🌊 BELOW THE SURFACE

I used to turn up at weddings in a taxi, with my lights and cables stuffed into a plastic box I'd inherited from Biscuit — the family hamster — who, in fairness, had a stronger sense of organisation than I did. 

Technical skill wasn’t holding me back. Music school taught me how to mix, perform, and produce — just not how to manage a customer-focused DJ business in the real world.

I was repeating the same standard — gig after gig, year after year — and calling it experience.

Then, after hundreds of gigs and a decade of unexamined habits, something caught me by surprise.

☀️ THE LIGHT OF DAY

People always told me I was brilliant. Compliments made me happy — genuinely — but they never changed me.

A review, though? A review is a different beast entirely — public, permanent, and impossible to ignore.

A review doesn’t just say you did well. It says: This is who you are. Act accordingly.

Suddenly, I was behaving like someone with value, direction, standards, responsibility — someone people depended on. Someone with influence over the biggest night of someone’s life. 

Someone who, somehow, had become a professional.

🗺️ THE PATH

It turns out the only thing I’d been consistent with for ten years… was not asking anyone for a review.

So I asked the next client for one. Then the next. Then the next.

In a single month, I went from one review on my ten-year-old page to three more in thirty days. Suddenly, I had four five-star reviews.

It wasn’t much — but it was a start. And that was enough.

🧗 THE CLIMB

Each review pushed my standards higher.

I joined DJ groups, studied the wedding industry, and started paying attention to the things music school had never taught me: design, atmosphere, lighting, flow, presentation, stagecraft.

Everything went into the evolution — every penny earned was invested back into the business.

One month later, my setup was totally unrecognisable. I was no longer turning up with a hamster box.

Clients were getting messages to say, “I’ve levelled up again — look at the setup now.”

But the biggest shift didn’t arrive until September.

🏔️ THE SUMMIT

By September, I had a starlight booth — and the wedding setup I’d never dreamed possible.

It doesn’t look like an upgrade. It looks like four completely different DJs.

🧭 WHAT CHANGED AFTER

My standards continued to rise — in sound, in lighting, and in the way I worked with clients. Everything else followed, including a new website and genuine momentum behind the business.

The truth is simple: without feedback, none of this would have happened.

For ten years, I moved forward without reflection. One review was enough to change that.

The business grew. My judgement matured. My sense of identity finally caught up.

Feedback wasn’t just helpful — it was the engine I’d been missing all along.

If there’s one thing I hope you take from this, it’s this:

• Your venue staff who orchestrate the entire day.

• Your photographer who sees the moment before it happens.

• Your florist who fixes the little things you never even notice.

• Your stylist who shows up before the sun does.

• Your baker who crafts a masterpiece you’ll cut into once.

• Your DJ — who shapes the night around everyone in the room.

Every one of them thrives on feedback. Not flattery. Not forced praise. Just the truth about how much their work meant to you.

If someone makes your day better, don’t wait for them to ask for a review. Most won’t — it feels awkward to ask. But your words might be the one thing that changes their entire year… or their entire career.

A review isn’t just praise. It’s a signal. It tells other couples: This person cares. This person delivers.

What you did mattered.

That was the review that changed everything. ✨