The DJ as the MC?! Craziest Idea I’ve Ever Heard Of!

This is my story. And it could be yours. But what’s most important about the SHARING of this story, is that it has helped put me into the driver’s seat of more weddings then I can possibly tell you about in one short blog post. Allow me to explain.

Back in 2010, I met a guy named Bryan Podworny, owner and operator of Expressions Entertainment. We quickly became great friends and soon became the greatest type of “coopetition” for each other. We both helped each other’s businesses grow in many, many ways. Before all of that happened though, he suggested the idea of adding the service of Master of Ceremonies (MC) to the services we provided to weddings. I thought this idea was rather…off base.

Here in Canada, the role of an MC is most often filled by a family member, wedding party member, or someone else who knows the bride and/or groom relatively well and doesn’t have a problem speaking in front of a crowd (or at least so the bride and groom think). The idea of hiring a professional MC is, for the most part, completely foreign to couples planning a wedding here in Canada. I was very much on board with tradition in this case… and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be part of changing that.

Fast forward to February of 2011 as Bryan and I, as well as a few other DJs from our area, were attending Mobile Beat Las Vegas (my first time, Bryan’s second). I was blown away with the fact that over half of the content appeared to be MC related. Also, each and every DJ I met appeared to say that in the U.S. it was simply a default role for the DJ — that he or she was ALWAYS the MC. This was dumb…I thought. In fact, the idea of “those silly Americans and their silly American ways” may have entered my head. But DJ after DJ that I met questioned me on the topic and, after learning who normally fills the role of MC in Canada would ask questions like:

“Why would you give your microphone to someone who doesn’t use one for a living?”

“Why would you let someone lead what is supposed to happen at a wedding reception if they’ve never done it before?”

“Why…?” “Why…?” “Why…?”

Those conversations got me thinking. In August of that very same year, Bryan and I took the plunge and drove from here in Manitoba to Minneapolis to attend our very first ever 2 day MC workshop.

We nearly left after day 1.

Never in our entire lives had we felt so small. Never had we felt so amateur… so rookie…so helpless…so…beginner…

Never had we felt so awful for every couple that we’d ever worked for.

The missed opportunities. The moments that were so much less then they could have been. The reception they COULD have had…had we only known what we were rapidly beginning to learn. That very first MarBecca workshop was a humbling experience, to say the least.

Now, here is what’s most important about this story. I share every single word of what is written above to 100% of the couples I meet with who might be considering my services for their wedding. Every… single… word. Here’s why.

At the beginning of the story, they’re able to empathize with me completely. 100%. Most of what they know about a DJ is what I used to know and I’m telling them that with incredible honesty. Here’s where our first connection from this story takes place. Then, they journey with me to Las Vegas to where the conversations with other DJs took place. Through this, they’re able to start seeing and experiencing the change I went through, which as you and I know, is going to inevitably lead to today. As the story shares how I slowly had my mind changed around the idea of being an MC, so too, through the fun of story telling, do most of them change their mind with me. By the end of things, they’re rooting along with me as I describe to them how my world has kind of blown up around me… turning this “hobby” into a full time passion that just 6 years ago I didn’t even know was possible.

While it might sound silly now  – that I used to think the DJ as the MC was the craziest idea in the world – I wouldn’t change it for anything. Without that important part of my story, I might not connect with as many couples as I do. It allows us to connect at “square one” and move forward together (hopefully) from that point onward.

Do you have a story? (rhetorical question — we ALL have a story) Do you share it with your potential clients? Do you provide just the right elements to that story so that they might grasp hold of what you know and believe about your services? Without that, they will seldom buy from you.

For more learning on the importance of sharing your story, be sure to read chapter 3 in Mitch Taylor’s book, Sales 4 Event Pros. If you’d like to workshop this process, get in touch with Mitch to see when and where his next Sales 4 Event Pros Workshop will be taking place.

Stories sell. They connect us. They join parts of our worlds together. Even, when they start with thinking that the DJ as the MC is the craziest idea in the world!

 

~ Dave

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