run well and to have the fail-safes, you know, whether they are physical or software or people, you know, that takes things off of your plate. So
Lights At Full: Yep. I love how the ambulance siren went in the background. Right on cue. I was like,
Brian: Perfect timing. Perfect timing.
Lights At Full: perfect. Look at that. Yeah. So I think we're good to cap,
Brian: It's like it's like it knows what I used to do. so with that,
Lights At Full: right?
Brian: yeah. Do you have anything else, Brent?
Lights At Full: No, I I think this is a really great episode of, you know, when
to release the reins, and re relinquish command. I mean you can still be in command, but you know, that's yeah.
Brian: So, and you know, as Brent said, jump in the comments, tell tell us about what you're struggling with or what you're thinking about. Maybe it'll become an episode, and you know, maybe we'll have some kind of insight for you, you know, and we'll be out there in the in the comments. And then also let us know like what you thought about this. Cause like, yes, this is a lighting show, and we definitely talked about lighting at the beginning, but like this was a little bit more general. DJ lighting production and let us know. Like if you if you liked this kind of content or this subject and you know, we will definitely kinda sprinkle some more of this in overall. So with that, like, comment, subscribe, do all the things, Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok. you know, follow us on all those things, watch the videos, comment, like and share. It really helps us. It does, you know, everyone says it helps them Like it does. It really does. I I look at the numbers. It more people start commenting and sharing on things, the better the podcast does. We get more people into the fold. And hopefully we'll get some more some more gear to test and get more than one. So
Lights At Full: Yeah. Yeah. Good or bad comments, we don't care.
Brian: yeah, good or bad comments, man. There have been some salty comments recently and they're fun. We are DJs talking to DJs. Just remember
Lights At Full: I'm not afraid. Yes.
Brian: that.
Lights At Full: So tour people. Brian, are we gonna drip the announcement that happened last week? We totally forgot. Yeah
Brian: yes, we totally forgot. We totally forgot we were gonna do this. Yes.
Lights At Full: Yes.
Brian: before we go and we're gonna talk about we're gonna talk about it more
Lights At Full: B four, be four. Sorry.
Brian: on the next couple of episodes for sure. So you will be hearing more details over the next couple of weeks.
Lights At Full: Hit me.
Brian: You and I are going to be on stage at the DJ Collective in November. we're really excited about this.
Lights At Full: In Raleigh, North Carolina.
Brian: Yeah, Raleigh, North Carolina. there are still tickets, I believe, available. the website is the DJ CollectiveOfficial dot com, I believe.
Lights At Full: Yep. Yep.
Brian: you know, and if you are a DJ and watching this and you don't know what the DJ Collective is. You should go do your research.
Lights At Full: You should.
Brian: I think I you know, Brian's story time right now, and I think maybe we've may have mentioned this on a previous episode, but like, you know how everyone has pixel tubes now? Do you know why everyone has pixel tubes now? The DJ collective.
Lights At Full: Because of the DJ C. Yeah.
Brian: The things that have become standard in our industry in the past few years, or that you see a lot of people doing, and everyone starts doing it. I can tell you right now that a lot of that happens at DJC. This is the this is the meeting of the minds. This is the brain trust. If you've never been, I do highly recommend going. this will be, I think Brent's sixth. This will be my fifth. and we're pumped to be on stage. we'll drip a little bit more about what's going on with that in the coming episodes. So, but it it it was made official. I think, I think Brian and Joe dripped it on Beyond the Booth, and I think it's out maybe in a couple of other spots. So we will give you some more tidbits in the next couple of weeks.
Lights At Full: Yes, so stay tuned. We got some things up our sleeve that we might be doing. And yeah, so if you haven't, don't be afraid. from what Brian and Joe have said and Jason, a lot of new people have been coming to the DJC. So if you haven't been, like what Brian said, hey, buy a ticket, head on down to Raleigh, North Carolina. It's in November, November 16th through the 18th. So you get in Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, and then you're out Wednesday. It's two full days of, you know, hitting you with a fire hose right in the face of information and knowledge from everything around the industry, from, you know, business to actual DJing to now lighting, which we'll be talking about. we won't get too specific just yet.
Brian: And this is not your standard DJ conference education fare. This is this
Lights At Full: No, no.
Brian: is I think as Brian says,
Lights At Full: These are people that you
Brian: this is four one level stuff. This is not the basics. So no shade to the other
Lights At Full: Yes. People that are
Brian: conferences, but
Lights At Full: absolutely no shade. It's just they are finding people that haven't even touched our industry in terms of talking to. So it's fresh new content that's coming through, fresh new faces. and and and it's great for for what we have going on. So it's a great conference to come and get all of the new knowledge that you can't really get. So with that, we'll see y'all next Tuesday.
Brian: We already said yeah, we said all the rap stuff already. So we'll see you next Tuesday. Come to DJC.
Lights At Full: We see yeah, yeah. Peace.