How to Make Your DJ Competition Irrelevant | EF EP 167

0:00 Real quick, before we get into it, you are not competing with 10,000 other DJs, you just think you are. And that one belief that you have to fight for the same gigs and the same followers and the same sound as everybody else is the exact thing that's keeping you invisible. So today I'm stealing a framework from one of the most famous business books ever written and translating the whole thing for you. And I'm telling you right now, go grab a pen, because this is the one you're going to want to write down. I wonder how top DJs actually built their careers. I had to do 15 years of hard work to get any of the recognition that I wanted. Where I saw a turning point in my career is when I came true to myself. From marketing and mindset to networking and negotiation, I'm giving you the tools you need to build a lasting career in dance music.

0:44 Give them bits of you and your everyday life. You have to change the way you view the word no. Like me, I'm encouraged by it. Join me, Olivia Mancuso and industry leaders as we reveal what really takes to turn your passion into profit. This is elevated frequencies, something I've learned building in this industry. The career you want doesn't come from going viral.

1:51 All right, so I have to confess something. I tried to get through this audio book, the Blue Ocean Strategy audio book, twice, and my God, it is boring. It is written for NBA guys in suits and it shows, but the idea is buried underneath all that dry business language is one of the most important things that an artist can understand. So I did what I always do on this show. I sat through the boring business book so you don't have to, and I'm going to translate it for you today into something that you can actually use as a DJ or producer. You're welcome. So the whole idea comes down to this one reframe. So sit with this for a second. Most artists are fighting to the death and what this book calls a red ocean. Now, a red ocean is the crowded market that already exists where everybody is competing on the same exact thing, better production, more followers, the sound that's charting right now, and everyone is fighting over the same shrinking pool of attention.

2:50 It's called a red ocean because it's a bloodbath. It's blood in the water and there's too many sharks and not enough food. And that is where almost every artist is trying to build a career in the most competitive crowded red water that there is. Now on the other end, there's a blue ocean, which is uncontested space that you create where the competition basically becomes irrelevant because nobody else is doing that specific thing that you're doing. And the second that you're in a blue ocean, you are not the 10th best at something. You are the only one at something. And, you know, that changes a lot of things. In the book, they use Cirque du Soleil as an example, and I thought that was a good one to share with you. When Cirque du Soleil came along, the circus industry was dying.

3:43 And if they had tried to build a better circus than the Ringling Brothers, you know, like with more animals and more famous clowns in a bigger tent, they would have lost because they were competing in a red ocean that was already sinking. So instead of doing that, they asked a totally different question. And that was, how can we build a circus differently? So they build something between a circus and a theater production that cut out the animals and some of the expensive performers. They added story and artistry and a soundtrack, and they created this whole new category that suddenly they were the only ones in. Now. They didn't win the circus game. They refused to play it and built their own. So here's what I see constantly.

4:25 Most artists are drowning in the red ocean and they don't even realize it because they're competing on the same exact axes as everyone else. They're making whatever sound is hot right now. They're on the same platforms, doing the same content and trends. They're chasing the same metrics. So the only way for them to win is to be slightly better at a game that 100,000 other people are already playing. And I hate to tell you, almost nobody wins that way because trying to be the best house DJ, that's a red ocean. There's a million of them. But being the only you, that's a blue ocean. And I know it's easier said than done, so I'm going to tell you how to actually put this into practice. The one part of the book that is genuinely immediately useful, the thing that you can literally do the second this episode ends, is called the ERRC Grid.

5:24 And that's the part that you're going to want to take notes on. So if you're driving or working out whatever, just remember to come back to it. And if you're not, you're going to grab a pen, pencil, whatever, iPad and you're going to draw four boxes. So ERRC stands for eliminate, reduce, raise and create. And it's 4 questions that you ask about your own project. And when you sit down and actually fill this out, this is going to and deliver you your blue ocean. So we're going to go through it box by box. So the first box is eliminate. So what are the things that everybody in your lane already does that you could just stop doing?

6:04 So the obvious 1 is like trend chasing or remaking whatever blew up last week. Because I promise you the algorithm does not reward the 10th person to jump on a sound. It rewards the first. But eliminate also means, you know, the copy paste DJ starter pack, the same Moody black and white photos, the same three content formats other every other DJ is posting all the stuff that makes you blend right into the wallpaper. If everyone is doing it, it cannot be the thing that makes you stand out. So some of that stuff you just got to eliminate. You got to cut it. Box 2 is reduced. So what are you pouring way too much energy into that actually isn't moving your career? So, for example, vanity metrics, obsessing over likes and followers, the endless tweaking of a track that was finished three weeks ago.

6:53 Reduced doesn't mean stop entirely. It means quit over indexing on that stuff that feels productive but isn't building anything. We've talked about that a lot on this show before Box 3 is raised. What could you turn all the way up, way past what anyone in your space is doing? This is where you get to be great at something. Maybe it's your life storytelling. Maybe it's building a real community instead of an audience. Maybe it's a signature sound that people can recognize in two seconds. And maybe it's your aesthetic. Pick the thing that is most you and crank it up to the point that almost feels unreasonable. So then box 4 is creates.

7:34 Now this is my favorite one because this is where you get to invent your blue ocean and the easiest way to do it is to merge 2 worlds that have never been merged before. Like think about it. There's someone out there who could run a book club that ends with a DJ set. Someone who could do a gardening morning plant swap that turns into a daytime rave. Someone could do a run club with a live set waiting at the finish line that's been done before. The second you combine your music with a world that nobody else in dance music is touching, you stop being a DJ that competes with other DJs and you become the only person on earth doing that exact thing. And that's the blue ocean that you build from scratch. Now, I've talked about this countless times on the podcast. Merging your interest is the easiest way to create a blue ocean.

8:33 I'll give you a few examples so that this doesn't just live in theory. I'm going to start with this podcast Elevated Frequencies, because it's a blue ocean I built on purpose. This started off as a podcast similar to other podcasts, but when I looked at the landscape, most of it was already out. There was either light hearted interviews at festivals or really deep music production talk and both of those things are great and they deserve their own space, but I just didn't want to add to them and I couldn't also because I'm not a producer and lightheartedness has never really been my game. And that's how I kind of started. And I was like, OK, this is weird, this is not me. So I pivoted and I built the thing that I could actually own. I raised the business and mindset and the real career strategy all the way up and I created a show that treats artists like entrepreneurs, which I mean, almost no one was doing.

9:26 And that's the entire reason you're listening to me right now over another show that you could have picked. Okay. Same with Chicago Music Nexus, the conference I Co founded. Everybody's competing over Miami and the coast and Europe and you know, that's a red ocean. So instead of fighting for the same water, we built a serious industry conference in Chicago, in the heartland of the Midwest where nobody else was building 1. And we created a whole new category instead of clawing for space in the old one. I mean, we do have Miami Music Nexus, but that's an extension of of what we do in Chicago. So if you want a pure artist example, Party Pupils. I just had him on the show. The guy took nostalgic 70s and 80s songs, the stuff your parents love, and flipped them into Feel Good House. And then he coined a name for it. He calls it Yacht House.

10:15 He didn't try to outhouse the house guys or outbase the bass guys and girls. He built a lane that is completely his. And now when somebody wants that specific feeling, there's one person they think of and that's party pupils. That is a blue ocean my friends. And it is the reason he is now selling out rooms. OK, so how do you actually put this to work? I want to keep it simple so that you don't overthink this because the creates box especially seems overwhelming. Step 1. You fill out that grid. So all four boxes, you put at least one thing in each if do more if you can. And notice that the eliminate and reduce boxes are basically you mapping out the red ocean that you're already swimming in. It's all the stuff that everyone already competes on. And then the rays and create boxes are you pointing at the blue?

11:07 That's your new direction. Now for that create box specifically, you can use two questions to help you get unstuck if you're feeling stuck here. And 1 is what am I doing right now only because everyone else is doing it? And two, what could I do that literally only I could pull off because of my taste for my background or the weird combination of things I'm into? So write every word, every world outside of music that you're genuinely into in that box, your hobbies, your background, the random stuff that you love. Like for me, I would, if I was a DJ, I'd put like Chihuahuas and vintage furniture and then look for the one thing that you could smash together with your music and that would stop and someone and make them go, wait, what is that? And pick the one thing you'd be excited to do if even if no one paid you, because that's the one that you will actually follow through on.

11:58 OK, so writing these things down is great, but we need this blue ocean to exist off the paper. So your next step then is to pick something from that create box and build the smallest possible version of it. Can you put it out as soon as possible? Like I mean small? So if your idea is a book club that ends with a DJ set, don't go rent a venue, just host one in your apartment or coffee shop with 10 people. If your idea is genre fusion, don't announce a whole new project, just make one track or a 20 minute mix in that lane and post it. If it's a run club with a set at the finish, text friends and do it once. The point is to test the water before you dive in because your blue ocean is not the way that you don't think your way into a blue ocean.

12:40 You need to test your way into it, and you need to start early so that you get data. Now. After you do this, you pay attention to the signal and you compare how people reacted to that one thing versus like the normal things that you've been doing. So more people show up. Did they share it? Did a pull a different kind of person? Did it feel different to make that reaction? Is the water telling you whether it's real? And if it is, you double down and go bigger. But if it's not, you've lost almost nothing because you did something small. So you go try the next thing in your create box, and you just keep testing until you find the ocean that's actually yours now. Yeah, this takes time. Everything I tell you guys to do takes time, you know that.

13:23 But guess what? The time is going to pass anyway, and you're a lot more likely to get where you want to go faster by testing out blue ocean strategies than swimming in the same bloodbath. So listen, the take take away is simple. You will never win by being a slightly better version of everybody else. You win by building a lane that's so uniquely yours that the competition just becomes irrelevant. You need to stop trying to win the race everyone is already running and just Co build your own race where only you can win. Like be on some only child shit and you know when. Give yourself the gold medal if you actually want help finding your blue ocean, mapping out the the grid for your specific project, or figuring out what you can do.

14:10 So literally what I do all day guys. You can book a one-on-one artist development call with me on green room. The link is always in the show notes and we will map out exactly where your uncontested watcher is. I hope this was helpful, I will talk to you next week.