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Episode 104 : Keep reinventing yourself to keep the passion : Mark Addington
166 Plays2 years ago
Happy Woo Wednesdays. I have Mark Addington in the Get a Heck Yes house. His passion and smile are contagious and I can literally hear him smile through the phone.
In 2019 Mark was elected Director of Education for the local San Francisco Chapter of WIPA, then stepping into the role of International Director of Education for WIPA just two years later. He has helped me with my speaking career and I can't thank him enough.
Hot topic: Keep reinventing yourself to keep the passion and avoid burnout.
Mark says to schedule time to pause every so often to assess what's working for your business and what you can improve on.
Mark Addington fell into the wedding industry as a side hustle while working at a busy San Francisco casting agency. After a few years working on television and movie sets the casting agency moved to L.A. so it was time to make a change and Mark became a permanent fixture in the wedding industry. Fifteen years later Mark decided to leave the safety of a big box DJ company and pursue another creative job working for the illustrious Pixar Entertainment. In 2018, while waiting for his contract to be renewed, Mark established Mark Addington Events LLC, an award-winning wedding & entertainment company. In the last 20 years he has DJ'd and Emceed hundreds of weddings and events not only in the San Francisco Bay Area but all across the U.S. and the Caribbean.
Connect with Mark
https://www.facebook.com/markaddingtonevents , https://www.instagram.com/markaddingtonevents/
Connect with Carissa
Buy my book
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Transcript
Introduction and Book Launch
00:00:00
Speaker
Happy Woo Wednesdays everyone. Thank you so much guys for all the love and support with my book. I actually can't believe a lot of people bought my book and have been sharing and posting and I haven't even been telling everyone to share and they've just been doing it on my friends and family and I just feel so much love and gratitude towards you guys. So if you guys don't know, I wrote a book for wedding photographers and it's called
00:00:25
Speaker
woo them to heck yes a pro wedding photographer's tips and tricks for earning six figures plus and perfecting any couple's big day and i got to say it's pretty fire guys so go check it out on amazon and of course i'll link it up
00:00:42
Speaker
So today I have a good friend, Mark Addington, in the Heck Yes House. He is from Mark Addington Events and he is a DJ in the Bay Area and he's so amazing. He is the Director of Education for WIPA and he's actually helped me become a speaker. I owe so much thanks and gratitude towards him.
00:01:03
Speaker
We did a huge presentation to all the WIPA members about mastering the dreaded sales call and he was my co-host and this guy is absolutely incredible.
Preventing Burnout and Maintaining Passion
00:01:15
Speaker
So today's hot topic is keep reinventing yourself to keep the passion and avoid burnout. Enjoy this episode everyone.
00:01:28
Speaker
Welcome to Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. I'm your host, Carissa, and I've been a Los Angeles wedding photographer for over a decade. I've traveled the world, built my team, and seen it all. I now coach wedding photographers hit 10K a month and build a thriving business. In this podcast, we are going to deep dive into how top wedding creatives get that heck yes from their dream clients. We are not holding back on the struggles of the business and how to push through the noise. Some healthy hustle, mindset shifts, up-leveling your money story,
00:01:56
Speaker
time-packed because I'm a mom of two, a little bit of woo-woo, and most importantly, self-love and confidence are just a few of the many things we will talk about. I want to give you a genuine thank you for following along my journey.
WIPA Collaboration and Sales Mastery
00:02:09
Speaker
I hope to inspire you every Woo Wednesday so that you say heck yes to listening to this podcast. See you guys soon!
00:02:19
Speaker
hey everyone welcome back to get a heck yes with me your girl chris who I have my friend mark adding 10 with mark adding 10 events in the House.
00:02:27
Speaker
He's been a Bay Area DJ for 20 years. He does a lot of events, very, very social butterfly. First time I connected with you, I was like, wow, this guy is amazing. He's also the director of education for WIPA, Wedding Industry Professionals Association. And you're helping me become a speaker. And we did a little Zoom for 75 wedding professionals about the sales call and you really helped me conduct that.
00:02:57
Speaker
Welcome, Mark. Hey, thank you for having me, Carissa. And yes, that was fun. We had an internal WIPA webinar that was absolutely amazing. As I said before, thank you for dropping that magic of education on our wedding group. And then I was excited to see you got to speak for Southern California WIPA chapter. So yeah, thank you. That was a blast. And I'm glad I get to be here today.
00:03:21
Speaker
share some information on
Overcoming Anxiety and Public Speaking
00:03:23
Speaker
my end. Thank you. Yeah, that was a very beautiful experience for me. It's just, it was so incredibly nerve wracking to do your first time speaking in front of that many people coming there, not like just for me, but you know, I'm the main speaker and I had so much anxiety and I felt like I did a really good job. There's some things I would have changed, but it was just like,
00:03:50
Speaker
The first time is always like the biggest, it's the most nerve wracking. So thank you for being a part of my journey. Absolutely. No. And I agree with you a hundred percent. It's funny. I mean, I, I run a DJ entertainment company. I can speak in front of a ton of people that I don't know and I have no problems with it.
00:04:09
Speaker
I can't tell you how many times I set my system up here. Like, I'm like, I'm going to be on Chris's podcast, you know, like, like I said it and then reset it and I set up zoom in the other room to make sure it sounded good, you know, and it just is, there's a weird, odd, different, you know, thing that you go through. So I'm glad that I could be there for you. Thank you.
Career Journey from DJ to Entrepreneur
00:04:28
Speaker
Okay, so for audience listening today, our hot topic is keep reinventing yourself so you can stay passionate and avoid burnout. But before that, I want you to tell us every tell everyone about like your journey, even what you're like as a kid growing up, and just how you became a wedding DJ and just a little bit about your journey.
00:04:50
Speaker
Yeah, great. It's always weird talking about yourself. And I know everybody's like, oh, DJ's, ego, whatever. But I try to not have one. So this is always kind of a little bit hard. But then again, obviously, I do like to talk. So I can tell you kind of the, well, we grew up not
00:05:12
Speaker
I should say we grew up, parents got divorced. We moved all around the country and not military, just a long kind of crazy story. But I learned to make friends pretty quick because, you know, we would go into an area, you'd have to make friends. Then you didn't know when you were going to wind up moving again. So, um, I have, with Facebook is actually amazing for helping refine some of these people and keep in touch. Yeah.
00:05:39
Speaker
But wound up when I was in college, I started deejaying and wound up kind of just deejaying so I didn't have to get a full-time job during the week, you know, and it was like, okay, easy money here and there, kept my grades up, you know, got a degree in broadcast journalism because I was like, oh, I'm going to be on the news.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah. I turned at news stations and I hated it. I hated it. It's, I think I'm, well, I don't think, I'm an empath, right? You're happy. I'm happy. When somebody is sad, I feel that and I get like really into that stuff. I cannot physically be, you know, today there was a car accident, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was, you know, I just can't, I can't switch like that. Yeah. I knew it was very sad.
00:06:28
Speaker
So and it's a kind of cutthroat industry. So I was like, that's not what I want to do. I moved from the Midwest out to California, wound up working at a casting agency. We were doing movies, commercials, everything like that. I always tell her my highlight of like working there is we worked on The Princess Diaries and I got to meet Julie Andrews and I
00:06:51
Speaker
I cried. It was so good. She's amazing, because I'm like, oh, come on, Mary Poppins, here we go.
00:07:00
Speaker
And then, of course, went from, while I was working there, I got approached from someone that said, hey, you've got a great personality. Have you ever thought about being a DJ? And I said, funny enough, I was at one point. I feel like a past life. And I wound up DJing for a big box DJ company. Basically, I showed up on a Saturday. I got a clipboard. And it was like, oh, I've got a wedding today. And I'd go DJ someone's wedding. I'd have no connection with them whatsoever. Exactly.
00:07:29
Speaker
wound up staying with them. Actually, I left the casting agency and saw the whole like, I have baggage somewhere. My brother, my brother passed away a week before my, I have a 19 year old, before he was born a week before. So I went from like lowest low to highest high. And, but having two jobs was just too much. It was more than my bandwidth and which I talk about all the time.
00:07:57
Speaker
coming back in, I was like, well, I can still take some time off during the week, raise my son and DJ and support myself. And so I was just doing that for a while, right? Which is great. He's gotten older. I was a single dad for seven years before I met my wife. And then we met and we sat down and had a serious conversation about how I was being treated.
00:08:27
Speaker
and wound up leaving to go to, actually I put my feelers out there, and of all things, I stepped away to go work for Pixar.
00:08:36
Speaker
And I worked for Pixar for a year. And when my contract was up, I was waiting to kind of figure out what the next steps were. Was I going to do this again, which I absolutely loved and would have taken in a second. But I was also getting hit up from people that I had done family members weddings. And I also do like Barnbop Mitzvah. So like the second child or their third child. And so I just started taking events.
00:09:02
Speaker
And that grew and grew and grew. And then the pandemic hit right before I was supposed to renegotiate my contract for Pixar. And I just, as I said, I reinvented myself and I started a brand new company because I stepped out with a business partner. Now I have no business partner, no DJ starting my company and things have taken off. They have gone like, because I kept so many connections within WIPA,
00:09:30
Speaker
They have gotten, I want to say out of control because that sounds like a bad thing. They've all been within control and all something I can manage. And life is phenomenal. Life, life is so good right now. And I get to meet cool people. And I love, I joined, like I said, back in 2019 is when I officially joined the board for WIPA, the international
00:09:49
Speaker
I became the, or not the International Board, just the local board here, San Francisco, the Director of Education for San Francisco. And I got to come in and put my style on it. I got to adjust it so it grew at the times. Pandemic hit, jumped into the International Board, and I've been having a blast ever since, getting to do webinars every month, meeting you. You know, just meeting all sorts of new people across the country.
00:10:16
Speaker
on in the wedding industry and really getting a chance to hear like their stories and understand with what I'm doing with education, bringing in speakers that are actually relevant in the industry, somebody that has a piece of magic or knowledge to share with everybody.
00:10:31
Speaker
that they can put out there and giving them a platform to do it. So it's weird to look back and go, dude, I've been DJing for like 20 years. That's really crazy. Let's take it back. Let's take it back to when you had that discussion with your now wife and you wanted, they weren't treating you right at the big box DJ. And then what did it take to really step into your power and reinvent yourself? And how did you do it?
00:11:01
Speaker
So funny, that's a great question. It was nervous. I knew that I needed to do it a couple of years before. It was really hard. They're a great company. They have a great way of McDonaldizing a process, right? It's really hard for me, though, that is a creative at heart to show up on a Saturday and walk in.
00:11:24
Speaker
and meet a couple that if I would have only known a few things, the party could have been up here. But walk in and go, oh, cocktails is in a different area, but I'm here. I don't have a system for that other area, but it could have. It would have been available. So things like that are really like, and I also knew with my wife that we wanted to grow a family. We knew we needed to grow these. So what were the next steps?
00:11:52
Speaker
And it was easy to say when it was me as a single dad that was just sitting there, I kept making excuses. And I think that we do get into that stuff a lot as we get to a point where we just make excuses to not jump out, not to take that chance. And I said, I've just got to do it. If I want this marriage to work, and if we want to have kids down the line, which I have a two-year-old
00:12:19
Speaker
I mean, a three-year-old and a five-year-old. Wow. Wow. Right now. So if we wanted for all that to happen, I have to look forward and plan forward. Where do I want to go? And I put my feelers out there. I went, which I always say never do, but I went and asked family. I got a loan from my stepdad, got my own DJ equipment, and it's weird to be
00:12:46
Speaker
It's weird to be in your forties and like asking for a loan from parents. Like that's really weird. But he believed in what I wanted to do. Everyone around me believed in me. And I mean, you take your step out and you have people that believe in you. That's great. So I like, you're asking like, kind of what does it take? Like I did kind of build that community that believed in what I was doing and the people that did not believe
00:13:16
Speaker
We just don't associate anymore. I don't feel bad about it. I wonder sometimes what they're doing. Social media is great on updating those if you want to sneak on people. But I just kind of left it alone. And I went out and I got my own set of equipment. I left. I did it right. I got my own set of equipment. And at the same time, too, just as I got my equipment, everything like that, Pixar opened up.
00:13:44
Speaker
And I was doing that and I was still picking up some events on the weekend because we all know that you don't really just walk right out and go, I'm going to be a DJ for a year of events that does not happen. So and especially, I mean, on the bar and bat mitzvah side of things, the.
00:14:02
Speaker
I still had a lot of connections in the bar about Mitzvah World. Great. But when they book you, you book a year and a half to two years out. So I knew in a year and a half or two years, I'm going to have some events and I'm going to be in a good spot. But at the same time, too, I don't want to overcommit because what if Pixar is amazing? Right. So I was really cautious in how I did all of that. Believe me, it was nerves. It was a lot of nerves, but it happened.
00:14:30
Speaker
And I think I just believed in it and I trusted in it and made it work. What were you doing at Pixar? Production assistant. So it is essentially in a way, it's a glorified intern, you know, but there was so much of it that starting on the low rung and building up to the next, you know, one of the reasons why I lasted at the casting agency so long, other than Julie Andrews, I don't really get starstruck, so.
00:14:58
Speaker
You know, I find people amazing and I get like into people, but I don't get, you know, like, so, so I was on set all the time. I got invited to set. So the good thing about Pixar was I kept getting invited to other pieces because other interns just didn't show up or they didn't put their heart into it or it wasn't their passion.
00:15:20
Speaker
I remember one of the days I got stuck working in the cafeteria there and the person that was heading up the cafeteria was like, can we have Mark? I didn't care that I was working in their cafeteria. That was fun. I got to see so many people that I hadn't seen that are like the big names in Pixar because they were there. So it was fun. It was just a creative element. And I really honestly
00:15:51
Speaker
love how they run their creative side of things with just being able to take breaks, if you're mentally stuck. And I said, I kept telling myself when I run my business, this is how I want it run. I'm gonna try my hardest to not go schedule thing back to back to back to back. You need a breather, you need to clear the reset and then go back to it. And you're gonna be a much happier person.
00:16:14
Speaker
Interesting. What would you say like your, I know you took so many takeaways from working for the company, the DJ company, but what is like your secret sauce to the Mark Addington events company? Like what is your biggest selling factor? I think it's, but I,
00:16:34
Speaker
I get really into people. I love hearing people's ideas or things that they want to do. My big thing is not even though I've been to a venue before, even though I've done X amount of weddings, I still really care. Honestly, I feel like that's my secret sauce. People tell me all the time that you can hear my smile through the phone. That means the world to me because
00:17:04
Speaker
i guess even sometimes if you're like i don't want to say when you're if you're dialing it in but sometimes if you get off the phone and you're like oh you know whatever you get off the phone you write that information you put it in the system and then you get an email back like an hour later or whatever saying we want a book we want to move forward we're so excited you're like
00:17:23
Speaker
Man, I didn't even think that I was like, it was something, I love the fact that it's not something I have to turn on. Do you know what I'm saying? I don't have to get on there and go, okay, let's assume a role. When I first started DJing and when I first started like in front of people, I was like, I was DJ Mark Addington and that was a different person than Mark Addington. Oh, crazy.
00:17:43
Speaker
Now, as we've gone on, it's all one person now. I don't have to turn on an acting role. That's so special. What is our hot topic today? Why is it so near and dear to your heart? Our hot topic,
00:18:02
Speaker
today really is all about in a way staying relevant in the industry, reinventing yourself.
Staying Relevant through Reinvention
00:18:10
Speaker
And I think it's important to me because I've lived it. I feel like it was funny when my wife and I met and we were talking about my background and stuff, she goes, you've seriously lived so many different lives.
00:18:27
Speaker
It's not that I'm not content, I just kind of take on different, like I love it when I get a call for a new venue or I love it when I get a call for a new, you know, a corporate party that they want is this theme. One of the reasons why I'm not, and I did work in club, actually I DJed at the club for four years in San Francisco,
00:18:50
Speaker
But that was work. That was going out and DJing. And did I become a better DJ? Yes. Was it the same crowd every night that I saw? It felt like it. At the end of the last year, I kind of got bored and I just dialed it in. And that made me go, oh, I shouldn't be doing this anymore. Because when you get up and you go, OK, I've got to go, you shouldn't have to go like,
00:19:17
Speaker
I have to go to work. I should be like, I get to go to my passion. This is kind of cool. So with that being said, one of the things, and maybe I'm a little bit luckier on this end with being Wippa. So I left the big box DJ company, and I actually joined Wippa at that point. And I'm going to tell you why, and this is kind of the reinventing yourself. Thinking smarter.
00:19:45
Speaker
I said, I'm a DJ and this sounds bad, but sometimes I think we get put on the lowest rung on a lot of the things, right? Like I said, it's a DJ, he just talks, he does this. There's a lot of people out there that put us way up top. They understand what we can bring to the table.
00:20:03
Speaker
But there's also, as in any discipline in the wedding industry, you have the good, you have the bad, and you have the people that are honestly learning and trying to be better. I left the big box DJ company and said, I want all the people in the wedding industry to know that I'm here and I'm on my own. But what I don't want to do is I don't want to cold call
00:20:30
Speaker
all these people and say, Hey, it's Mark. Remember me. I'm a DJ. I didn't want to do that. So how can I get in front of so many people in one place at one time, right? There's an organization, there's many networking organizations. And I'm not sitting here going, Oh, you have to join whip up. But if you're, if you're serious in the wedding industry, whip is phenomenal. And part of that reason why is, and this is my whip a bitch, but there's no hierarchy there, right?
00:20:57
Speaker
every discipline is on the same level. And I love that. Whereas there are some other industries and networkers, like I love, I love in our area, Ilea. Ilea is great. I don't attend to Ilea though, cause they're primarily corporate. There's a few others that are primarily whatever, but I said, I'm going to do this. And I don't have a fear of going up to people. So, you know, my first WIPA event, Chris, I walked up to everybody. I had a business card and man, I'm just handing those cards out.
00:21:27
Speaker
and you know it was okay guys and there's so many people that were like oh my god mark adington where have you been absolutely would love to refer you a lot of people i didn't know right okay no big deal but join whip up then i was like after attending some whip events and getting my name out there
00:21:45
Speaker
I then got that opportunity to join the WIPA board. And I jumped into education side of things because I truly believed in that. But there's always a part of what you do that's a little bit self-serving, right? So I feel like I invented myself like, here's my company. I reinvented my company. Then I said, what's the best way to get out there?
00:22:08
Speaker
I joined WIPA then I reinvented myself as a leader in our wedding industry you know by wedding board and I didn't go into it going well this I'm just gonna sit back and let things come to me that doesn't happen um and maybe for some people that's fantastic but for me
00:22:29
Speaker
I'm not content with just sitting there. And I started going, okay, I was talking to our WIPA members. I was talking to, you know, everyone, I was finding speakers that were relevant to what our topics were right now, relevant to 2019, right? With my mind being open now, we hit the pandemic and what changed, right? Now, Black Lives Matter movement, inclusivity movements,
00:22:57
Speaker
These things are important. So now I've started working with those. But now as I'm doing all these, I'm learning.
00:23:05
Speaker
Pardon guys for the short interruption, but guess what? I have a new program for all wedding professionals, not just photographers. It's called the Triple Threat, and there are five amazing phases. And let me tell you, all this work I've been doing for the past three, four years of coaching, I turned this into the most awesome sauce program to get you the best results
00:23:34
Speaker
to get you leads to pretty much just get you to success in general. So phase number one.
00:23:43
Speaker
me and my team are going to overhaul your whole entire brand experience. We are going to do some deep digging and after you will get a beautiful new copy for the homepage of your website and we'll give you a wireframe in Canva and the whole structure of your website will be amazing. Speaking to your ideal client and when people go to your website
00:24:08
Speaker
Literally, you are going to be the no-brainer choice. Phase two, we're going to create your signature package. I get this question so often, how do I price myself? We are going to help you price yourself. Phase three, we are going to generate leads through getting on the venue vendor list. So we're going to create beautiful marketing material for you to pitch yourself to venues, and I'll tell you exactly what to say and what not to say.
00:24:38
Speaker
Phase four, turn followers into inquiries. We're going to give you a content calendar and create your whole IG portfolio to stop the scroll and actually get people like inquiring on your Instagram. And last phase, we are going to craft a high converting inquiry
00:24:58
Speaker
to make you a booking system. So this is your whole entire sales presentation. How to get that, heck yes, on the spot. So watch my live 20-minute demo. Link is in the bio. You are going to love it. The triple threat. Back to the conversation. I'm learning what it is to be Mark Addington. I'm learning what do I want to project forward with my company
00:25:27
Speaker
that says, this is who I am. Everybody's welcome here. Come celebrate here. What is important? And not all of these webinars that I'm leading or I'm listening to have a greater purpose. Sometimes they're important to know for now. This is so funny. I got to lead a webinar on Canva. So Canva, you're thinking, we're going to learn and maybe it'll be gone.
00:25:56
Speaker
Or maybe it won't, but guess I have somebody from Canva like teaching me. Wow. Things to learn my Calendly. And so I guess that's part of the reinvention is just in a way to never really like or to always kind of keep learning. Yes.
00:26:17
Speaker
What is out there? One of my favorite things that I've learned during this process, and I think it's really important, is understanding that mystery of
Balancing Work and Family
00:26:28
Speaker
work-life balance. There is no perfect work-life balance, but you can get them close. Like we were talking before we started,
00:26:41
Speaker
on my birthday is coming up. But my son's first days of kindergarten, we moved to a new school district. So now I canceled my birthday plans, which Leo, New Orleans, that you guys mentioned that so, canceled this birthday plans that we've been planning for five years. In all honesty, being there, my son's first days of kindergarten,
00:27:03
Speaker
That to me, I mean, honestly, it sounds so weird, but that's my greatest birthday wish, right? That is just so amazing. I'll do New Orleans at another point, right? I grew up in Louisiana, so I'm okay. But it's still those things of finding out those pieces that are important.
00:27:22
Speaker
Attending webinars and encouraging your learning. A webinar that I did about understanding social media and in a way the dangers of it. I love my social media. Social media is not my favorite thing. I think I have like eight pictures up there or something like that.
00:27:43
Speaker
But I know it's one of those necessary evils. I totally get it, right? But I had a huge issue. Chris, I was one of those people that I popped on, and I saw other DJs doing other things. And I go, why am I not there? What do I need to do? Yeah, same. And all of that, Chris, honestly, is all of that is stuff that's on a personal level.
00:28:07
Speaker
That was not healthy for me. I'm a huge proponent of mental health. That was not healthy for me to do it. Just as much as I'm going out and I'm creating my own opportunities, so are these other DJs. And there's a reason why they're at those events, because they made those opportunities happen. If I'm sitting here going, I'm so angry that I didn't get that,
00:28:31
Speaker
And I'm going off and I'm now putting that out into the world and I'm putting it onto my family and I'm putting it onto whatever. And I'm not sleeping at night. That doesn't help. So I just adopted that mentality of going, that's awesome that they got to do that. What can I create for myself? Wow.
00:28:51
Speaker
And I have been, I should say, I mean, my posts have gone way down because I don't put as much on that. I have gone out. I've worked really hard. I have found venues that love me. Wow. Mark, you are the caliber of DJ that we want at this venue. And I honestly have filled my schedule to the point where
00:29:16
Speaker
I am at a point where I refer a couple really good friends that I went out, I made other DJ friends that have the same ethics, that have the same vision that I do, and that's why I refer all my work over, too.
00:29:30
Speaker
because I know that somebody goes, I'm not, you know, oh, you're not available. I'm so sorry. I'm like, wait, but I have good referrals for you. And I made it a point to always refer strong. And that's my favorite thing to do. And so, you know, I may not get as much back from anybody else, but I really can't take anything else. So, and as long as they're happy and they want to pay for dinner every time we go out, like, I'm okay with that. For the sushi, let's go do sushi, you know?
00:29:57
Speaker
So what I found is each step of the way as I have come along, I have reinvented myself. When I joined the big box DJ company in the very beginning, I was just one of their new guys. And so when a DJ position opened or when a spot opened up, they would fill it like, oh, we booked an extra wedding, Mark, you've got it. So I wasn't like, it's not like I came in and I did a ton of weddings right off the bat. Then that started growing. And then I started watching like,
00:30:25
Speaker
okay, why are these guys working January, February, March, April, but I'm not. And I got a, well, they're doing barn buck mitzvahs because it's barn buck mitzvah season, you know, whatever. Oh, great. So I, I learned how to become a better MC. I started watching video like back in the beginning with YouTube and stuff like that. I actually went to, um,
00:30:49
Speaker
a couple friends that were like New York Mitzvah DJs, and they learned how to do New York Barnbout Mitzvahs, and then came back to California and added the California style onto it, you know. I then was like, company parties, how do we do company parties? You know, what do you, okay, well, it's similar, you know, blah, blah, blah. I started doing company parties to the point where I filled every weekend now. Wow. And it was just like, what do I want to learn? What do I want to know how to do best?
00:31:19
Speaker
And what was really nice there is I became actually one of the trainers at that company to train the new people coming in. So I feel like I've always been in an education and I've always wanted to give back without asking. And I'm a big person on, I know that I am not, it's just that this is that thought process, which is always weird to say.
00:31:41
Speaker
I'm not always going to be here, you know, so there needs to be a new generation coming in that's going to take over, you know, so that's that was that was amazing. I'm just going to wrap my head and recap a little bit because I hear you saying, like,
00:32:01
Speaker
you're always reinventing yourself and that's what keeps you passionate. So you're always learning, you're always developing. When you get like a call from a venue that wants you, you get excited. When you get like, you know, when you became the director of education for Wippa, you get excited and you're kind of staying in your own lane. Like you're kind of saying like, what does Mark Addington want? And you're not looking on social media like,
00:32:25
Speaker
get into that space where you're saying, oh, that could have been me, or I'm doing something wrong, or I want more. And you're really like focusing on your big vision.
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah. And I would say that's, that's it, you know, in a nutshell. I mean, and the other thing too is when I do see someone doing something or someone that got an opportunity that I, I, I love to ask those questions. And if they don't want to share, they don't want to share. And that's no big deal. You know, I, I understand that some people, like you say it, they're like, this is my secret sauce and I am not opening that jar. Beautiful. Like that's, that's okay. You know, but for me, uh,
00:33:04
Speaker
I just love to ask those questions, you know, or somebody has a venue that I haven't been to before. And it's really interesting. I mean, I've, I've gone to a couple venues where they're like, Mark, how would you lay this out for a wedding? And you're like, dude, that's super cool that you're asking me that, you know, good.
00:33:22
Speaker
Um, you know, but, but it is, there's, there's something about is finding those things that give you those passions. And I'm also a big person on like now, one of the things I'm slowly changing my about page is I'm.
00:33:38
Speaker
I'm going to be honest, I'm a huge geek. Like I love, I love Disney. I love superheroes. I love Harry Potter, you know? And so when I, I'm changing some of that stuff on my about page because I've seen to been in the last couple of years of really attracting those people.
00:33:59
Speaker
And there's something that is just so fun to walk in and go, oh my God, you're a Blink-182 fan. I'm a fan. Like, let's talk Blink-182. You know, I had a couple that I just wound up booking with because I wanted to talk with them for the sales call, but I had to shoot an email over. I'm so sorry.
00:34:20
Speaker
And instead in like the years past, I think I used to go, I'm so sorry. I'm not available to jump on this call, blah, blah, blah. I was just dead honest with him. I was like, I'm so sorry. You guys, I'm actually going to be at the Blink 182 concert. Like I'm super excited. I'm sorry, not sorry. You know, but really I've worked hard at putting my personality back. She goes, you're never going to believe this. My fiance is going to be at the Blink concert tonight. I'm like, Oh my God. Oh my God.
00:34:48
Speaker
When you can do stuff, when you can connect with a client like that, phenomenal. And I work really hard to put my personality into my calls. I love finding something that they're enjoying. And I honestly, as much Chris, as much as I've talked on this webinar,
00:35:09
Speaker
I don't do as much talking, except if I'm sharing knowledge and they've directly asked me a question, I'm really careful on letting them do the talking, except for the first 10 minutes. I love listening to people and having them tell me how they want me to sell to them.
00:35:31
Speaker
I love it when people get on and they start going, yeah, we just talked to this DJ and he talked to the entire time and he said he wants to play all explicit music at our wedding and he doesn't make announcements.
00:35:45
Speaker
Beautiful. You've just told me five things, which first off, five things that I don't do. This is great. Then someone in there, they'll say, I honestly think the biggest learning experience for me, even though I've been a DJ for so long, because my wife and I did a destination wedding, we had to pick all new vendors. I picked vendors I didn't know. Having to go through that wedding planning process yourself,
00:36:15
Speaker
without knowing any people, it's stressful. So now I'm like, oh my God, I get this. I understand. The other thing, and it's just being able to pass off advice. When a bride says, Mark, have you ever done this before? It's like, no, let's find this out. The most beautiful thing is,
00:36:35
Speaker
all of this stuff is on TikTok now. That's where pandemic hit. All of our brides jumped on TikTok and started watching wedding TikTok. So now when a bride goes, Mark, have you ever done? We want to do our intros into the room, but we want you to read them out in a baseball style. Like send me the video that I can make this happen. So it's fun to
00:37:01
Speaker
It's fun to keep learning, and TikTok's another thing. Would I have necessarily ever gone on TikTok? Because no, I didn't like Instagram. But I started finding out, and this is probably from my wife and I laying in bed at night just sending each other TikToks. She just kept sending me TikToks. And then I'm like, wait, there's a wedding TikTok? Are you kidding me? So I started watching that. Can you say that to me too?
00:37:23
Speaker
It's just, I think it's another layer. It's another way of, it's something simple. And believe me, is it a black hole that you can go down to and do you have to slowly wean yourself off a TikTok at some point? Absolutely. But can it also be used as a tool? Yes. So I think that it never hurts to stop learning. It never hurts to, on my way to events,
00:37:51
Speaker
I sometimes listen to podcasters that I love. They say or get a heck yes from your client's podcast that I listen to. There's other podcasts that are really helpful. And even if they're, even if it's a 30 minute podcast and 29 minutes of those are just a waste of your time, there's probably a gleaming something or that you walk away from going
00:38:19
Speaker
That was good. That was really good. Or somebody quotes someone. That was a great quote. So there's ways of continuing your education. There's ways of looking at something and going, I have been doing this for 10 years.
00:38:36
Speaker
I'm stuck. I'm in a zone. I'm not selling anymore. What do I need to do different?
Learning from Experience and Business Growth
00:38:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean those things up. Join a networking organization. Join a networking as the educate or association that doesn't play the cool kids and doesn't. I've definitely gone to those and you're kind of like this is a waste. Can I ask you how you became like director of education so fast?
00:39:02
Speaker
So a lot of it was just kind of, like I said, networking and talking, you know, when I was there. I actually got approached for it. And someone, well, not someone, Diana, who is one of the past presidents for our chapter, she saw it. I guess she just said, Mark, we think you'd be great. And I still had to go. I still had to interview. I got the position.
00:39:32
Speaker
But it was it was really and I walked in not in a way not knowing what I was doing. But I also had some ideas that I didn't want to do, you know, and I think that I think we attended other chapters or another chapters or other organizations educational events.
00:39:49
Speaker
And they were really bad. Some of them were like, I attended one that was like iPhone photography for florists. I just sat there going, I don't understand. I learned how to work my phone better, which was kind of cool.
00:40:03
Speaker
But it made no sense. I went to one where, oh my gosh, do you remember the fire festival? Yeah. One of the guys from the fire festival who had never spoken before, kept saying the same thing and was kept talking to a room of planners on why you need to have a good plan.
00:40:20
Speaker
And we're just sitting there watching this guy going, dude, we've been in the industry forever. Like, what is this? It was almost as poorly planned as the fire festival. Oh, that's so funny. But it made you go, OK, so now I have an idea of what not to do.
00:40:37
Speaker
And that was kind of the same thing that I had with working with that big box DJ company is that I learned a lot of what not. So when I came onto my side, I understood it. I also understood being able to read a DJ pretty fast and go, or, or any, you know, any of the vendors and kind of go, they work great. They would work great on an event, but they need to be managed.
00:41:03
Speaker
Or I could send this guy out to literally DJ anything and he would be fine. Some people are great at managing groups of people and some people are not. And I think you just really need to figure out where you are internally and what you're good at. Going to an event and yelling at people to set stuff up does not mean you're a good manager.
00:41:26
Speaker
You know, and so I think I just took a lot of my life lessons and I live by those. I try to treat people how I want to be treated. I did a lot. I did a lot of stuff during the pandemic, which is completely opposite than what everybody else.
00:41:42
Speaker
but it worked for me. Oh, that's awesome. I wanted to, um, yeah, you did live many lives. We have to go into rapid fire questions due to time. Um, these are more like shorter answers, but, um, this is kind of a fun question, but you know, you were a single dad, um, raising a kid, you know,
00:42:03
Speaker
working and then now you're raising two little ones so like starting over so I guess like in a nutshell like what's the difference now like raising a dad like
00:42:13
Speaker
That's a great question. The two main differences, because when I was single dad, the choices were mine to make. And there's some stuff that I, I'll always have a parental guilt here. I feel like we somewhat missed out on because we were just trying to survive. That's probably part of the reason why I stuck with the other company as long as I did. Going and having the support of a spouse, going to have a supportive of any significant other.
00:42:42
Speaker
on and having those talks of raising two kids and like use a baby of a company. Um, it, there's stress there for sure. But you know, I always say like, we, we made our vows, we stuck by our vows and we work hard. Not every day is sunshine, but I'll tell you, we, we have rules in our house. Uh, you can, you can sing at any time. You can dance at any time and art is always a person. So that, that just, when you walk out, people are singing, you're like, we're good. Yeah.
00:43:10
Speaker
Oh, I love that rule. Okay, so you have a big birthday coming up, August 6. I don't know how old you are, but you look great. But what are like your birthday, epiphanies, goals, or mindset shifts? Or how do you want to live like this?
00:43:26
Speaker
This birthday year, this big birthday year. I am finally, I'm just going to business wise, I am finally in a good place that I feel like I don't need a business partner. I don't really need other DJs DJing. I don't need somebody else to support. I'm good enough. I am good enough by myself and strong enough to carry that across.
00:43:48
Speaker
I've also, this is the first time I've ever really done it. I've done a big leap and raised my pricing up. And, you know, it's not a whole thing of, am I scared? Absolutely. But do I believe in it that I can do it? Yes, I can. And on a personal side of things, I'm a caretaker for my 87-year-old dad.
00:44:12
Speaker
And he is at a point where he's talking about all the things that he has missed out on. And as hard as it's here, it is an eye-opener for me that not everything revolves around work. And take time to enjoy my family and enjoy my life because working hard and saying, someday down the line, I'll be able to enjoy this is not the same as saying, let me go out and enjoy what I have now because tomorrow is not
00:44:42
Speaker
promised. So I mean, that's a beautiful answer. I could leave it like that. But I did want to ask one last question. You're kind of the eyes and ears of this whole industry because you're director of education for WIPA. So you're, you're constantly like, you know, reinventing not just yourself, but the industry of what
00:45:00
Speaker
But what we are educated on so I don't know how to ask this question, but like what do you think the big vision of like the wedding industry is where do you see us going in the next like 123 years as a whole. I don't know how to how you would answer that but
00:45:17
Speaker
Well, I'll tell you the first part of this is, and thank you for saying that, I'm a big listener and I have a really good bandwidth between WIPA and what I do and with my company and what I do. I do take up a little bit more time that I work into my schedule to listen to people like yourself, with other WIPA members, with other industry leaders across the US.
00:45:40
Speaker
I want to know in my head, you know, one that we don't just do some of the same stale events over and over again. What's out there and what's new.
00:45:50
Speaker
It's really interesting because a couple of years it caters source. I know I'm supposed to give you a quick answer here, but the big talk was mental health, right? This is all where we're going, mental health. And now like, I mean, you see sustainability popping back up and you see, you know, these other things. So it's interesting on my end to kind of watch and what affects sustainability here in San Francisco is different than what is sustainability is in Midwest.
00:46:13
Speaker
and different than what it is in Florida. So it's just understanding the different chapters and what's important to them. And to watch some of these things like diversity, equity, inclusion, and inclusivity, we did have a big push coming out of the pandemic. And it hasn't died. It's worked in a way that it's become a little bit more acceptable. And people are listening and people are working on it. It still needs a lot of work.
00:46:43
Speaker
but we're getting better. And it's hard for me to say, you know, white privilege, I get that, but like I'm seeing changes and I'm seeing things and I'm talking to speakers that are telling me this. I'm not just off speaking, you know, like, I don't know, but that's this, I would love to say I understand where shift is. I think one of the big things that I see where people are starting to talk or seeing some of the chapters talk about bringing in education for is everybody's really interested and concerned about AI.
00:47:14
Speaker
Especially I will say I've had a few DJ friends that are, look, I want to say that there's, there's, as an MC, that part of it can't be touched by AI.
00:47:25
Speaker
But I don't know if that could change. So it's just paying attention to understanding that. And I think it's really scary to think somebody can invent a DJ system and a program that could understand and read a crowd and play the songs that are needed next. Oh my god. That's crazy. Wow. You know, you asked what's coming down. There is that vision of going, oh my god, this is a little bit scary. What can we learn now?
00:47:53
Speaker
But I definitely see there's a mix of two other things. Quick, I'll go quick. I loved coming out of the pandemic and seeing the community over competition. I loved to see people pull together. And maybe it's just the Kumbaya Mark. I love this. I love seeing people coming together and helping each other.
00:48:14
Speaker
I wanted to actually do a speaking topic on you survived the pandemic, but did you survive the wedding boom? Because I feel like a lot of companies took on more work than what they could and they folded during that time or they over promised and then they got bad reviews. And so they had to like, they reinvented, but not for a positive reason. That's scary to me. And I hope that we continue to kind of, that's why networking groups are important to me because I think people go in and share. And I think that's the best place to be.
00:48:44
Speaker
Um, so I hope that's really like, I love that that I hope we're going, you know, everyone, Mark Eddington. Thank you for having me.
00:48:57
Speaker
Thanks for joining me this week on Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. Make sure to follow, subscribe, leave a review, or tell a friend about the show. Take a screenshot and post to IG. Tag me. Also, don't forget to download my free guide on how to become a lead generating machine. See you next time, wedding pros!