#78: Infusing Hospitality into the High-Profile Client Experience with Mark Battle

How do you transition from DJing in New York City to becoming a luxury event music specialist in Atlanta? Tune in as DJ Mark Battle, owner of One Sound and Entertainment, takes us through his incredible journey, sharing the secrets behind his success. From the power of word-of-mouth marketing to the significance of customer relationships, Mark reveals how he built a thriving business without relying on traditional paid advertising. His annual Friends and Family Forever event is a testament to the relationships he has cultivated over the years, turning past clients into lifelong advocates.

Mark's insights on resilience, adaptability, and maintaining minimal expenses during tough times offer valuable lessons in business and personal growth. Hear about his journey of upgrading equipment, setting goals, and cherishing family traditions, all while balancing the demands of a successful career. This episode wraps up with Mark's powerful advice on achieving goals and self-care strategies, making it a must-listen for anyone looking to blend business success with personal fulfillment.

ABOUT MARK:
With One Sound and Entertainment, DJ Mark Battle’s intense and exciting performance style has been enjoyed throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. Essence, Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine, and Munaluchi Brides Magazine just to name a few have also praised his work. Additionally he continues to hold the crown for “Best of Atlanta” for 5 years consecutively from Modern Luxury Jezebel Magazine. This music enthusiast matches his zeal with a polished professionalism that makes him a favored DJ for all kinds of events today. DJ Mark Battle’s versatile artistic flare and overwhelming love for music guarantees a memorable celebration! He is of course………..The Luxury Event Music Specialist!

CONNECT WITH MARK:
📸@onesoundandent
🌐https://onesoundandent.com/
🏠@oneplaceatl

CONNECT WITH CARIN:
📸 - @celebrationpros
🌐 - www.carinhunt.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:54

Welcome back everyone. We are on the Celebration Pro podcast. Today I have DJ Mark Battle and I have to say I'm a little intimidated to introduce you, mark, because we were up at the Signature CEO Conference and he was the one to introduce all of our speakers and he did such an epic job. Everybody felt like they were A-list celebrities walking up to the stage. So I'm going to do my best here. Don't don't knock me, but okay, here we go, dj Mark Battle.

Speaker 1: 1:21

He is the owner of One Sound and Entertainment and has an intense and exciting performance style and he has been enjoyed all over the globe. He's been featured in Essence, martha Stewart Wedding Magazine, munaluchi Brides, just to name a few, and additionally, he continues to hold the crown of Best of Atlanta for the last five years, which is very impressive, and that's their modern luxury Jezebel magazine. The music enthusiast matches his zeal with polished professionalism. That makes him a favorite DJ of all kinds today. Dj Mark Battles' versatile artistic flair and overwhelming love for music guarantees a memorable celebration. He is, of course, the luxury event music specialist and I loved this that he mentioned too. I always ask for the humble brag. So he was in Vogue, which is huge, but also, martha Stewart named you top wedding DJ in the world. Is that right? That's amazing Congratulations. And he's a two-time B collective award winner. So without further ado, mark, thank you so much for jumping in and chatting with us today.

Speaker 2: 2:22

Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Yeah, and this happens so often. So right before we were recording we were getting into the goods already and Mark's like I thought we were already in it and I'm like, oh, we're just chit-chat chatting. So before we continue into that conversation, I would love for you to tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself, and just your story, as much or as little as you'd like to tell us in just a couple of minutes here.

Speaker 2: 2:59

I have been a DJ since I was 12 years old. I'm from New York City and basically I moved to Atlanta when I was 17. And I decided that I was going to be heavily in the entertainment business. A few years later now I've DJed in every type of capacity, and when I mean every type of capacity, every capacity don't let no, no, I've done every type so, and I've been in different places and um and seen different types of uh situations, um, but about, oh gosh, I was. So I have to. So what I have to do is I have to.

Speaker 2: 4:02

I track everything by when, year before she was born. So my daughter's about to be 17, so so I'm gonna say 18 years, I'm gonna. I'm gonna say 18 years. And what happened was a friend of mine had gotten married and I just felt like it was corny, like it was like the entertainment and everything was corny, and I said, well, I could do my thing in my way and it won't be corny and everything like that. And it worked. It worked and it started from one and then it built to the next. I focus on customer service for my clients, because my clients are my biggest advocates. They scream about me from the rafters. I have one couple I did their wedding about 15 years ago. I've done over 40 weddings or corporate events just through that one couple.

Speaker 2: 5:09

So I understand the importance of maintaining a relationship with your past clients. So, when it comes down to my marketing, I do my marketing a little bit different than a lot of people. Where a lot of people are trying to reach out to the new client, they do the trade shows and things like that I have so many.

Speaker 2: 5:36

I've done over 900 weddings. I have so many, I've done over 900 weddings. So I have a catalog of people that I could you know I have a relationship with. So do you want me to go into this, because this is what we were talking?

Speaker 1: 5:49

about yeah, keep on keeping on. This is great.

Speaker 2: 5:53

So I, when I started to track everything with my business and where the business was coming from, it was from my past clients. So I decided that I was going to dedicate the majority of my marketing budget to my past clients, and so I have an event now I actually skip because of COVID. So it's actually I skip. Yeah, I skip two skipped because of COVID. So it's actually I skipped. Yeah, I skipped two years because of COVID.

Speaker 2: 6:24

So I have an event every year called Friends and Family Forever, and it's for my past clients and also people in the industry that I've done business with, because I have great industry friends. I have awesome industry friends and you know some of them were their clients too, you know, and everybody gets to. And also the great thing is, if you market your business for your target audience the type of people that you want, so that means that these are like-minded people around each other. You know so. So they enjoy each other's company also, and a lot of them, like I say, you know I follow them on social media a lot of them are like golfing together, taking trips together, you know stuff like that, and that's how they meet. So I have the event friends and family forever and I just dedicate the majority of my marketing budget to that big event once a year and everyone enjoys it.

Speaker 1: 7:30

Do you spend any money on paid marketing?

Speaker 2: 7:34

Not anymore, not anymore, not anymore oh oh Bravo.

Speaker 2: 7:38

Now, earlier on, you know I had no choice. You know I didn't. It was no, I had nobody to reach out to, you know. So I had to do something Right, involved in the websites and everything. But then you realize, yeah, you, yeah, you know that they'll throw you some things, but after you know, after a year or so, you realize that it's not really worth it. Um, you'd actually be better off doing like facebook ads or, um, instagram ads or something like that. You'd be better off doing that than putting money into those.

Speaker 1: 8:20

I hope that you know, Like the directories yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah so, but I did what works for me. You know everybody's so what you have to do, you know there's always people giving out advice for business, but it has to be specific, it has to be for you, it has to be everybody's situation is different. I'm sorry, yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:50

We have you on to tell us all that comes from your genius. There's a few things here, though, that I've pulled out, which is you realize that being you versus being the traditional DJ dah dah, dah, right Like that that didn't fit you, and you had a certain way, and I, the moment I heard your voice off mic, I said you're today's DJ, right Like. You're the one who's I'm seeing Right, and so the way that you speak and the way that you carry yourself is has become your brand, which I think is incredible and for everyone listening in, think about yourself and about who you are and how that comes through in your business and how people are going to recognize who you are, just by you and not by doing what everybody else is doing. So that was the first thing that I had pulled from, that that I love.

Speaker 1: 9:42

And then you know, when everybody who's on obviously knows that I'm a huge supporter of word of mouth marketing and that referral power what you're doing is genius, and it's a big reason why a lot of us you see a lot of us in the same rooms, because those are the right rooms. So when you're going to networking events and you see the same people showing up. It's because they're with their people. You have your best clients and your best vendors, collaborators, all in the same room at one time, celebrating each other. That is gold. Facebook ads can't touch that, directories can't touch that. Right, that's. Only you can make that happen, and I think it's magic. It's so good, it's so good.

Speaker 2: 10:27

Um, it has to be like I said that's what works for me. Um, my thing may not work for you, it may not work for, uh, somebody else. And also, you have to see, there's a lot of things sometimes that I sit back and I look and I say, well, it's not gonna work, that that doesn't work. And I think a lot of times, people, people neglect the personal part of life, like, like you know, you're, you're running a business and everything, but they neglect that.

Speaker 2: 11:07

Hey, you got bills. You, you might have children, you know you have a spouse, you have you might have a sick parent, you know, like whatever, and you have to factor all of those things into your business and and like, when I originally started, I just looked at I said, hey, what are my bills like? Like, what do my bills look like? Ok, this is what I need to maintain my business, this is what I need to keep myself afloat. And you know, I don't feel like a lot of people touch that. You know they say, hey, you can do this, you can do this, you can do that, okay, but I got to go pick up my kids from ballet.

Speaker 1: 11:55

Right, what's going? To support my life. Yes. What's going to support? Oh, I have to be there.

Speaker 2: 12:02

You know, I have to, I have to be there. I can't, I can't go to all these mixers and everything, like I can't do that, so. So what do I do? Um, also, you know, um, yeah, people, people say these things and you're like okay, so so you have to figure out a real game plan, like a real game plan, not just because the game plans that are put out there they never touch those things. Like hey, you know, I'm behind on my mortgage and like they, they, they never touch those things.

Speaker 2: 12:34

Like okay, so how do I catch up? Like you can't even, and I'm one of those things Like okay, so how do I catch up? Like you can't even, and I'm one of those people I'm guilty of that I can't even function correctly unless my personal life is taken care of. I can't even. You know, yeah, I can't even. I can't even think straight. I can't even think straight Like, oh, I, you know, I have a mortgage to pay, or I've got taxes to pay, or something like that. So okay, so how about let me focus on this and how I can take care of this with my business? My business is what I got. That's how I'm able to do these things. You have to implement the total picture, the total picture of life.

Speaker 1: 13:25

I was actually I'm a VP of education for my local Toastmasters and I was in charge of putting the theme together yesterday and I, the theme I came up with was the iceberg, because the iceberg we only see a small portion of it, even though to us it's massive. And then below the surface of the water is this, you know, is the other, like 90% of the iceberg. And this came to mind because everyone's talking about here's how you can be the shiny object, but here's all the other things that make up your life that need to be supported by this tiny little bit that's at the top. And so I think you're hitting the nail on the head with that, where, when we're, when we're saying, you know, get out there and make those connections and all of these things, there's a way. There's different ways to go about it. There's there's so many different solutions to the one answer and getting really creative. And what you said that's key, I think is to make the game plan, because if we're just flying by the seat of our pants and throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping for the best luck doesn't happen. You have to create your own luck and your own fortune, and you can do it your way, and just like Mark's done it his own way You're not hearing him saying he's going out to networking events every week he created his own, and I love it. I love it.

Speaker 1: 14:45

Well, I'm going to transition a little bit, because there was a really interesting conversation that we had at the lunch table, and you can expand on this as much or as little as you'd like, but I think that you had some important golden nuggets that you can share with us. So day one, we sit at the lunch table and we're all, we're all talking, and Mark just starts like teasing us with all these little things that he's doing. I have a whole list of them in my head. I'll let you share, though.

Speaker 1: 15:14

But one thing that really stuck with me was you said that your passion was in hospitality, and you said you know, my passion actually isn't in DJing and emceeing, it's in the hospitality aspect of it. And so what you've done is you've taken your passion in hospitality and you've made it what I'm calling like a money tree, and you have all these branches that are now going out that are hospitality, but different niches that can help you continue to serve people. So I'd love for you to expand, maybe on the realization. Feel free to share different endeavors that you're doing if you'd like to, but I'm just. I'd love for our listeners to hear a little bit about that okay.

Speaker 2: 15:52

Um. So I had a light bulb moment. I I was, um, I actually had a few of them, but, um, I had a light bulb moment where, uh, I was standing in my backyard and I realized that it was like a part of my backyard, it's like behind the garage, and it was like I didn't use. And I was like, hey, I could do something here. I could do something here and I at the time I had been, my sister had told me that she wants to retire in a tiny house. My sister had told me that she wants to retire in a tiny house. She was like, I'm just gonna get me some land and just retire in a tiny house, right? So, uh, I was like, hey, I could put a tiny house back here with a, with a pool or something, and you know, just do Airbnb, because another thing that the quarantine did, especially for somebody in the, in the event, industry was scared the crap out of us. You know because I don't know about it.

Speaker 2: 16:59

I don't know about everybody, I didn't work for like a year and a half, you know. So it was like so what do I do? I needed more passive income, you know I already had past, but I needed more.

Speaker 2: 17:15

So I, what I did was the first. The first that I did was I built one in my backyard. I built one in my backyard and started with that and I focused on it being a staycation and started with that and I focused on it being a staycation. You're, yeah, you live in town or whatever, but sometimes you just want to get away. You can't get away for a long time, but, hey, you get away for a night or two and it's almost like you're in a, you're in a different world. So that's what I focused on, and and, and it wasn't until, like, so I went live. I believe it was.

Speaker 2: 17:56

I believe it was April 1st let's, let's say April April 1st of last year Um, and when the entire month booked up. I'm talking about immediately when the entire month booked up and then I started reading the reviews and getting the kicks. Getting the kick out of reviews Like, hey, you thing, and, and a lot of this comes from being a luxury business is people focus on the details. But that's all I did. I focused on the, on the details, you know, and, on top of that, traveling all over the world to do these events, I seen things in different countries and things like in hotel rooms and airbnbs and stuff right that's cool.

Speaker 2: 18:41

Yeah, that's cool too. Um, like, um, like. I was in Morocco and they call it Moroccan what they call it Moroccan tequila. I forgot exactly what they call it. Everywhere you go, they give you peppermint tea. Everywhere you go, they give you peppermint tea, and some places give it to you sweetened, some places don't. Uh, well, um, I got the, the tea for the, because I was there for like a week and a half, so I got the tea and it wasn't sweet. Then the guy comes up to me and, uh, gives me like a little uh bowl, and then he was like, put that in the tea. And I put it in the tea and I was like all it was was sugar water. But I, I said to myself, oh, it mixes with the tea a lot better.

Speaker 2: 19:40

These little things, you know, helps when it's, when it's as far as luxury. You know, you, you're focusing on details and really, and and it's nothing extra to do, it's just something that's a little bit more convenient for your clients, and these are things that I was doing with my business. Things were more convenient for my clients. Hey, these, what? These are your wedding colors. Okay, I'm going to have a whole booth and everything that's going to match everything at your wedding. You know, I noticed that, uh, at in these, a lot of these magazines and stuff, they never took pictures of the DJ, they never took pictures of anything going on. And I said, okay, so I'm going to make all my equipment white. And I went to a car shop and had the speakers painted white and everything, everything white. At the time only one company had white speakers, but they portable speakers because they had ones for churches. But, um, only one company, but they were a lower end company so had that done.

Speaker 2: 20:47

When I tell you, a year later, at the NAM conference, which is a conference for all the new equipment and everything that comes out, there were six companies that had white speakers.

Speaker 2: 21:00

So, I realized that people really do pay attention to details and so I decided to focus that, so decided to implement that in my brand, and so I went from there and, yeah, I got into the business. Now, everything in my brand is called one, so it's so. It's one sound and entertainment, and so my staycation locations are one place. So we got one place ATL. We got one place the retreat. Hopefully, we're going to have another one called the one, the two and the three, which is another business venture that hopefully will be happening soon another business venture that hopefully will be happening soon, and I decided that the hospitality was actually my gift and I went from there.

Speaker 1: 22:00

I love it. Airbnb is so huge here in the Florida Keys where I live, and I mean it's huge everywhere at this point, but certainly out of the pandemic, it was something that many people jumped into, not realizing what it takes, and you really have to have that, that knack of hospitality that that I for, like you're saying, oh, would it be? What was it? My my friend has a, an Airbnb and she found this wooden cube while she was traveling. So I love that you're, you're, it's, it's very parallel in that sense. And the cube had like a QR code on it for where they could leave a review and then, and then another side of the cube had like a qr code on it for where they could leave a review and then, and then another side of the cube had like connect to the wi-fi

Speaker 1: 22:56

okay, right, exactly like like different things, like that, and it was like just this. It it was so simple and so impactful. She's like karen, we have to have these at at the Airbnb. And then, like you're saying, with the photos, something that we were missing in the photos for her Airbnb was lifestyle photos and actually seeing people enjoying the home and enjoying the location and trying out their favorite brewery or cafe or whatever it was brewery or cafe or whatever it was and so we had a photo shoot and we did all of those things and it it hyped up her engagement because then people who were interested in staying there could then feel the experience through other people, seeing other people doing the thing.

Speaker 1: 23:43

And it's when that matches the, the actual experience, right, the reviews, the pictures all of that matches the experience that somebody has. That's when those reviews continue to show up. There's so much we can do. I always say that luxury is relative, because what might be luxurious to me isn't gonna be what's luxurious to an A-list celebrity, right, like it's a little bit different and it's all relative to maybe our income bracket or where we're geographically located or what our opportunities are. I mean, there's a lot there, but when? When somebody takes the time to think one or two steps further. That's when your client feels seen and that's luxurious to them. And you're doing just that and I think it's wonderful.

Speaker 2: 24:36

And I applaud that with all my businesses and that's what gave me the light bulb moment where I was like it's hospitality, that's what it is. I really get a kick out of reading the reviews and people say you thought of everything you know.

Speaker 2: 24:55

he gave us slippers and like they thought of everything Like just yeah, I get a kick out of that. So yeah, I, just, I just apply that, because when we in business business, you know we have our ups and our downs and we need to figure out how to make up for that, you know sometimes sometimes we're not doing it.

Speaker 2: 25:16

Sometimes we're doing awesome.

Speaker 2: 25:18

Like what was that? My 2019 was probably the best year of my life and then it was the worst, like you know. So we there's things that we have to implement for our business just to stay afloat. Another thing that I implemented was how do I decrease my personal bills? I decrease my personal bills because that's the only way I'm going to be able to really stay afloat.

Speaker 2: 25:56

Is, um, my uncle, my uncle, uh, he used to tell me my uncle had retired. He, he worked for the city of New York for 20 years and so he, he had retired at 50 and he told me he was like I already paid my house off, my cars paid off, he bought a. Um, he bought some farmland and everything, and then then he so he wanted to get a horse, right. So he's like I want to get a horse. So he went. He was like worst case, all my bills are paid. Worst case, I'll just go to walmart and wave at people and he would it worked at walmart. Wave that people just to buy himself a horse. You know, like, if anything extra, yeah, there's always something that you could do to get something extra, but as long as everything else is taken care of. Uh, you can really function with your business you can really operate your business.

Speaker 2: 26:53

So that's my model is trying to get things down to a minimum so I can really operate with it. Because a lot of times, um, people don't really focus on the details out of the fact that they may not even have the money to do the little extra things. Yeah, this thing over here only costs an extra dollar. But they're like, oh, I need that dollar. How do I put myself in a situation where I'm really not, I guess, penny-pinching or whatever.

Speaker 2: 27:33

How do I make things better? So I, like I said, what I do may not necessarily apply to somebody else, but what I do is I focus on getting the least amount of bills possible.

Speaker 1: 27:50

Mm-hmm, you know, and that's smart. It's something that I think it's important, especially with all of the noise of subscribe for this. And here's another TV. You know you have to download Peacock to watch the Super Bowl Guess who still has Peacock on their television? And, lo and behold, we're paying like $300 in subscriptions that we don't need. Or my son got my phone and decided to figure out how to download Bluey for the 10th time, and so there's a lot of unnecessary noise. And, like you were saying before, we forget about our personal lives. And that happens in the digital sense, like we're so sucked into all of these things that we forget that we don't need any of that. We could go outside and have a picnic with our family and have a great time. It doesn't, it doesn't have to be the next greatest app or TV platform or, or you know whatever it is, and you can really hone back on that and maybe make a new priority of spending more time and spending less money.

Speaker 2: 28:58

Um, and I, I like that idea a lot, um I realized that there was a whole new world when I, when I cut off the cable yeah yeah oh, if I could have a house without tv.

Speaker 2: 29:11

I oh, but but it's so much on tv without cable like and I'm like wow, like it's all, like it's, it's actually better. And you're like wow, I didn't know, I didn't know I was paying. My cable bill was like 360 a month and I was like why, why, and? And I was just focusing, like I said, I had to focus on what my bills were and how to maintain my business and and once I did that, it was, it was nothing, nothing.

Speaker 1: 29:46

But blessings have come and I love that your uncle got scrappy. He's like I want a horse. If you, if I was like I want a horse or I want a car, or whatever the big thing is, it'd be like, okay, I'm going to have to like save a hundred dollars a month If I can, you know, like you know, and like figuring it out. And he's like, no, I'm just going to go get a job to pay up my horse. Yeah, scrappy, it didn't matter. No judgment, this, this is what I'm going to do. And now he has a horse and and y'all don't like, and I think there's a lot of stories that start that way, where maybe you did something that you weren't crazy about for a little while, right, but that's business in general. We're all doing stuff that we're not crazy about doing to make it happen. So I think that that's a good lesson there too.

Speaker 2: 30:30

Absolutely, absolutely, cause it was a time in about, I'd say, about 2002, 2003,. I went broke and I had to figure some things out. You know, I made some bad business investments and I went broke and but everything that I did to get out of that situation is what helped me where I am today. Get out of that situation is what helped me where I am today and I think that's where I got the thing from. You know, take care of or make sure your bills are at a minimal so you can still survive. I think that's probably where I got that.

Speaker 1: 31:10

I want to sit around a table with your family because, well now I've learned about your uncle, know so much about you.

Speaker 2: 31:15

I think it was your grandmother who taught us to use potatoes when we're not feeling well um, that was one of our lunch conversations the way we were sitting at the lunch table because I I put it on TikTok and it kind of went viral people were like, oh, that's so funny, my daughter had a flu, a fever, and I was like, this is what my grandmother used to do and it worked.

Speaker 1: 31:37

And people were like, really like, that's what grandma did I just feel like there's so much wisdom to gain from your family right now.

Speaker 1: 31:46

This is this is great well looking, looking back on everything that you've accomplished, and your story goes so much deeper than what you've shared, and I appreciate what you have shared in this time. And being vulnerable and being able to just say like, hey, it's not just because, it's just because you're in the luxury business, right, doesn't mean that finances are just like oh, we're just going to, you know, buy a yacht and do all these things and there's never any financial worry. There's always financial where there's always things that you're responsible for and, yeah, you still have responsibilities.

Speaker 2: 32:24

I don't care how many you make and everything you still got, you still have responsibilities. So, oh, you can't say, oh, that's nothing, because what happened is yeah, that might be nothing now, but you'll, you'll see that it's something later on. One way or the other, you're going to feel the pain. So these are things that need to be taken care of and they need to be discussed more. People don't really discuss them that much. These are things that we need to do.

Speaker 1: 32:55

I think, when it comes down to it, you've created a business that supports the life that you want and working with the clients that you love.

Speaker 2: 33:01

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:01

It doesn't. It doesn't have to be high profile. It is for you, but it doesn't have to be for it. Right, right, it's. Just as long as you have a business that supports the life you want to live and you're doing what you love, I think that you. That's, that's the success. Right, that's that's the thing we're looking for yeah, that that's success.

Speaker 2: 33:19

I'm able to like one of my clients uh, I'm doing a wedding in italy what? In june, the beginning of june like um, and gonna be there for a while. I get a chance to go to italy, go to to Milan, and like have a good time and everything. And once again, these are my past clients, you know. So now I got more cool people to hang out with, like like one of my, one of my clients. He retired from the NFL and so he called me one day. He was like hey, hey, man, you want to go fishing in Costa Rica. It was like he was like there's only a few guys that my wife is comfortable with me hanging out you were one of them he was like, yeah, I got a yacht, look, we're gonna be in Costa Rica.

Speaker 2: 34:13

And I was like I'm not mad at that did she get to wear the the battle headphones? Yeah, that's why that's what it was that got you in and all my clients. We become friends, like we just become friends and it's. It's real cool. Um, I really love what I do and I really love the people that I meet along the way, yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:40

And then not only that, the people that I get to talk to at different conferences and stuff like that, because you know you don't, you don't really realize your own accomplishments. Your own accomplishments um, it takes somebody else to say it to you. Like you, you don't even. Like when you look at yourself in in the mirror, do you see who other people see? You know you, you don't necessarily see the the things that other people see.

Speaker 2: 35:08

People look at you like you know you're a goddess or something and you're looking at yourself like I can lose a little bit of weight you know, so so it feels good to uh talk to people sometimes and give them encouragement because, um, I've actually had those conversations with people where they don't really know who they are like. Do you really know who you are like? Do you know how much you've done and how much you've accomplished, like? Um, some people don't know that. So it just feels good to make people feel good that you admire and, like I said, you just the energy that you put in is the same energy. The energy that you put out is the same energy that you brought up with it. I mean that's. And it's contagious, right?

Speaker 1: 36:03

So the people that are in the room that are maybe feeling that imposter syndrome or or not, or less than, or whatnot, like the energy you brought into that room was making everybody feel great about themselves and about being in your space, right? So? And, and I mean you're definitely in the right industry for that, that's why you're making the, the, the, the, uh, the celebrations that you do, right, yeah, so, uh, well, I have some bonus Q and a if you're ready for it?

Speaker 1: 36:35

Um, I, I have some bonus Q&A, if you're ready for it. I ask some of these questions on each podcast because I think it's important for the listeners who are wedding professionals, to just get ideas and learn a little bit more about you.

Speaker 3: 36:51

What was the last thing that you bought for your business?

Speaker 1: 36:54

This one always stumps everybody.

Speaker 2: 36:56

Because I'm always buying things for my business. You know like you buy little things here and there and don't like even if I buy a pin. You know I bought a pen for my business, you know. So, oh, I'll say the last week I ain't like you really know what it is, but it's um, it's called a rain four. It's a dj controller. That it makes it easy. So I had another one uh, what was it? The rain one and it's made out of steel. So I traveled with it and carrying it through the airport was killing me. It was, it was so heavy, and so so what I did was I sold that and I got a rain 4, which is lighter. So I got that maybe about three or four months ago and what does it do?

Speaker 2: 37:49

oh it's, it's a controller, um you, but it's new technology. Like you could? You could remix songs live, like while while everybody's right there, you could remix the song. You don't have to go in the studio and do it, you could, right right there like legit live dj.

Speaker 2: 38:06

Yeah, yeah like, not just live dj, not no, like like even this is what I think like producer, like, like you can, like, I can take the instruments out of the song live oh wow. And then put other instruments in there live, so wow. Yeah, that's what I bought that's cool I need.

Speaker 1: 38:29

Well.

Speaker 2: 38:30

I wish I was listening more at the uh gala yeah because I was using it then like yeah you'll hear a song and you're like, yeah, that is Michael Jackson, but that don't sound like the same song like right yeah, oh, and, by the way, I'm sure Tara requested a lot of those songs, but that was like that was my jam from.

Speaker 1: 38:56

I mean, a lot of those were throwback songs no requesting my contract no, you just know your client uh, I read people, I I watch.

Speaker 2: 39:08

I have a whole trick to that, but I you took me back to like a whole nother time.

Speaker 1: 39:13

I was like FaceTiming my best friends Kimberly and Jamila, and I'm like we were yeah, they were there too. It was, it was a blast, all right. Well, what is your favorite family tradition?

Speaker 2: 39:29

Oh, so we have a Christmas one. Um, so we have a christmas one, and okay, so, uh, christmas morning it's we, so we watch, uh, either trade so you know you know, it is so trade in places with eddie murphy. You know that's a christmas movie, right?

Speaker 2: 39:54

so so we either have to re-watch it yeah, yeah, some movies are christmas movies and you don't even realize it. So. So we watch trading places and b street, and b street is a movie about a dj in the 1980s in in the bronx and it's a whole christmas movie. It's really a christmas movie ah and um, yeah, that's our that. And then every everybody's birthday, uh, we roast marshmallows nice, nice.

Speaker 1: 40:26

My son would like that one. He's a. He's a big marshmallow fan. All right, well, mark, where can our guests find you? And if you have anything else coming up you want to share, feel free.

Speaker 2: 40:37

It's one sound. Uh, spell out all the words. One sound and E and T and that's on everything. I'm, I'm even on, uh, I'm everything. Like, yeah, e and T on everything. Uh, tik TOK, uh, instagram, facebook, snapchat everything is one sound and ENT. I just look forward to everything that I have coming up in the future and I'm excited about it. I'm really excited about it because when you envision something and it doesn't happen in the time that you want it to happen, and it happens 10 years later and you're like I saw that.

Speaker 2: 41:24

Yeah, I saw that in and it's a great feeling. It's a great feeling to just um set goals and meet your goals. Um, I have a big dry erase board that I keep on the wall and in my bedroom and I just look at it and recently I got a chance to like erase stuff, just take things off and it's a great because sometimes we feel like nothing is happening in our lives, or you know it's not happening, it's enough, or whatever it may be.

Speaker 2: 41:56

And then when you see that you accomplish these things, you're like, hey, I did actually do something. So it's a great feeling. So it's, it's one sound and EMT yeah, I go going on my tangents, yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:07

No, that's okay. My favorite thing is when I have cause. I have the same deal. Try, erase board in my bedroom. I love it when I'm able to yes, of course, reach the goal, that's always the thing. But to erase the goals that no longer serve me and take it like you erase it and that weight is gone and you know like you can focus on the main thing, that's like I love it. Um, great. And then what? What was your Airbnb too? Just so I can drop it in the show notes.

Speaker 2: 42:42

One place ATL, perfect, perfect, one place ATL. That's the website, and then also the Instagram too is one place ATL. Then we have One Sound DMV. That's my DMV area affiliate. Dmv area affiliate awesome.

Speaker 1: 42:58

Well, mark, this has been such a fun continuation from Virginia's conversations and I appreciate you coming on here to just chat, for everyone that's listening in. I know that there's wedding pros out there that you know they they don't, they, they worry that they're not going in the right direction, right, but we're just learning one step at a time and again, if you, if you're able to support yourself and do what you love, that's, that's the goal, and I think that's the big thing to take away from here. So, mark, thank you so so much.

Speaker 2: 43:29

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.