Is It Time to Look at the DJ Items You Have and Invest in More or Less Kit?

0:00 Where you are, what you're doing

Alright ladies and gentlemen, Jonathan Ellaskins here, the DJ Tutor. Now in this video I'm going to first of all say that I am not a financial advisor, I cannot give you financial monetary advice. All I can do is share my own opinion about what's going on in the world and maybe to open your mind to look at where you are, what you're doing and how and what you may want to do in the future. Now with what's going on, gigs wise, you never know in a year from now, everything could be fine. It all could be over and that's it. But what's going on could still be on people's minds and a lot of folk out there may not really want to go near a big group of people. Which means that possibly the days of... Gigs where you've, you know, you've mashed in 300 people into a 200 capacity venue are gone. I don't know. You don't know. Nobody knows. So first of all, one thought I've had for quite a while, which I've been doing, I've been selling off bits of kit that I've looked at and thought, I haven't used it in six months, just sell it and move it on.

At least I've got something for that kit. Also, I've now freed up a bit of space. And also, I've freed up a bit of mind clutter because there's nothing worse than walking into a room and having a mishmash of crap everywhere and you're not able to have a clear mind. Again... This is another subject, but let's just imagine this. This isn't an analogy. This is just common sense. How do you feel when you go for a walk by the sea? Or how do you feel when you go for a walk in the country or in a field? Or you just go for a walk. You're outside and your mind is clear. Even if you're in the middle of a city, at least you can have a walk and you're free. So that's really what you should be doing inside your house, starting to get rid of clutter maybe.

Also, from a work DJ perspective, you know, analyse the future. Just look at yourself, what you have done in the past and then maybe start thinking about how you can change that for the future. For example, that's what I'm doing. I'm seriously considering that a lot of my gigs in the future, the foreseeable future, may only be for a small amount of people. Let's take that on board and let's go back to a year ago when you were paid a good amount of money to play to, I don't know, 50, 100, 200, 1000 people, maybe a big festival. Times like that may not come back or may not come back for a very long time. So you may have to consider that you're going to be playing to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 people.

3:43 They've got a whole bunch of money and they don't mind

You know what I mean. They've got a whole bunch of money and they don't mind. Money's no object. On the other hand, you could have your regular client, let's say box standard Mr and Mrs Joe who have got a couple of kids, they've got a little bit of money on the side for entertainment and they just want to book a disco. Maybe they would normally pay you 300 whatever but now they're thinking well we can only invite really friends and family. We're limited to space. We don't want to pay 300 anymore. We want to pay 100. Now, I'm not saying prices are going down and you should indeed charge less, but you need to think about what could, may, will, might not happen in the future. And I'm thinking just that because now I'm actually thinking, well, I could go out with a...

6:03 Do not go into finance because who knows what finance will do?

Hatchback car, I could put two speakers in the back, a small controller, I mean I've got here the XZ which is all I need really. And I could take a couple of tripods with a few flashy lights on. In other words, I can actually have my entire show in the back of a car be set up in half an hour and perform some great entertainment for the 20 or 30 or 50 or 100 people who want to be entertained. On the other hand, you may be out there thinking, well I've got my eight subs and my eight mid and tops and I've got my gantry with all the lights on and my big moving heads and whatnot and I'm going to be rocking my show to 30 people.

Fine, if they're willing to pay the money and you're willing to put the effort in but then we can't see the future, alright? So really again, if you're in the position, the lucky position, to be able to sustain If you're not in that position, fine. If you are in that position, then that could be a little bit tricky. Also, at the moment now, if you're considering buying some kit, if you've got the money to buy it, I would recommend you buy it. Do not go into finance because who knows what finance will do? It may just drop and you may... I don't know. Like I said, I am not a financial advisor. I couldn't even tell you the first thing. I'm just going by my gut instinct.

8:04 Supermarkets and buy what we can

But times are changing, definitely. Also maybe invest in your family. If we go back to the toilet paper saga now, and again this is I suppose a vlog as well, this video, but...

When that was happening, I was in India with a very good friend of mine. And over there, down at the foggiest, what was going on? And while I was in India, I didn't see one obese person at all, not one. I didn't see one malnutritioned, unhealthy person. Alright, I did see beggars, I saw deprivation, I saw people living in a tent, but... You go through the markets in Mumbai and there's colour everywhere. You know, you could feed yourself for less than a pound. You could probably feed an entire family for less than a pound a day. So I can't see unhealthy people over there. Or should I say, I didn't see unhealthy people over there. Which doesn't mean to say that there aren't. I just didn't see it.

But I was around people with nothing and also I was around multi-millionaires at the same time. Anyway, while I was there we had the toilet paper saga. I come back to the UK and shops have run out of toilet paper. I'm like, hold on a minute, I have just been to a country where probably most of the population have probably never even seen a bog roll. They haven't seen it. Yet, over here, the West, we have to have toilet paper. So, yet, shops gone. No toilet paper. Now take that on board. Let's imagine if all of a sudden there was some form of disaster. Are you in a position to think, OK, there's a disaster, right, OK, let's watch TV? Or... Are you in that position of, oh my god, quick, let's go to the supermarkets and buy what we can? Now, if you're in that position, then is that a good position to be in? I would say no. It's more likely to, you're more likely to be, oh sorry, I'll start again. You need to be in the position whereby if that kind of thing did happen, you're like, don't worry about it, we're sorted. In other words...

11:20 Open doors, carry, doors corridor

Maybe consider getting yourself a big bag of rice, a whole bunch of pasta, maybe some long life milk, maybe some grains. In other words, get products that possibly will last six months or a year. Now let's imagine you invest one or two hundred pounds, euros, dollars in food supplies and this really is getting on to the prepper kind of thing where you've got these people who prep in case of, I don't know, alien attack. Now that may sound bizarre, but big space up there. You never know, but it's highly unlikely. Or is it? So would you prefer in six months time to say don't worry about it we're sorted or in a year or two years time when all of that food stuff is out of date but what you will be doing is you will be using it

And turning it over and buying new stuff. So just like a shop, a professional shop will rotate their stock. That's exactly what you will be doing as well. So in six months time or a year's time, will you be patting yourself on the back or poking yourself in the eye? In other words, you'll be going spot on. We don't have to worry. We don't have to rush around because we're sorted. On the other hand, will you be poking yourself in the eye thinking... Bugger, I've just been to the shops and they're completely empty. So you see with the uncertainty that's going on you need to have a 360 vision look in front behind to the right to the left there is a narrative out there I've been watching videos do your own research watch videos from all over YouTube and Facebook and see what other people are saying look at other countries for example

13:33 There are some people out there that probably make more money than you

Turkey. At the moment, apparently, the currency's going nuts. People are buying gold and silver. Apparently, again, I don't know because I'm not in Turkey. I don't know. I'm just doing my own research. But if that is the case, then maybe it'll be another country. It'll be Lithuania or it'll be, I don't know, it'll be Italy or it'll be France and maybe it'll stretch out or maybe it won't be. Maybe it won't. Maybe all this will go away and all you'd have done is spent a couple of hundred quid on a bunch of food that has got a long sell by date so you'll use it over the next couple of years. Like on the other hand, like I said, you don't want to be poking yourself in the eye thinking, damn, why didn't I do something? Especially if you have a family because if you do, you don't want to be looking at your family in the eye and say, I'm really sorry but...

We're just going to have to stand in that line for that one loaf of bread that's going to cost an absolute fortune. Bugger, why didn't I buy a big bag of flour with a year's sort of sell-by date and I could be making my own bread? Which one would you prefer? Anyway, back to the DJ thing. So, I have got the XZ, I've got a bunch of speakers, I've got a bunch of lights. And I could, at the drop of a hat, get my kit in a car, get to a gig and I could have all that gear, excuse me, depending of course on what we call the carry. And of course if you're familiar with the carry, you know if you're not familiar with the term, the carry is the terminology used by a mobile DJ. Based on when they turn up to the venue and park at said place where they're allowed to, as close to the door to get into the venue as possible, the carry is from your vehicle into the setup area. The carry could be literally, which has happened to me, open the doors and it's the other side of the wall. Oh, that is heaven. On the other hand...

It could be you open the doors, you go down a corridor, you open another set of doors, you go down another corridor, you get to a lift, you go up the lift, you go down a corridor, open another door, you open another door, you open another door, you go through into this big room and onto the stage. Yeah, so consider that. If you've got millions of kit, would you like to be in a position of carrying all that stuff? No problem, you can hire someone but then that is more money taken away from you. On the other hand... Wouldn't you prefer to be in a position where you could pretty much put everything on some sort of dolly trolley and wheel it in knowing full well that even if it's half a mile away, you can carry it all in one go, set it up, dismantle it, carry it back to the car and you're away. And do you know what? There are some people out there that probably make more money than you have...

16:25 Www.ellaskins.co.uk You just soak it all up

A fraction of the kit you've got set up in a fraction of the time, dismantle in a fraction of the time and get more bookings than you. And they've got less kit. I'm just saying. That's all. I'm just saying. So we really, as DJs, as people, we have our own little circle. We have our own little thoughts and that's all that matters. But then, really, to look into the future, you need to... Analyze what's going on around you. Now, if you are someone who watches the news and all this stuff, fine, I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but then maybe you should look behind, in front, to the side of what's going on and do your own research. That's all I'm saying. Do your own research. One of the best things I ever did in my entire life, well there's many things, having children...

And having my beautiful children. The other one is stop watching the news. That's one of the best things I ever did in my entire life, by far. Of course, having my wonderful children because I was able to have my mind completely open to what's going on. Now I've said this before and I'm going to give you an analogy and I need you to think about this analogy. And this will be the last thing I'll say in this video. Imagine going to, and I've said this before, but I need you to really think about this. Imagine you go to a shop and you buy a sponge to do your washing up with. Alright? So you bring it into the kitchen, it's a brand new sponge, and you do your washing with it, and after a week, two weeks, it looks a bit manky, and it's time for a new sponge. Now, that old sponge that's been used for a long time,

As soon as you dip it in the water a day later after you've used it or a few hours, it's going to soak up all of the water like that. It's going to take it all in and you rub it about and it's dirty and horrible. Not dirty but maybe it's just like it's been used. Now let's imagine though that you take a brand new sponge and you put it, you just put it into the water. Well you need really to like literally put it in the water. www.ellaskins.co.uk You just soak it all up. On the other hand, if you haven't watched or listened to the news ever and you drop in the water, it's not going to come inside you because you have no idea what it is until of course you're squished. You expand and you suck it all in. Now, if you are indeed the new sponge, good on you. Well done. On the other hand, if you're the old sponge, don't worry.

Because this is where the analogy has a silver lining. Because if you take that old sponge and try this, I want you to try this and you'll be surprised, even though you should understand the logic anyway. You take that old sponge, I want you, and try this, to take it and put it in a place that's dry and let that sponge dry out completely. Give it a week, two weeks, three weeks, just let it dry. And once it's dry completely, put it in the water. It will act exactly like a new sponge. You will have to squidge it hard until it takes the water in. So in other words, the analogy is very simple. If you stop following the narrative now and stop watching the news and the radio and all the shit they're trying to pump into you for two or three weeks, when then you do start watching it again, it won't make any sense because...

Your mind will be part of the reality that is out there, not the mishmash that they're giving you. Practice and enjoy. Thank you

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.