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

Jonathan, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I was working in the Distribution Industry Delivering Beer to Markets for years and also was having dj events on the side on weekends and sometimes during the week, working many long hrs, showering at the full time job to head to my dj events after to then repeat the process.

Some unforeseen circumstances occurred at my Full Time Job that had me question what I wanted in my life, with a wife, kids to support and a house payment I really had to decide to go all in with my Djing and after that decision early in the morning with my hands nervously shaking it was time to get to work,

It was tough but I was thankful for the many relationships i had built in the Music Industry to start getting the work I was looking for which after many years and events creating a new chapter of helping others and providing instruction and insight on creating your passion into a realistic achievement .

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.

Got into the whole world of djing from being handed a 2 VHS tapes (dating myself I know lol) called “DMC 1996 US Finals” and “Itf Team battle of The X-cutioners vs. Invisibl Skratch Piklz”. Watching the 2 tapes for the first time left me in amazement on what people can do on turntables and forever changed what I wanted to do .

Many months spent in a garage practicing for hours on end trying to figure out what these djs were doing with these records till finally after months of practice started to see improvement where time went on and I started competing in Local dj contests placing and eventually winning quite a few competitions.

With these accolades and meeting more people in the industry opportunities started happening with getting shows and bookings . It really does help to build a network of like minded people that want to succeed , it makes the path to where you want to go much easier and fulfilling.

Currently I work with booking agencies as well as obtain my own clients for events ranging from fashion shows, corporate events, to charitable and non profit work for Senior Community centers to traveling to cities in the US showing teens how to create music.

Some think that a Dj/Music producer just hits buttons or presses play and that’s it, Easy right.
However someone can play there favorite song and that’s all well and good but remember you still have 3 hours and 57 minutes to go to entertain and create a uplifting and cheerful environment with people from all walks of life, It’s a game of the dj playing chess (knowing what the next 2 to 3 songs i will be playing) and the crowd playing checkers.

Your goal for your client is to alleviate the stress in trying to set a mood for your event and to curate the best possible music for what the client wants.

Biggest takeaway in all this is know that your valuable and if you can solve a problem for someone people will be happy to pay for your service. Some are fearful that you will get a “NO” from people and that’s ok. If you say yes to everything more than likely you have not set your pricing and value high enough.

If I was to say what people tend to point out that sets me apart would be my willingness to educate others in my industry. I feel like if I can help others get better like how people did for me all I’m doing is surrounding myself more with awesome talent around my and by proxy will influence to keep getting better, being inspired by new ideas and overall sense of achieving more and more.

But you just got to keep moving and the momentum will garner things into your life. Don’t stay stagnant.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

The struggle to understand is the mental exhaustion a creative can have. Your literally coming up with an idea that in reality has not been out in the atmosphere and by the end you now have something tangible that people can see and hear and then you repeat that. It can be daunting and sometimes the knowing of exactly what your going to do day in and day out can in moments feel appealing.

However the brain of a creative is constant and ideas are sometimes just flowing and the tunnel vision can hit you and sometimes at the wrong times. it’s learning the discipline of when to just shut it off and relax for a second (hard for me to so still to this day)

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I’m a big Youtube university individual so two key channels that helped me a lot are.

THINK Media- A fantastic channel in all things filming, editing, and social media strategies in finding your niche and how to build your presence. they really stress of not needing a lot when you start but you just “GOT TO HIT RECORD”

The Futur- A great channel on how artists should negotiate with clients, learning all things on how clients need to have there problems solved and where you might be misaligned and how to pivot to create a synergy where you can start building a client lists that are happy to pay your rates and you help solve there problems.

Contact Info:

• Website: djgonz.com
• Instagram: @djgonz123
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVPr82qtT0Kb0Bcz3qBeuEw
• Other: https://app.hellothematic.com/artist/profile/14406 Website where creatives can use my music copyright free for there youtube videos

Image Credits
JJ Media Group