We were lucky to catch up with Frank Carbone recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Frank, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Growing up in New York, I loved music. I used to sit in my room for hours listening to all kinds of music. I remember my first CD I ever bought it was Dr. Dre on a school field trip to Washington. I know, interesting choice at such a young age BUT the beats, melodies and flow of the vocals intrigued me to want to understand how they do that.

I listened to my favorite radio DJs, wanting to be them and started going to concerts with tickets I won.

My neighborhood was having a block party and the first thing I did was go over to the DJ and ask if he needed help with anything. I thought it was so cool that he was there with one job, to entertain everyone. As a kid at 14, I thought he was the coolest thing at the block party. I was stoked when he said “yeah man, if you want you can help me pack up my stuff when I’m done.” I was like, I’m in this is my chance!

I didn’t end up getting to work with him after and lost touch but it gave me drive. It gave me the passion and fire inside to network at a young age. I went to a local teen night a few months later with a friend and the guy at the door had an opportunity to pass out these little flyers to other kids in my school promoting the teen night. He said to initial the corner and for every kid that came with my flyer, I’d get a dollar. Doesn’t seem like much, I know BUT I was making $50-$100 each weekend as a kid for something I thought was so fun.

Then I moved to NC with my mom who was a single parent at the time. The first thing I did was contact a bunch of local DJs to ask them if they were hiring for anything and told them my experience in NY that I already had. A couple weeks later, I was in. I was hired by a local DJ business to train with them on school dances, birthday parties, weddings and more.

I picked it up very fast and was able to use their equipment to train with. Each event I was put on gave me more practice until I was able to do the events on my own. This is where I saw an opportunity for growth. To play the music I loved and earn money for doing it. I did this on the weekends all through high school and then got into college for audio production and graphic design.

While in college, I learned mic placement, audio editing, production, how to brand myself, how to build a website, how they make movie trailers, how to make a logo, how to write songs…it was like the pieces missing to my puzzle that I finally was able to put together.

During college I got signed with an independent record label for my own music and opened up for some big names in music. Right after graduating, I went on to work backstage for some big names in music that came to Raleigh while figuring out how to still DJ on the weekends.

I worked with a few different companies learning how each one was different and what they did until getting a call back to be the night guy at a local radio station playing all the hits.

I moved up quickly and landed my own morning show. I was on the same station for six years while building up my own DJ company. Once my show was taken away because of budget cuts, I was so disappointed and bummed. That was my favorite job I ever had. I then pushed my own DJ business to limits I didn’t know I could do but I had the drive to do it. I hired staff, got on social media, made my website better, learned Google ads and designed marketing material. I then added on photo booths with the help from a couple friends. We did over 200 events in one year and still don’t know how we did it but we did.

Then Covid hit and I felt like I crashed. I didn’t have any events, emails were not coming in, phone wasn’t ringing…I thought it was over. I thought to myself what can I do during this time with the knowledge and experience I already have? Then the lightbulb went off. I was going to do marketing, branding and social media for other companies while the pandemic was happening. I was going to help companies that weren’t suffering build up even bigger. I helped food trucks, hair salons, automotive companies and more. This was the start of my digital marketing career but still push DJing hard on the weekends. Now I’m still one of the top DJ companies in the area with more skills and experience than most of my competitors. The pandemic gave me an opportunity. I didn’t shut down, I didn’t give up. I learned, I grew and I adapted.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect for me as a creative person is that I know how to create a brand. I know how to stand out and be visible. I helped design my own logos, built my own website, designed my own business cards, created all of my own social media content, networked, attended trade shows, worked with charity events and just consistently stayed learning things I wanted to be better at. I didn’t have to hire and pay all different companies to do these things for me, I learned them on my own and built it all myself. I hustled.

How did you build your audience on social media?

With social media, you want to stay relevant. You want to be relatable and put out content that people want to look at. Some companies try too hard. They just want to push content to push content. You have to put out quality, not quantity. Would you rather see five posts per day that were boring and generic or one really good post each day that was interesting or even every other day? You have to use the right hashtags. You have to stay branded. You have to keep your content clean and your message has to be clear. Your audience should know exactly what the post is trying to present before you hit post. Start with your idea, figure out how it can be relatable and don’t clutter your graphics with text. Save the text for the post description. Don’t include links on the post or in the text. Add the link to your profile and tell them that the link is in the profile. They can’t click it on your image or in your text especially on Instagram. Keep up with trends to see if they match what you offer and put your own spin on it. If a new social media platform comes out, jump on it and see if it makes sense for you to be on there. Don’t be lazy or you’ll miss out on an opportunity to reach more people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cwdjent.com/
• Instagram: @cwdjent
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CWDJENTERTAINMENT?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-carbone-11a9b248
• Twitter: @cwdjent
• Other: Over 85 five star reviews on Google: https://g.page/r/CbH_shPIlmx1EBE/review