German DJ Turns Up Profits with Magic Marriage Mixes

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

If you're getting married, what do you need besides a ring and a prenup? Well, of course you need a dance floor and a DJ. Don't rely on a band with a drummer who gets drunk and a bass player who hits on the maid of honor. Hire a DJ and they can do it all, except for those things which you don't want. Friends, listeners, what's up?

Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Excited to bring you today's story, which features a German DJ who sells his wedding playlist, overcoming trolls and controversy within the tight-knit DJ community. He lays down beats and picks up a check for an extra $1,000 a month. Also, his first idea, his first business or sadducel idea, doesn't work at all.

Do you notice the theme? If you listen to a lot of Side Hustle School stories, you often hear that the person's first idea doesn't work, or maybe their second idea doesn't work, but each time they learn from it and they adapt and they transform and do something totally different, and then that second idea or third idea or whatever it is, that's the one that takes off. So it's not just a question of being persistent. It's not just like keep trying, keep trying, because you could keep doing the same thing and not see any different results, but if you adapt and try different things, perhaps that's gonna be the key to your success. Now, there's also this quote I liked that I saw in the notes for today's episode.

The quote is, "While it often makes sense "to listen to your customers, "sometimes they don't even know what they want "until you give it to them." That is really important. So, got a little thank you for our sponsor. Then stay tuned for this musical story of a German DJ who turns up profits with magic marriage mixes. [Music]

As a teenager growing up in Germany, Tobias Limlay used to listen to a radio show called "Battle of the DJs." Every Friday night, they had a contest between three mixes from three different DJs, and listeners could call in to vote for their favorite. Finally, Tobias decided that he didn't want to just be a listener, he wanted to make his own killer playlist.

However, at the age of 17, he had no equipment or money to buy much equipment, but he did have a double cassette tape deck at home. Now, just to explain to our young listeners, the double cassette tape deck was invented by the Egyptians. It was last used in the Middle Ages before these other things called CDs came out, not really relevant to our story, just some context. For a few months, Tobias worked and worked to create a mix using this ancient technology. When it was finally finished, he sent it in to that "Battle of the DJs," which is how you have to say it, by the way, you have to say "Battle of the DJs." Not only was he accepted on the show, but he won.

He was elated. Three years later, while in university, his DJ skills developed even further. He began to get paid, building playlists and spinning tracks to make some extra cash to pay for school. He then kept DJing after graduating, while working a day job as a software architect, and doing some freelance coding for another side gig. After a while, Tobias looked around and realized he'd been DJing for over a decade, and was well-known in the industry.

He had 14,000 followers on social media, many of whom were aspiring DJs. So one day, he decided to ask them what their number one problem as a DJ was. Almost every single one of them said their biggest problem was getting booked for gigs. So, ever the self-starter, Tobias made an online course about booking more gigs. That course was wildly successful to the point where he retired.

He's now a multimillionaire living on a Greek island. Actually, that is not true. The course did not work at all. It completely flopped. It was a failure.

It was like a scratch on your favorite Bob Dylan record. I just threw that part in. Tobias was shaken. He thought he had a good idea, but it just didn't work. So, for his next attempt, he decided to simplify.

What was the easiest thing he could offer that his followers and other aspiring DJs would value? Now, around this time, he noticed that almost all of his friends were getting married, asked him for his wedding playlist to get their own wedding DJ inspired. What if he were to start selling those playlists? He could make a little something for himself while making one of the most important days of a person's life that much more magical. But there was a problem, as there often is.

Selling playlists was a big issue in the DJ community and not in a good way. Even publishing playlists themselves were controversial. Many people thought that real DJs didn't need one. To sell them would surely put Tobias under fire and likely decrease his popularity in the community. He knew he was on to something when he found a third way.

A lot of DJs wanted to know how to get people moving at weddings. Some had trouble recovering the party vibe after a slow song. Others didn't know how to get both the bros and grandma on the dance floor at the same time. Some grandmas didn't want to dance with bros. For all of these problems, Tobias' playlist served as inspiration.

His twist was that rather than marketing the playlist to be played exactly as they were in the same order, he said they were primarily for guidance. After all, every couple was different. Everyone liked different music. So he included playlists that roughly fit a few different kinds of people, like some for younger couples, some for those who got married later in life, some for couples who liked to go out and party and others who didn't. He published a range.

And again, mostly for inspiration, not for exact replica. His focus on cultivating inspiration rather than simply selling a one-size-fits-all playlist curbed the backlash he got from the community. However, he still gets trolls commenting on his social media from time to time. He says it's the one thing he doesn't like about this hustle. One thing he does like is that he's making a difference and people are buying it.

Because he did something a little different and because he paid attention to what people would actually purchase rather than what they said they would, he sold 50 in the first week for about $12 each. And he's now making an extra $1,000 a month. This side hustle also had zero startup costs. He already had many playlists. He had 20 years of experience.

He had a website he'd already made. So once he grouped enough of them together, he could just let it sell over and over. Tobias still has his day job. He still has his weekly DJing, his freelance coding, and occasionally another project or two. In addition to all that, he now has sales of his playlists coming in day after day.

Awesome, congratulations to Tobias. I respect a person who has five different jobs. It's kind of like me. Let's talk about this question of controversy and people complaining and who is your market in the first place. That's what I want to focus on.

Sometimes the loudest voices are the voices you should ignore. DJing is the kind of activity that attracts both professionals or not just professionals, but people who are really dedicated to their craft, like really serious about it. And people who like music and have an iPad and just enjoy putting together a mix for a party. Because DJing is kind of like playing guitar. There are people who are serious about it, but then there are lots of people who just have a guitar sitting around.

Really different groups there. And it's usually the group that is super serious or professional or trying to be professional. Those are the ones who are the loudest voices. And those are the ones who are like, "Oh, you shouldn't sell playlists like this," or "You shouldn't teach people this guitar method," or whatever it is. And that's fine.

They can believe whatever they want. But meanwhile, the larger group, the larger group of people who just like music and have an iPad or want to learn a little bit about DJing or want to DJ for their party or perhaps their own wedding, those people are just like, "Hey, make my life easier. Help me look better. Help me provide a better experience for the people at my party or my wedding." So with this kind of product selling a playlist, Tobias' market is much more the amateur group, which as I said, is larger anyway. So I think he did the right thing in finding a way to accommodate that concern, but not really worrying too much about what other people think.

Because if he's making $1,000 a month and people are buying these playlists and presumably using them, then he can take satisfaction in knowing that his DJ experience has gone beyond himself. He's not just DJing at his own parties. Now other people who are getting married are using his playlist or using them as inspiration to create their own. So I think that's pretty cool. And speaking of inspiration, inspiration is always good, but inspiration with action is so much better.

Maybe that's what making a playlist and selling it for people to then customize and make it their own, maybe that's what that's all about. This is episode 642 of the show. So if you'd like to see the show notes, just come to sidehustleschool.com/642. We'll link up everything that we mentioned. You can also check out my special side hustle wedding playlist, available for $10,000.

Thank you for listening. I'll be back again tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.