We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kevin Summers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kevin below.

Kevin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

I have scaled up my one-person DJ company from a sparsely filled calendar of events for whoever would hire me, wherever they were celebrating, for whatever they would pay; to an optimally full calendar of events that I want to DJ, for clients that I’ve targeted, in desired locations, for the premium service price that I set. This was very purposeful and took about 4 years to fully implement in my market as a DJ. My story has some very transferrable ideas for other entrepreneurs, business owners, and creatives; and I’m happy to share here on CanvasRebel.

First, a little about me. I’m happily married to my high school sweetheart, and we have twin sons currently in college. I work at a national bank in Cincinnati, Ohio and have had a corporate career my entire adult life. Through school and education, experience, and driving outcomes, I’ve developed a professional skill set: building and executing strategy, leading teams, planning and delivering business transformation and process improvement, and leading program management. I also have always been obsessed with music! My Dad sparked this passion by sharing his favorite classics with me as a small child – Queen, The Beatles, and more. I grew up listening to, collecting, playing, and making music. This stayed with me, and I was always the guy with the great party soundtrack, or the mixtape, or the playlist for any occasion. I helped a friend DJ at a wedding one time, and instantly realized how well-suited it was to my project management skills and passion for music and helping people celebrate – I had discovered my perfect fit!

With my wife’s encouragement and support, I started my passion project by launching my DJ business. I started by gigging anywhere that would accept me, getting events through friends or family, local charities, and through the app Thumbtack. I did most of the events for free or whatever the host was willing to pay me. I was just happy to get opportunities to play in front of people and hone my DJ craft. During this time, I sometimes had to work with highly price-conscious individuals with difficult personalities and logistics issues e.g. not getting paid on time (or at all), last minute changes which were near impossible to service, and more. I knew that I wanted to target a different type of client to DJ for. I knew that I wanted to DJ at places where the location owners and managing staff cared as much about holding great events as I did. I also knew I wanted to eventually get compensated at a premium level for the premium support and effort I put into every event. I remembered a tool that I could use to give me insights on this topic: the Kano Model.

Kano is a tool used in product marketing and other disciplines, and essentially provides a way to think about aspects of your service or product offering into 3 types: Must-haves, Performance, and Delighters. Must-haves are non-negotiables, for example: if you are flying in an airplane, your base expectation is that you will take off, and land safely. Performance measures are things where the more, the better. If flying, this could be the leg space in front of your seat, or perhaps how close boarding time is to the stated time. A Delighter would be something unexpected that you don’t miss if absent, but are delighted if it were present. On the flight, this could be a warm towel at the end of the flight to relax with, or perhaps a free flight voucher you received unexpectedly.

I believed that I could elevate my DJ service by systemically protecting the must-haves to ensure they occur; maximizing the performance metrics to equal or outperform peers; and introducing delighters to differentiate my service offering in my market. My analysis helped me see that I needed backup systems, planning checklists, and other schemes to ensure I delivered all of my must-haves to my DJ clients without missing a beat. Regarding performance items, I found that I could do things like invest in high quality speakers, microphones, etc. to ensure my sound and lighting would perform in the upper percentile of my peers. And I found several delighters which created value and excitement for my clients while also being on brand; for example: I started making my clients highlight videos “from the DJ booth,” giving out LED glow rings to kids on the dancefloor, and more.

Kano model insights and my resultant actions, and consistency with applying those tactics, have allowed me to steadily build up my business and attract the kinds of clients and events that I desire. Over 4 years, I increased pricing so that I now DJ weddings for 4x what I started out charging, and am solidly in the upper quartile of DJ service services in my market in terms of reviews/reputation and pricing. I have relationships with venues and vendors who refer me, and I spend almost nothing on marketing as most of my business is generated by either a referral source, repeat services (e.g. a school or business event), or via free marketing on social media showing performance snippets or outcomes of my service. I DJ at least a few pro-bono events to give back, and keep the calendar full with an income stream that helps my family and I do things like take an extra vacation or save for future projects.

What’s next? I love what I’ve build my business into and I plan to continue rockin dancefloors until I can’t. I may consider expanding into a multi-op (DJ company with multiple DJ’s) someday, but for now I’m enjoying my passion project without the overhead of managing others. I hope the Kano model can help you grow your passion, creative project, or business!

Kevin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My DJ company is called Smilestones. I want to put Smiles in your Milestones with my DJ’ing.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Best source of clients for me have been referral sources like venue or vendor partners, and word of mouth from past clients. I built these connections over time and work to keep them engaged,

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

For clients who may hire me to DJ a party, wedding or event, I attempt to keep them engaged by making fun and compelling content on my social media platforms. For clients like venues who may refer me to other clients, I offer to DJ for their open houses and send them a holiday gift with business cards for example.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.smilestonesdj.com
• Instagram: smilestonesdj
• Facebook: Smilestones DJ Services
• Twitter: smilestonesdj
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@smilestonesdj