Find Your Bryan

If you follow me regularly, you know that I often write about the value that comes from community; the greatness that can be accomplished together with other people, as opposed to the struggle that comes with separation and isolation. This week’s thought is similar to that, but revolves around a micro version of the idea. This is about finding your Bryan.

I first met Bryan Podworny from Expressions Entertainment about a year after moving to Manitoba in 2008. Even though some might giggle at the height difference between us, we rapidly hit it off and became amazing friends. We also soon became a major source of inspiration and motivation to each other in our respective DJ businesses.

We began spending countless days together, often working late into the night, on event planning processes as well as sharing and brainstorming ideas for our upcoming weddings.

Bryan and I frequently travelled together to DJ conferences, workshops and DJ networking nights. He and I attended our very first MarBecca workshop in Minneapolis together and we also attended workshops by Peter Merry together. We even organized and hosted Vickie Musni’s very first Power of Personalities workshop together.

Very few individual projects, didn’t first go to the other person for approval. We asked each other to critique everything from planning forms and music lists to creative ideas for upcoming weddings.

We both came into each other’s lives at oddly parallel positions. Both of us had been DJing since the mid-90s and shared a similar passion for people and weddings. We also shared similar event pricing and had recently become inspired to start earning money that was more equitable to the event successes we were proud to be responsible for.

The value that came from this relationship is impossible to measure. What is clear though, is that neither one of us would be doing exactly what we are today, had we not pushed and motivated one another. And push each other we did.

Bryan and I became unique accountability partners to each other, never letting the other get too far away, price-wise. In fact, we were often in lock step with each other. I remember many conversations ending with, “You’re raising your price again? Well then, I am too!”

It was nothing short of a race to the top…continuously climbing, reaching higher, building each other up to potential referral clients. (We referred back and forth often.)

This is what we did. And it worked. It worked amazingly well.

Today, Bryan and I both enjoy positions where we command upwards of $4000 per wedding in a market where the average DJ charges approximately $750.

The growth that Bryan and I experienced would not have happened had we continued to work in relative isolation to each other, as most DJs — even DJs that are friends — do. From our uniquely close camaraderie, came a fire and drive that fuelled us to tackle things together that we might have put off or avoided completely.

I won’t tell you that what we did was always easy and relationships seldom come without their bumps in the road, but we are both the better off for it…hence the writing of this blog post.

If this idea intrigues you, then it’s time for you to find your Bryan.

Bryan and I met by chance…but after today, you don’t have to hope for that.

Find someone you click with.

Find someone with similar goals.

Find someone on a similar journey.

Find someone at a similar performance level.

Find someone at a similar price point.

Then race.

Create the most intense and ferociously friendly competition possible with them.

This person may be close to your market (Bryan and I lived about 40 minutes apart) or, like some DJ friends I know doing something similar, you might live in separate countries. Living in the same region as one another is an obvious benefit from a referral point of view, but close physical proximity to each other is not required for the core functions of this idea to work.

It might take a while to find this person, so, get yourself out to as many DJ networking opportunities as you can. Join a DJ association or get to regional DJ networking nights, DJ conferences, workshops, etc.

Find your Bryan.

Tell them the race is on.

Watch what’ll happen.

Just a thought…

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2 thoughts on “Find Your Bryan”

  1. Thank you Dave. I recently joined your blog and this is something I’ve been thinking of or partnering with someone for bigger events. Continued succes!

    1. Hey Ralph! I sincerely appreciate you being here and your comment. Welcome to the blog!

      This blog post isn’t so much as partnering with someone on events (in fact, it’s not really about that at all), but rather, all of the other things. It’s about creating a friendly competition with someone that’ll push both of you to become something far more than you are right now. It’s about, as another friend, Paul Hoke, recently wrote on Facebook, having a “peak performance partner.” This is someone to push you outside of your comfort zone because they’re going there too, or, someone you can keep up with, when they try to race ahead. All this…and a whole lot more. Let me know if I can add further clarification. Cheers!

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