We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anthony DuBose. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anthony below.
Anthony, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
Sometimes, life doesn’t give you the opportunities you’d like. But, when you’re a creative, you make your own, then, expand them as your world grows. So for ASCEND Entertainment Productions in current day, it’s morphed into something I never expected. From just a name to an entity that, if shaped correctly, can help the connection of infrastructure between communities, creativity, all while providing fun & entertaining experiences with music as a big part of the driving force!
The 1st version of A.S.C.E.N.D. Entertainment was one of the names of my film collective. After a few projects, we eventually dissolved, as while we loved making short films & entering contests, the reality was, we all had day jobs and other responsibilities that took precedence. Independent filmmaking can be quite challenging.
For myself, I wanted to figure out a way to continue writing & creating during the week, while finding a weekend job making enough money to ensure all the bills were paid. A 9-5 was simply not going to work anymore (as a creative, every “40 hours a week” job felt like a slow death). With a music background already in my repertoire via writing/performing music as an Emcee + setting vibes at a few house parties, DJing professionally came to mind. Besides learning a couple of technical advancements since my 1st official DJ job back in college (literally just rotating selections of songs between two CD decks), I figured, “this will work for a year or 2.” Little did I know, I was starting another vehicle to a bigger destination, though I wouldn’t see it for several years.
Initially, while contracting for a Corporate DJ company, I started making a DJ name for myself in the Wedding & corporate industry alongside working on short film scripts and music as planned. I’d struck a perfect balance between 3 of my creative ventures. Little did I know, the DJ demand would start to increase rapidly. Most of this was talent based of course (who would’ve thought that combining Project Managing skills with Club DJ skills would be the perfect mix for these events), combined with high goals of breaking multiple DJ records at this company. Always the self-motivator, I wanted to start incorporating video ideas to help set myself & the company a part even further from the competition, that is, until I hit a glass ceiling and a realization of not repeating the past: don’t impose personal ideas in places that can’t contain them, nor were asked for or wanted. 1. Any creative ideas formed wouldn’t be owned by me, as they would be under the creation of this company, & 2. While DJing was fun & flew by in several years at a point, I never forgot why I started: to eventually afford myself opportunities with my other creative endeavors in my own way.
Naturally, those other ventures would have a connection to community, because, that’s always been important to me personally. But, as I was eventually preparing for my own Wedding and going through a process I’m typically on the other side of, I noticed something…I’m hardly seeing any representation of MY community on the business side in this space, similar to experiences I had years prior being a part of a film team participating in spaces that didn’t see many of “us” on the crew side of the camera. In so many facets, I felt very limited. Then, like several other periods in life when I hit this limitation, I thought, “why not just create it?” I’ve already had a ton of support from people encouraging me to start my own DJ Company based on the level of skill surpassing the majority of DJs in these spaces. However, bigger than that, the music was just a vehicle to the real dream: creating memorable experiences through various events, & combining all of my skillsets to do so, while connecting various communities. What I realized was, through film, through performing music, & even DJing, these were all ways to connect with people in fun ways, & there’s limitless ways to do this, if, the proper foundation can be installed.
Five years later, it’s growing and growing! ASCEND is becoming a staple in the local entertainment industry, from Weddings, Corporate events, Sporting gigs, Day parties, Interactive Trivia, and more. Understanding that versatility is key, ASCEND’s ability will expand beyond conventional thinking. Because at its core, the mission is this: helping curate an idea for people/clients, then, acquiring the means to bring those thoughts as closes to its conception as possible. ASCEND encourages folks to shoot for the stars…we want to be the rocket ship to help you get there!
Anthony, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Anthony, aka, A-Quil. My industry is Music/Entertainment, and January of 2020, with my 10 years of professional DJ experience (at that time), as well as 20+ years of music experience in general, I started my business called ASCEND Entertainment Productions. At first glance, ASCEND is a High End DJ Company, servicing a multitude of events needing music. But, it’s also about expanding the overall experience, as ASCEND also provides atmosphere enhancements such as, Dance Floor Lighting, Uplighting, Lasers, Intelligent Lights, Black Lights, Fog Machines, Floating Cloud Machines, Cold Sparks, Karaoke, Trivia, Live Music Video Mixing, as well as expansions into Video Production, Video Streaming, & Photobooths. But, these are all the bells and whistles to help curate any event type to a client’s needs. So even if stripped down to the bare minimum, the two things that remain? Great music, and great customer service. The goal is always for guests to feel like they’ve had one of the best experiences ever, no matter the event type. 5 years in? ASCEND’s doing a pretty good job at that!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Unlearning a lesson: common interests doesn’t equate to common goals.
Sometimes when entering the entrepreneurial space, you meet at a business partner at common interests. But, without proper communication, those details get glossed over, then problems arise when you realize you don’t have the same goals. After this happened to me in the beginning of my journey, I established the analogy of “who’s car is it, and where are we going?” to be asked at the very beginning of a partnership of any sorts. I feel like most will fall into the following categories:
1. It’s my car, & you’re either riding shotgun, in the back, or occasionally driving if I need you to. But it’s my car, and I need your help in some capacity getting to a specific destination.
2. It’s our car, we split the bills, decide on the destination together, then rotate who’s driving, whos’ riding shotgun (or no rotations at all), etc… based on what’s best for the “overall trip”
3. It’s your car, & I’m either riding shotgun, in the back, or occasionally driving if you need me to. But it’s your car, and you need my help in some capacity getting to a specific destination.
In scenarios 1 & 3, the partner may not even be there for the entire ride. They may need to get out early, and that’s ok too. It’s simply about establishing goals and boundaries immediately, so expectations are upfront, and surprises are at a minimum (life will always throw a curveball here & there).
Have you ever had to pivot?
As I mentioned previously, I started my company in January of 2020. By March of 2020, we were all in the house due to the pandemic and Corona-19. As a creative, coming up with unconventional ideas wasn’t out of the ordinary. Fortunate for me, I had plenty of deposits from Wedding couples to hold me over, plus, enough money in general to ensure all house bills were paid through the end of the year (for example). With that luxury, the next steps were generating new revenue in this new environment. So when the idea of “Streaming Online” became a thing, I was able to start doing virtual DJ sets. People sent donations, etc… I invested in promotional merchandise. Now people had things to buy (I just had to mail them or do “touchless” deliveries). Also, people started booking virtual gigs.
Eventually, we were all back outside by the Summertime, so people were booking big outdoor events to help with social distancing and so forth. But as the world began to return to “normal,” certain elements didn’t escape me. Don’t stop doing some of the things that were useful during the pandemic. repackage some of those elements into additional services that can creatively serve a client’s needs. Even venues picked up on this, in the capacity in which they utilized their spaces moving forward to accommodate various event types.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.a-quil.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascendentertainmentproductions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ASCENDEntertainmentProductions
- Twitter: https://x.com/ASCEND_Ent_Pro
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ASCENDentertainment
- Other: https://linktr.ee/ASCENDEntertainmentProductions
https://linktr.ee/A_Quil22
