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ARTICLE
Like many of you, I had a full diary for 2020 and was looking forward to working with some fantastic couples and venues. I specialise in high-priced all-day weddings and I especially enjoy building a rapport with couples, to the point where they stop being clients and become friends. Things were looking great for the year ahead. Then our lives changed with the awful news that a pandemic was sweeping across the world and heading straight for the UK.

At first it seemed like this was merely a storm in a teacup. I told myself it would pass after a few weeks, possibly a couple of months maximum. Little did we know what was to follow. Those first few weeks off were a novelty. I had some savings due to a very busy Christmas party season and a few big weddings in January and February, so the unexpected break didn’t seem to be the end of the world.

I decided to take advantage and get on with maintaining my equipment and brushing up on a few skills, ready for another busy wedding season. However, as the weeks went by and the savings started to dwindle, I realised that things might not be as rosy as I’d hoped. When you are used to people approaching you at midnight to thank you and tell you how great their night was, having that suddenly taken away can make you feel a bit worthless, not much use to anyone.

So I started to livestream every day – after all, I still had to play music. If just one person messaged and told me they’d enjoyed what I’d done, I had my fix. I would feel as if I had a purpose and wasn’t just being a lazy slob, doing nothing of any significance day after day.

I’d never really taken much notice of mental health issues previously. I suppose I am part of a generation who were told by our peers to “man up and get on with it” rather than just sitting there feeling sorry for ourselves! But one morning I woke up. Teresa was in the shower. She came into the bedroom and I was sitting on the end of the bed just crying my eyes out for no reason. I felt awful. “What’s wrong?” she asked. I told her: “I really don’t know, I just feel absolutely worthless. I have no reason to get up in the morning, no purpose. Just…what’s the point?”

After a cup of tea and a good talk, I decided that things had to change. I needed some structure and an everyday purpose for my own being. Perhaps just as importantly, we really needed to earn some money to pay the bills.

I started looking for a job. It was always going to be temporary because at that time most people assumed we’d be back to work as DJs soon enough. I consider myself able and well qualified to do a variety of jobs, so I didn’t ever think I’d struggle for work. After all, I’m a qualified graphic designer; I’ve worked as a sales manager for Volkswagen, MG and Rover; I have a sense of humour and can talk to anyone; and, as they say, I could sell ice to Eskimos.

But with all that said, I found myself delivering parcels for Hermes. On paper it worked well for us: I had a van already, the work was local and the hours flexible, plus we could pop home for a coffee any time. We were told the pay was £1 per parcel and we’d probably have 100 parcels a day, so it sounded like a great answer for our finances. Sadly, it’s not quite how it turned out!

It quickly became apparent that the pay wasn’t actually £1 per parcel. In most cases the amount was under 40p. Really large deliveries would pay the full £1, but these were few and far between – just one or two per day. We worked all month – six, sometimes seven days a week – until we were eventually paid. Our worth for the whole month’s work? £1450. You need to remember this was pay for two people and we still had to deduct our running costs and other expenses, so it was a real struggle.

My outlook on work and pay changed during those long 15 months. I was working a whole month for pretty much the same amount I was charging brides for one all-day hosted wedding with evening entertainment. And this led me to think differently not only about what I charge but about our industry’s collective obsession about what other DJs charge. We have been influenced by some of our colleagues in the USA to “get what you’re worth.” And rightly so. We are constantly told we are the single most important part of a wedding and we put ourselves on a pedestal in order to justify a higher price.
The full review can be found in Pro Mobile Issue 109, Pages 22-24.
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BY DAVID ABBOTT

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