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

Jordan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

IT WAS A RAINY NIGHT. Fridley, Minnesota. 2015. My friend, Joe Perovich, and I were hanging out at my house watching Discovery Channel. Ya know, dude stuff. My current DJ name was “Alamatic”, a name I didn’t really like and was derivative of a friend’s rapper name, so I was lamenting to Joe how I couldn’t think of another one.

Some context: growing up, classmates shortened my name from “Jordan Alamat” down to “Jalamat”, which eventually just became “Jally” (pronounced like “Allie” with a J).

At any rate, we were watching Discovery Channel, and a program about Tornado Alley came on. As soon as the narrator said “Tornado Alley”, my friend Joe instinctively blurted out “Tornado Alley? More like TORNADO JALLY!: I was floored and instantly ran with it because I liked the way it sounded, plus it was ridiculous.

Jordan, 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 DJing company originated from my time as a hip hop producer in Minneapolis, as well as my career in Radio. Being on the radio, and especially being the Music Director or a radio station that had an emphasis on music discovery (like mine did), put a lot of eyes and attention on my DJing services.

In my time in radio, I worked at KDWB, Go 95.3, GO 96.3, and 93X. Genre-wise, that’s Top 40, Hip Hop, Alternative, and Rock. Being surrounded by, and appreciating, all of these genres gives me a unique leg up on other DJs, as I’ve been an active and contributing member in all of these worlds, especially hip hop and alternative, and being directly ingratiated into the cultures and businesses of those genres makes switching between them as easy as breathing.

Additionally, radio is a storyteller’s medium. So if I have to make announcements at a wedding, or at an event, I can do so smoothly. It’s not nerve-wracking to speak in front of hundreds of people, I was telling embarrassing stories about myself on the Dave Ryan Show to thousands of people every morning when I was 22.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I’m almost most proud of just generally being a nice person. During the pandemic, I heard of so many wedding vendors being inflexible with rescheduling dates, or not refunding down payments, and even raising prices to accommodate new dates. I thought that was bullshit. It was a global pandemic, no one could see it coming, and the least one could do was be flexible. Instead of being mean and money-hungry, I was flexible and lenient. I rescheduled all but two of my scheduled weddings. I refunded the “non-refundable” down payment to those two couples because they didn’t cancel, or break up, they were subject to a global pandemic. Who could plan for that? SIDEBAR: If you’re thinking “Well, Jordan, I needed that money for my small business to survive!” you’re full of shit. If you don’t have enough money saved up to withstand 6-12 months of financial ruin SEE ABOVE: GLOBAL PANDEMIC, you do not have a viable small business. I honored the pricing of my initial contracts. I probably lost out on tens of thousands of dollars by not raising my prices like I should’ve to account for my equipment and experience, but I simply couldn’t do that ethically without feeling gross about myself. And now, I have people, two years later, talking about how they heard I was nice and professional, and booking with me because I followed my integrity, not the dollar. Also, I’m good at DJing, which helps, haha.

Additionally, I try to remove my ego and be a team player. I want to go above and beyond for the venue, or the event coordinator. I also operate with a gratitude mindset. Two people chose me to DJ for them on the best day of their life with all their friends and family. That’s not a privilege I take lightly.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I post whatever I want. Obviously, radio helped a lot with that, and I leveraged the clout that came with talking into a microphone to build up my platforms. Additionally, I also post about numerous things. Not everyone gets this luxury, as my business is just me, and when you buy into my Timberwolves podcast, or my DJing, you’re also buying into the personality. I post clips from my Timberwolves podcast, I post clips of my weddings, I make Star Wars fan theory videos, I want my social media to be fun.

What reeeeaaaaaalllllly irks me is sole proprietors always following social media trends and doing “LazyTok”, which, if you’re unfamiliar, is only posting the current trends and amending them to your product, service, or niche. That is a fine short term strategy. Hell, it could even be a regular part of your posting strategy. I’ve probably done a couple in my time. BUT THAT CAN NOT BE THE ONLY THING YOU DO. It makes your page stale and comes off as phony or inauthentic. And then people associate that with your brand. You may not care about all three of DJing, Timberwolves, and Star Wars. YOu may think my social strategy is raw and imperfect. That’s fine and I understand. It’s probably handcuffed me a bit in terms of growing Awareness on my platforms. But again, I’m not going to grow Awareness and the cost of what’s fun and resonates with me, cuz that is a far more viable strategy than following trends and being forever at the mercy of the algorithm.

Contact Info:

• Website: jordan-alamat.com
• Instagram: @tornadojally
• Facebook: facebook.com/tornadojally
• Twitter: tornadojally
• Other: PLEASE CHECK OUT MY TIMBERWOLVES PODCAST CRUNCH WEARS NO PANTS (@NOPANTSCRUNCH ON ALL CHANNELS) IF YOU’RE A MINNESOTAN OR A HOOPS FAN :)

Image Credits
Will Degraw Mya Photography Images by Nic