Episode 235: Behind The Wedding Business with Neal McFarlane of DJ XTC Entertainment Services

Imagine if you could streamline your business and build a team of associates to work multiple weddings on the same day. How amazing would that be? That’s exactly what this DJ has done in his business!

Do you ever wish you could take a peek behind the scenes of a successful wedding business and see how they’re doing things? Wouldn’t it be helpful to get the lowdown on what’s working for them and what isn’t? That’s what this episode is all about!

Come take a look behind the scenes of DJ XTC Entertainment with DJ Neal McFarlane. He breaks down how he got started and got his first clients, how he has streamlined his client experience so his clients feel taken care of without him having to lift a finger, and some really interesting changes he’s made over the years.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a DJ or another type of wedding professional, you’ll come away from this episode with some ideas you can implement in your own business.

In this episode we’ll cover:

• How Neal got started as a DJ as a teenager
• How Neal reluctantly got into DJing weddings
• The thing that works best to attract leads (and it doesn’t work for everyone)
• How Neal attracts high-quality leads
• How Neal decides which marketing experiments to quit
• The tools Neal uses to streamline and automate parts of his business
• How Neal provides an amazing client experience through automated emails
• How Neal’s prices and packages have changed over time
• How he started building a team of DJs to get his time back
• How she batches her work to be more productive
• The surprising thing he wishes he knew when starting out

Behind The Wedding Business with Carolyn Kulb of Bloom Poet

Meet Neal McFarlane

DJ XTC Entertainment caters to couples of varied backgrounds to help them all celebrate together. Toronto is a huge melting pot of cultures second only to New York City so every wedding Neal books is unique because of the cultural backgrounds of the people involved. In fact, it’s rare for Neal to get a repeat of cultures being blended into a wedding in a single year.

How Neal Started His Wedding Business

Neal started learning to DJ in his early teens and at the time, everybody was a DJ. At just 15 years old, he teamed up with some friends to DJ community events and school dances, and the company developed from there. He has been in the DJ business for over 35 years now.

Neal ventured into weddings on two separate occasions. In his 30s, he was DJs at local clubs and people would ask him to DJ their weddings. At first, he said he’d never do it but finally gave in when a friend asked and he found that he enjoyed it.

Neal had to take a break from DJing weddings full time because he had a young son and the hours didn’t work with being a single dad. He worked a corporate job until 2012 and decided to get back into DJing weddings full time and he has been working weddings ever since then.

How Neal Markets His Wedding DJ Business

Neal initially started to get wedding clients from DJing at bars and regulars really wanted him to be their wedding DJ. During the first year, Neal was getting wedding clients through referrals alone and decided to sign up for WeddingWire.

Not everybody likes WeddingWire and it’s not for everyone, but it has been something that has worked really well for Neal. A lot of his DJ friends in the US don’t find the same success but WeddingWire has done very well for Neal in the Greater Toronto area. In fact, it’s his top lead source. He also decided to start attending conferences to get the education he needed to grow his business.

Neal’s second best lead generation tool after WeddingWire is Instagram. He got on Instagram early enough to secure @torontoweddingdj and it consistently brings in leads. Neal also uses Google Ads to generate leads for his wedding DJ business.

But of course, not all marketing tactics work for everyone. As Neal says, “there are a lot of those”. He tested lead generation companies locally and those didn’t work for him. He has also found that Facebook Ads haven’t worked to bring in his ideal clients.

It’s easy to decide to throw out an entire marketing tactic when you see that it’s not working but that’s not always wise. With some tweaks and adjustments, you may be able to make it work for you. Neal refers to his numbers and follows them when making his marketing decisions. That’s something we talk about inside The Wedding Business Collective because it’s SO much easier to allow the data to make decisions for you than to just guess or go off of how you feel.

Most leads that come from Facebook wind up not being Neal’s ideal client. There are a lot of wedding groups where people ask for vendor recommendations but the people in those groups often focus too much on price. Neal isn’t the cheapest DJ in his area and he has a specific ideal client he wants to work with.

Facebook used to work wonderfully for Neal but that’s not the case anymore and it’s a good reminder that things change over time. What worked for you 5 years ago may not work any longer. When you let the data make decisions for you though, you’ll always move toward things that work for you and away from things that don’t.

How Neal Manages his Time

Neal uses a Google Nest Mini to keep him focused and on schedule. It sits on his desk and tells him what he’s supposed to be doing and when. Neal also uses the DJ Event Planner CRM coupled with Perfect Portals to manage client work as well as client & lead communication.

He has implemented systems in his CRM that free up time and keep him organized. That way, he doesn’t have to be on call all the time because his systems handle the communication for him.

Neal’s process has automated emails that contact leads and clients so he doesn’t have to worry about it. He gets to provide a superior client experience and spend less time doing admin work. Talk about a win-win!

The monthly emails that clients receive educate, nurture, and show that Neal and his team really do care. Couples always talk about how Neal kept them on track and helped them with things they didn’t even think to ask about. Those are emails Neal has set up once over a year ago and they continue to provide a fantastic client experience.

HOW Neal’s BUSINESS CHANGED OVER TIME

Through his years of working in the industry, Neal has met like-minded DJs and entertainment specialists that he has invited to be representatives of his company as associates. At the time of recording this episode, Neal had a full-time team of DJs and MCs with a few more people in training.

Neal has been transitioning into more of a behind the scenes role and DJing fewer events. It has been so exciting to see Neal shift away from being the only person in his business who had to work every event. After 35+ years, he doesn’t want to be lifting DJ equipment and working late every weekend.

Making this shift is allowing Neal to build the legacy that he wants to build. He wants to make sure people continue to have amazing entertainment at their weddings and not have to deal with the old, crotchety mobile DJ that dominated the weddings in his area when he first started. Neal has intentionally brought on team members that have a high skill level and share his vision for what having a wedding DJ can be.

At first though, this was a struggle. Neal was the only DJ in his company for a long time so people wanted to work with him and not another team member. He’s had to transition his brand & marketing to focus more on the team and not just on himself.

How Neal’s Packages and Services Have changed Over Time

Neal raises his prices at least once a year and in the beginning, his pricing was very minimal. He didn’t have the enhancements and add-ons he has now that couples could add to their packages.

Now he offers 3 packages, all of which give his couples a lot more than what he initially started with. The add-ons allow couples to customize their packages and add experiences they probably didn’t even know were possible.

Neal introduces these to couples via his automated emails that come from his CRM. I love the way Neal does this as an upsell after the couple has already booked their package. It would be very easy to overwhelm a potential client with all of the possibilities his company can offer. These add-ons are also something they probably wouldn’t have considered at first but may have come across as they plan their wedding so it makes sense to offer them after the initial booking.

CHALLENGES Neal HAS FACED

A newer challenge Neal has had to face is getting comfortable stepping back and allowing someone else to do the work. Whether it’s handing work off to a virtual assistant or sending another DJ to work a wedding, it can be scary. Your team represents your brand and your company so it can be a mindset hurdle.

There is also the fear that Neal will spend time training a DJ in the DJ XTC way and they’ll bail on him to start something of their own. It hasn’t happened but he has seen it happen. Neal operates with integrity so if he were working on behalf of another company and someone asked for his information, he would point them to that company. But not everyone would do that.

Neal also teaches DJing a few times a week and he has worked to plant that seed of working with integrity in young up-and-coming DJs. He has so far been able to bring on fantastic team members that share his values.

WHAT Neal WISHES HE KNEW WHEN HE STARTED His WEDDING BUSINESS

Neal wishes he understood music theory better when he was first starting out as a DJ. In the classes he teaches now, this is where he starts. If he understood music theory better, he could have been a better DJ in the early stages of his career. He credits his understanding of music theory as one of the reasons why he’s a significantly better DJ now than he used to be.

He also wishes he knew how important education would be in the growth of his business. Education is key and conferences have been important to Neal’s growth. That’s why he has been a member of The Wedding Business Collective for such a long time.

WHAT Neal IS FOCUSING ON NEXT

Neal would like to step back a little more in terms of being the face of the company. He wants to continue to bring people onto his team and train them in the DJ XTC way. It has been amazing to see his team grow and he’s working on building a specific training program for new team members.

About Neal

Neal McFarlane is a 35-year veteran of the entertainment industry in the Greater Toronto Area. He moved to full-time weddings & mobile events in 2012 and recently expanded the one-man operation to a team of entertainers. Our focus is on wedding entertainment for couples of varied backgrounds, ages, cultures, and their guests.

Website: www.thetorontoweddingdj.com
Instagram: @torontoweddingdj

Links & Resources:

Join us inside The Wedding Business Collective!
Wedding Business CEO Summit
Episode 227: What 4 Wedding Pros Have Gotten Out Of The Wedding Business Collective
Episode 231: Behind The Wedding Business with Carolyn Kulb of Bloom Poet

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