We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jeff Taylor a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jeff, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

I started DJing when I was in high school. I didn’t think about making this a business until several years later. I was playing music for everyone. Doing church functions, retirement parties, weddings, birthday parties, etc. When I decided to make it a business I needed a name that would say I play all type of music. A friend of mine at time said “how about Soulful Sounds every event you do you put your heart and soul into it” I said thats it.We play Soul , Rock, Reggae, Gospel, R&B, Disco, Pop & more, It was perfect. All these years later we are still passionate about what we do. We all put our hearts and soul into every event we do. Whether its 30 people at a birthday party, 150 at a wedding or 500 at a corporate training session we give it our all to make it fun, exciting and memorable.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I grew up around music, my mother and father played records and tapes all the time. I remember songs being on while getting dressed for school. Music being on in the car. When I started high school my mother bought me some equipment. My friends will come by and listen to music and we practiced djing. Others would write rhymes and rap to what we were playing. It started out as something fun and it became my passion. I would spend all my money on records and hours playing music. I remember getting a birthday card from my grandmother with money in it and a note. It read “buy clothes not records”. LOL

As my skills improved I would go out to play at parties. It was mostly family functions and some friends making little to no money. It was fun and it fed my passion for music and entertaining people. Then once I started working full time after college I had a coworker who was getting married. He asked me to DJ his wedding. I had fun. It went great. I made some money and I thought nothing more of it. Then he showed me his wedding video. I never watched myself on video before. I saw myself entertaining total strangers. I realize wow I only know one person on this video. Look at everyone dancing. Look how they are responding to my voice. I can really do this. I can make this a business.

What I believe separates us from other companies is we are passionate about what we do. This isn’t just a job that we show to punch a clock or push a button play a song and go home. We want to make sure everyone’s having a good time. Even if they don’t like dancing we want them to remember that they were at an event and had a great time. When it’s a corporate event and they are there to learn or train we want to play music that makes people laugh and have fun to sing along and be engaged. We want to make sure that everyone has a good time and remember the event.

We also listen to our clients and we want to make sure that we represent what they want. So if it’s the bride and groom want to know what music they want. What is their vision for the big day.

If it’s a corporate event we want to know the theme of the training that day. What is the mission of this meeting? How do you want to bring your team together? So we select the right music and the right games to make it happen. We listen to them, we don’t just take over, we want the event to represent them. We also share our expertise on what’s the best way for their people to connect and have fun.

I believe what I’m most proud of is the ongoing connections we’ve made with Soulful Sounds through the years. We have some families that we’ve been entertaining for 15 years. We’ve done birthday parties, weddings, anniversaries and retirement parties all in the same family. We have 2 clients, we did their sweet 16th birthday & their weddings. Another family we’ve done 6 weddings, 3 siblings and 3 cousins. We have a church in NY, we’ve done over a dozen weddings including several of the ministry staff. Yes this is what I am most proud of. We have made long lasting connections like family.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When the pandemic happened obviously everything was shut down. My entire business was shut down as well. If you can’t meet in person you can’t have a party. If you can’t have a party you are not hiring a DJ.

I connected with a person who was a stand up comic and had a background in hospitality. We brainstormed ideas on how to entertain people remotely. She came up with different games and put a team together of musicians, comedians, a magician and one amazing dj. So for the next 18 months we kept people entertained in their homes and kept our sanity as well as our lights on. Playing trivia games, music bingo, stand up comedy, murder mystery and even magic shows. We made it fun and interactive for 30 to 90 mins and you would forget what was going on outside.

My entire business was just me sitting in my office playing music looking at a computer making people laugh, sing and dance on camera. Fast forward to today I have corporate clients that fly us to different states to do the same exact thing in person, something I never would’ve thought about doing before the pandemic.
Now I’m requested to do these corporate events and do training sessions and play music for them and keep them entertained and an engaged throughout the entire day using music, comments and just my personality and I thank God for the opportunity and for the resilience to push through because the pandemic was a devastating for a lot of us.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

So I started DJing as a hobby when I was 16. I have a technical background in computers and communications. I have always had a full time job since I was 19. I never stopped DJing. I would meet people at my job and let them know I DJ. I would offer to do their office parties. I always kept my ears open for opportunities.

As my communication career grew I still kept djing. I would always make sure I did well at my job so if I had to leave early for a party my manager would be ok because I always showed up on time and I did my job well. I remember one time I was called in on a major problem late at night. I wasn’t the person on call that night. I had an event so I didn’t put my name on the call list. They called me anyway because the guy on call could not fix the problem. I told them I would come but it will take me an hour or so. I was DJing a wedding not far from the client. When I showed up in my tuxedo the client was so impressed he called my boss to tell him how dedicated I was.

Every time I received  a raise I would invest in my business. More equipment to do larger events. A van, then a big truck. Once my business started to grow and I was making money. At my job I would look for projects that were less time consuming. Then I changed jobs. I found one that required less of my time and brain power. I was slowly working my way out of a 9 to 5. I had to do it that way because as I said I had a full time job my entire adult life. It was in my blood. It was how I was raised. I wasn’t able to quit cold. However looking back I realize I wasted a lot of time. You can’t receive a Blessing if your hands are full. Sometimes you have to let go and let God. I could of enjoyed my passion full time a long time ago.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.soulfulsounds.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/soulful.sounds1
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soulfulsoundsnyc/
• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/soulful-sounds1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHC_rMp7qAbgOAsj7EGPojA