Cordhorder with Melissa Riddle

SPEAKER_02 0:14

My business is your business. It's all within my lady business. With me. Very easy. Hey. Ho. Hip hop paray. Ho. I'm calling myself a ho. Thank you so much, everybody, for coming on over to the uh all up in my lady business corner of the world. I am your host, Mary Neasey. Today I've got my uh my my trusty Melkick. Melissa Riddle. Melkick. My Melkick uh on the uh on the horn with me today. Yeah, it's been a little bit since you've uh come on over to Podcastland. It actually has been. Um have you been working for me too hard? Is that the problem? We've been, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

But like we got a brand new website. Right. Let's talk about the website.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Website. Shout out to Tony Bold. Tony Bold. Ooh, ooh. I wish they're not a sponsor, but they could be.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

They could be. Yeah. Uh I don't think I could have done it without them. They were the most perfect partners and also everything works better with ladies. I'm just gonna.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Yeah, it's true. Let's get into the let's get into the way back machine about the process of having to get this new website. So we the website that we did have for 12 years uh launched the day I gave birth to Sebastian. So birthed it two things that day. I birthed two things that day, a brand new website and my son. So that was uh January 27th, 2014. So we had the same website for 12 years. Uh and it seemed as fresh today as it ever was. I mean, it was a good website. It really, I loved our website. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Nothing wrong with the website. Uh, but we added a lot of things in the intervening time. And also we were on, you know, kind of a hmm, what's a word I would use to describe it. I mean, I think that it is right, it is fine for a lot of organizations, people, designers, it in in and of itself is fine. It's just, it's like my kitchen theory of design, which is that like kitchens are expensive because we've made it. I've said this before on the podcast, I know, like where like kitchens cost like $60,000 or something if you ever want to update your kitchen. And it's because we've tied it so much to the value of a home and the materials keep getting more expensive, and you can't do it yourself. You have to hire a contractor. And it's this whole propped up industry on like kitchen and kitchen designing and whatever. And I feel like website design is very much the same where it's like, let's make this as opaque as possible and as expensive as possible so we can employ as many people as possible in the process.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Well, there's two sides of it. Well, I mean, it's interesting because it's like, you know, I mean, it's you can just you can do a Squarespace website. You know, you can you can have a templated website, but it's but you're basically just it has to just be like a storefront or it has to be like an e-commerce site. Like to have all the things that we need, you need to do something a bit more bespoke. I mean, I guess you could run a toast and jam on uh on it, but it just wouldn't be as like cute. And I wanted to be custom and and cute.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

But the real but you forgot that it's for the people that want to, you know, do all the things.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Well, craft, I think, if if I I mean I'm not gonna I I shouldn't be speaking so authoritatively about this, but from what I understand, so craft was my but you know in 2014 when the website was built on craft, craft was a relatively new platform and it was like to go up against WordPress. And then I just don't think that craft, I think WordPress just give kept getting bigger and bigger, and you know, craft didn't get the virtual or the you know the venture capital money or whatever it took to start competing at that level. And so it wasn't just it just wasn't as good of a product as as WordPress. Um, but our big problem happened because there was someone who was mining Bitcoin on remember we got hacked with the Trojan horse? Horse Irish incredibly well. We got, I don't even know if we ever discussed this on the podcast, but we got hacked. Um, and we found how do we find out? We tried to log into the back end of the website to add a photo or something and we couldn't get in. And it was really weird. We like couldn't get in. And I was like, eh, whatever. It's probably just something wrong with the day for the day. They're probably it's probably down and I don't care. And then Melissa kept trying to go in and fix things and she kept not being able to get into the website. Then she like Googled and realized that like all of our memory was being used. And I'm like, how can the memory being used on our website? We're using like a fraction of it. And then we came to realize that uh craft had some uh like failures, like they didn't do a patch or something.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Well, we we had some gaps in continuity of the security of our site, and what the that gap got exploded with Bitcoin.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

With Bitcoin. So yeah, we that we we didn't do an update that needed to be there. And every website that didn't do that update got a Trojan a hor a Trojan horse came in, don't know how, and uh basically took all the remaining memory that we weren't using for our website to mine Bitcoin.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

And all the words that I just that I said, I'm like, it's like if my mother came back from the dead and she was like, hey Mary, what's going on? And what's what's modern life like? And I would say, Well, a Trojan horse hacked my website so we could mine Bitcoin on the available space. She'd be like, no, thank you. And she would go back to the underworld.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Uh so so yeah, so that happened. But then, you know, we also had all of these like services and stuff. So basically our hand was forced to uh take a good look at you know what what our priorities were and the website needed to get updated, and we also needed to get it on something that we could manage ourselves, which craft uh again, mm mm what to what I said before, needs more people than just us to make sure that the systems are secure and uh uh and no one knew craft.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

That was the other thing is we couldn't find anybody else that knew craft the way that our crafty people. Um so anyway, we we went to our trusty our designer, Tiny Bold. Yes, who's been doing my social, my graphic design needs for the last for a long for a long time now.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

And uh and the whole team, Shiloh, Hannah, just everybody that we have interacted with. I'm sure she has more people on those on her team than those two, but uh the three of them just like we had a lot of apprehension because our brand is very defined and visual and well known and uh a huge part of us. And so trying to kind of reinvent that, improve it, make it you know, show more of what we're capable of doing, also shifting, you know, to the other delights of it all from just toast and jam mobile DJs. Um, so a little bit of a rebrand bake into that as well. So a lot needed to happen. I think it turned out so wonderfully. I tell them every time I talk to them, like I was really just unsure if we were gonna be able to thread the needle of like being able to personality and voice and all of that, you know, and and and get something that was simple and direct and gave the information to the people that the people want to see when they go to a website and still keep all of that toast and jam essence.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

And look cool, yeah. I mean, because I that's I mean, it really it's our storefront. It's like people, it's how people find you. They're gonna make judgment calls beyond, you know, about you based on your website. And if it doesn't look good on mobile, that's you know, that's that says something about who you are. If you aren't smart enough to know if your website is good for mobile and you know how what the form looks like when it gets filled out, how easy it is to film. I mean, there's all these dumb things you have to worry about. But we did wind up doing it on Show It, which is like a Squarespace template-y site, but they just allow more flexibility within it. And so I'm really excited that we have, you know, that it's that it's done and it's gorgeous. And Allison and her team really pulled it out. So thank you, Tiny Bold, not a sponsor, for uh for helping us out with our website.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

So that was it was Herculean, Herculean to get it done, but it looks like we originally our original uh deadline was the anniversary party, which was November last year.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Yeah, yeah. I mean, nothing happens like it's going to.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

No, no. Um, and it all happened the way that it needed to, because we would have a different website if we had tried to do it in November. Um, and we needed all the time we needed to get it to where it is now, which is perfection. Um so go take a look at it.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

ToastenjamDJs.com.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Do it. Uh check out the lighting and live music and photo booths and all these things that didn't really have enough room on the old site to show how awesome they are.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

It's interesting how much we changed over the years because I very much, for the longest time, was just we are DJs and that is it. Like I don't know anything else, everything else is lame, it's stupid. And then as soon as I thought that it was cool, then it became cool enough for me to like, okay, I guess we're gonna do this now. Uh, but we did have to, you know, come up with whole, I mean, that was a whole thing to bring on new products, et cetera. But um, and also to sort of changing the name of Toast and Jam a little bit. Uh, because we were just toast and jam DJs, and then we had to come up with a way to kind of convey, and I didn't want to be like toast and jam DJs in photo booths. And um I had um, yeah, so I'm really glad that we added the other delights in there.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

I think it it sounds right. It is how we feel about these things, right? They we are DJs and we have other delightful things that can, you know, make your event better, but also help streamline your vendors.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Actually, it's funny because above your head is the um that other delight. The green the reason why we the other delights of it all happened was so that poster up there, that green poster, um, is uh it's a J-Ryan, very old J Ryan that was made in 2003, I want to say. 2002, 2000. What is there a year on that? Please hold. Um and when we when I had originally we started the record free. Yeah. So we the first record fair that I ever helped organize, which was the first one we ever did, was when I uh I had gone to WFMU's record fair in uh New York. And that was their big fundraiser. So and we lost all of our funding for WLEW. I think I've I think Sean and I kind of went over this a little bit when we went on the Sean Campbell episode. Go back and listen to that if you want to hear the whole uh drawn-out history of radio uh and my relationship to fundraising. But um, so we decided to throw this the the the record fair, but we wanted to do other we you were trying to figure out if if we had enough record vendors to like be able to have that be a fundraiser. So we're like, we're gonna have to have other things in there. And so uh I was a huge fan of Herb Albert uh and he and two and the Tijuana brass. And they have a record called Whip Cream and Other Delights, and the cover is like a sexy lady covered in whipped cream. Uh and so we I was like, Jay, can you draw like the sexy lady? But she's covered in cassette tapes. Cassette tapes, um, which were very out by that time. Anyway, anyway, we called the W record fair and other the W L E W record fair and other delights. Then when it became Chirp Record Fair and Other Delights, it went to that. But then we stopped doing the Chirp Record Fair and Other Delights. And so at Chirp. So I was like, I can just circle, I can just take that name back. I put it there in the first place. I can take it away. Um so that's no one's using it anymore.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

So it might as well be us uh back to the source.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Yes, exactly. So um, so yeah, that's where the other delights of it all came.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Yeah, from and and and again, I think probably because it is your voice, uh, it makes sense for our voice as a company as well. That this it really is kind of encapsulates how we feel about these things. Like they, you know, we are DJs. We have other delights too. But, you know, it's not like the those other delights, while fun and are good enhancements, you know, it's like at least at this time, DJ is still very much the focus. And then, you know, if you want to get a huge decor company to do all of your things, like we're we're fine with that. You can just hire us to DJ. But if you like extra stuff and you feel like you want to just simplify and keep it all in the same umbrella under the same umbrella, then we got you. Yes, we do.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

So that was uh so that's the little history and the other delights of it all. Um, and we have our new website, and um now we're just in the swing of it. Wedding season has started. Sure has.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

We are in May. Major ones like in the rear view already that were like super high logistics kind of bananas. Um so now it just feels like the rest is just greedy from this point forward. Um, but yeah, we I mean, we have the most other delights uh that we have ever had historically coming up this season. So it's gonna be really fun to kind of see like the team like out there. Like it's no longer just a DJ from Toast and Jam rolling up. You might have a PBJ and a BLT and like, you know, all the other fun food names of the staff.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

I can't just have anything be a thing. It has to have a weird thing attached to it.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Like But they make sense, you know, best lighting techs and photo booth jockeys if you're if you're curious. What BLT and PBJ mean. Yeah. Um and live music. So sometimes you'll also have, you know, a trio rolling up alongside the lights and the photo booths and everything.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

So it's yeah, offering live music is actually, I feel very excited about that.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

It's so cool. And I just like I love that it can just be toast and jam from nose to tail. Like whatever you for the things that are cool. For the things that are cool.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Like photo booth lights and music. I mean, you know, we got all that, we got all that taken care of. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

But yeah, it does feel like this season is kind of like the first season where I really feel like we're flying the plane and it is fully built, you know, as opposed to still trying to get our photo booth software to be reliable and you know, kind of having like just more trials and tribulations. Like it everything feels like I'm in my mind right now, operationally, there isn't anything that I'm looking to replace.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

Knock on some wood, knock on some wood. Yeah, I mean, it's it does seem like for the first time in a long time that we're one hundred that we're things are going in a good direction, uh, 100%. I mean, 100% is probably too strong of a word, but uh but it's good.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

It feels good. And I also just to kind of toot the horn of uh our you know DJs that we've hired in the last year, I'm like so stoked on them. Like I I see more of them than I see some of the the staff that's been around, you know, for a while just by way of them needing me less. Um and they are just the freaking just sweetest people. Like it is just so refreshing in our hellscape of a world to be around people who just are genuinely kind and lovely and just so fun to talk to, fun to, you know, like I told you, Chris, maybe I I think I did. He made his own uh bandles um for the bass camp um this past week, and just like sitting around in this room of, you know, kind of people getting to know each other, right? Like bonding over somebody answering like an insane.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Yeah. So for for those of you who don't know what bandal is, it is like wordle, but it is a songs and then it's just an instrument that you get like a little bit of an instrument, like the drums, the drum part of a song. And then if you don't get on that one, then you can then you make a guess and then it adds in another instrument, and then it adds in another instrument. And so then you're trying to guess what the song is. It's actually really fun, can be really hard, and it's how we've been starting off our staff meetings is with Bandle. Um but I think it really is like cute, universally fun thing, and it's musical too.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

So anyway.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Um But yeah, I mean it's you know, it's like I, you know, I I uh totally relate or I have empathy for people who are having problems with returning to work. I mean, and and I don't have really the same dog in this fight as somebody who owns like a, you know, a corporate building where they're trying to make up for the fact that they spent all this money on a building and no one wants to come to it. Um, but I I think everybody's better in the room. Like you like if you just want to make money and do a job, I guess working from home works. But like, I don't know, when you're trying to actually be a part of something, like I really do think we've kind of forgotten and gotten very far away from it for and for good reason, you know, what what it means to work and why we work and the value that work is supposed to be bringing to our lives.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Or that it can if you, you know, kind of make room for the the good parts. And not everybody has to come to a base camp, but damn, like when we have, you know, a handful of DJs in here, never not it's never not a blast. It's never not like, you know, the best fun skillshare chatting. I was laughing because uh we have two DJs, uh, Joe, who's on the newer side, uh and will be on the website uh next month, and Rika, who's been here for a year or so um and change, and they are both the biggest gearhead nerds like on the planet. And when I got home from Base Camp the other night, I was like, I don't even know how to repeat it, but uh 30 minutes of my life tonight was like, does your XRZ 7, 4, 2, 12 match with your 40? I don't know. I can't even like emulate it properly, impersonate their level of you know, gear nerd. Um, we do call Rika a cord hoarder, cord hoarder, say that 12. Cord hoarder?

SPEAKER_02 18:36

She hoards cords? How many whores is a cord hoarder hoard if a hoard cord hoarder could hoard chords?

SPEAKER_00 18:41

So many cords on another level. But anyway, even that, which I can't relate to in any way, being a non-DJ or a tech person in any way, shape, or form. Uh, but just the it sheer enthusiasm that they have for it is freaking infectious. And it just like makes you, you know, feel happy.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

I'll say that like when you when I would have events when like something would go wrong, like a speaker's not working, or I have to like daisy chain a bunch of stuff together because they didn't tell me that ceremony was in a different room or whatever. And I'm like having to use a bunch of like adapters to like turn an XLR into an RCA into a quarter inch, and I'm like thinking this is gonna cause all this distortion, and basically like the whole ceremony is literally running on adrenaline and fear, and I am like just hoping that the feedback doesn't happen and and it always works. Like I've never and it's like but when you are MacGyvering together all of these, you know, things to make it work, it is it makes you feel like a pretty like you're basically, you know, a a roadie in the 70s.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Um, but anyway, it was very uplifting and I want more of it. And it does the days that this place is full of life and bodies and uh music are days that, you know, don't I think I was here for 12 hours on Tuesday from nine to nine, and I never once looked at the clock. Like it was just, you know, all of the, all of the magic things happening, everything getting done and everybody having a great time. It just doesn't even feel like work. Isn't that the dream? It's kind of the dream. I want I want it every day that I can't get greedy. Uh I can't.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

But the fact that you even have them, I think is actually like, you know, I I say as your boss, I'm like, I'm like, you should just be happy that you're having having those. Um but it's true though, it's at least we get to have days like that. You know, it makes the shitty days even more palatable, though, and you know that there's like better days on the way. Completely.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Um, and yeah, when it feels, you know, so right, like they just the everybody feels like you know, right. And then it's bringing their unique selves to the party. And like you just get to enjoy them for who they are. It's just it's it's super cool. It's super cool. I love it. I love just how things feel um right now. It's pretty special. So and keep it going, keep adding to the team, keep bringing on people who genuinely love to see other people be happy through music, I think is really, you know, the key. And just by seeing these kids like and how happy they are sharing music with each other, I just know that that's the that's what they're bringing, you know, to their events.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

And well, and it's one of these things like I mean, I I do think that we're about to have a massive recession. Like I I really think that I mean, I don't understand how the the the stock market can just keep going up every single day, like record highs. And I've got like I don't get it. Like, I mean, because I don't I haven't spent an extra dollar that I like, I am I am being as parsimonious as I've ever been. And I'm and I have a lot of a lot of friends that have that are getting laid off. And you know, I'm just it just feels very 2080. You know, like I'm having these like and you know, I mean, people will always continue to get married, I hope. I mean, it seems like that's even though like statistically I always see these statistics that are like, you know, no one's getting married. And I'm like, well, maybe there's less, but people are still.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Definitely see a trend toward smaller and smaller uh weddings. Just like I think more intimate, more that sort of dinner party vibe, more just the closest. And I I do think that some of that's a function of just the contraction of everyone's circles during COVID, like the people that maybe were, you know, dating during COVID, whatever, just like the timing of like the length of people have been dating to when they decide to get married, like were kind of in that.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Oh yeah. But we had a like we had a great like well, we had a huge dip in 20 in 2003. And I think it's because people the people that no one met there are a bunch of people that didn't meet each other in 2020 and 2021 that would have gotten married in 23. And uh that didn't happen. So I think that's one part of the reason why 23 was a was a relatively bad.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

I feel like 2026, 2027 of it all is really just uh an emphasis on quality over quantity and people really like leaning into their vendors. Anybody that they're inviting to this, either from a vendor or guest standpoint, is somebody that they really have to care about. And uh at least that's you know what I'm getting from couples when I, you know, talk to them about our process and our DJs and stuff. And I think that's, you know, part of the reason that uh, you know, obviously we still continue to do hundreds of events a year, is just that, you know, kind of we love that intimacy too. We don't want this to be transactional. We really are invested. Um, but yeah, that's one trend that I noticed. And newer venues kind of cropping up that are focused on like Lytle House is one that springs to mind, you know, which is just, you know, maybe 70, 80 kind of max venue, um, where it is more of a den a dinner party or salette or you know, some of these other spaces that are just, you know, they're not big open rooms. They're more about, you know, the experience, the food, you know, buried in restaurants. I'm seeing a big um, you know, just in in what's coming up, like much more many more restaurants um versus big really.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

So I mean, because that would that would tell me that like venues are too expensive. So basically your people are trying to find smaller, different places that can still hold the number, but not actually be the cost that yeah. I mean, the I mean, because the wedding industry is just like everything else. Everything else has gotten, you know, more expensive in a I mean, I was grocery shopping today and I couldn't believe I mean, I it was like I've never really, I don't I wonder if it was like this. I don't remember inflation ever being this bad. I did like I like what was I looking at and I was like, it was twenty dollars. And I'm like, I don't think I've ever spent twenty dollars on anything in the grocery store. And it was well, no, it was a $11 box of cereal.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

$11 for a box of cereal. And I'm like, oh my God, we're a banana republican.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Yes. Evelyn is obsessed with the um nut fins, the cheddar nut fins by Blue Diamond. Sure. I love them. Like six dollars a box, but it's truly like two single serving packages inside something that's in a box form. Uh and I'm always just like, yeah, no. Like I'm just it's just no at this point. Like the the the because you could eat the whole box in one sitting. I have.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

I have eaten the box all in one sitting. And it's and because they're like, you know, gluten-free nut crisps that are basically like Eucharist hosts from church, uh just that good cheese dust, you know. Uh yeah, no, I've eaten them all in one sitting. And it's actually not even that bad calorically. I think the whole box is like 400 calories or something.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

It's crunchy, salty air. My other favorite is uh yeah, pirate's booty. The bag of party size bag of pirates' booty is like 850. And that's you know, something that my again kid really enjoys. And it's just one of the things that's like, nope, our our booty days are behind us unless you know things.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

In more ways than one.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Yes, uh, because it I can't justify it. You know, it's like I'll I'll spend eight dollars on organic strawberries if that's you know what it comes to, but not on the Pirates Booty. Sorry, Pirates Booty not sponsoring this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

No, no, they really aren't.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

No.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

Uh not anymore. Not with that attitude. But if you do want to sponsor this podcast, I will take your money. You are a product, I'm not against. Although let's find out that, like, you know, Pirates Booty is owned by some you know, it's the Starlink. It's owned by Starlink.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Yeah. So no, it's crazy. I mean, I had to get gas here in uh the city yesterday, and yeah, $10 for the Matrix was $50. Or $10 gallons for the Matrix was $50.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

This is where I feel guilty and grateful that I have an electric car.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Yes. Uh I'm I'm holding out now. I I I found the model of car that I want that is also electric, but it ha they haven't made it yet. So is it? Um it's it's a Rivian. Um, but it basically looks like uh a Subaru and um like what other car? Just like some kind of throwback boxy 80s thing. Uh had a baby um and it's compact and freaking adorable. And is it $80,000? It isn't. Well, I mean, they're telling me on the internet that it's less than $40,000.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

Um that maybe right now, as we're talking, Trump is in China probably giving away the keys because like right now, like Trump the the China's not allowed to sell BYDs or whatever their their like version of, which apparently are like $10,000. Can you imagine if they dropped a $10,000 electric car into America? Uh everyone would have one.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Everyone would have one. We could all we could all get places. It's the it's the R3. So look that cutie pie up. Um Ruby and not a sponsor. Rubyan not a sponsor. But please, if you want to sponsor us, maybe I don't know who owns them. I'm not, I don't want to know. Let me live in my R3 dream um before we crush it, at least for five minutes. Um, so yeah, uh it was a lot. I dropped a lot of money on gas uh yesterday. Um I mean it's like I don't talk about gas prices. That's not on my bingo card. That's not something that I generally focus my attention on very much, unlike my mom who is very much like she will tell me the six places in a five mile radius and exactly what each one of them charges for.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Yes. I mean, and I guess that sort of brings up like, you know, when I was saying the return to work of it all, it's like if you have to pay, if you're spending, if you've got like a Rivian, I guess I'm not Arivian, those because there's electric, but if you've got, you know, a matrix that just like the the I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Yeah. Um, but yeah, so what we were talking earlier about uh just kind of cool things about our work that we feel like is kind of distinct from maybe other people's experiences that could kind of help them understand us and and the job of trying to have a legit, cool business that employs cool people, but the roadblocks that get kind of thrown up and um how we navigated them and uh and sidebar about how frustrating it is when you're kind of the only one that's doing it. Yeah. Yeah. And uh I have recently learned that a lot of people don't know this, and so I thought it might be interesting for us to talk about today.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

What is it?

SPEAKER_00 29:30

It is uh what is the difference between having an employee that is a 1099 and having an employee that is a W-2? Why is there a difference? Is the fundamental difference?

SPEAKER_02 29:43

I can tell you.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Yeah. So and enlighten our listeners as to why a business can, should operate as one or the other.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

So W-2 is the basic way. Most people who are listening are in this country are employed as a W-2, meaning that you uh you're you are an employee of that company. Like they are, they are your employer. They are paying, they are collecting your taxes, your uh, your your Medicare, Medicaid, FICA, and Social Security. And uh, and actually the cut the employer is also matching that. So like if you get paid $90,000 a year, you're getting the clean the employer's then paying like 10% on top of that. So there's a cost on top of whatever you're getting paid by the employer. And then what the employer is doing, they're matching all of that stuff so that you have more money technically going into Social Security and all those things than you are putting on your own. Uh when you are that employee, you have a lot of rights. You've got, you know, you you have minimum wages, maximum wages, overtime, all these things that kind of protect you when you are a W-2 employee. And you are working for that company because they do, they offer a service and you provide, you provide this, the, the, the backbone for those things to happen. A 1099 is somebody that is technically a contractor. It's like they are um, they do something that your business doesn't do. And that is that is the that is the biggest thing that the reason why you're bringing in a contractor is because you don't do that thing. So, like if you're an insurance company and you need to make a bunch of flyers to put on something, and you guys are just a bunch of insurance people and you don't want, you don't, you don't have enough design needs to hire a full-time graphic designer, then you would bring in a graphic designer as a contractor to make those, that, that brochure for you. Um, so that's an example of a reason to bring in a contractor if you, you know, uh if you are a giant accounting firm and you they can hire outside audit companies to come in and make sure that like, you know, there's sort of a a non-biased third party that's coming in to make sure that things are you're operating correctly to stay within regulation or whatever. I just went through from very two very big extremes there, but uh, there's different reasons to bring in contractors. Or if you are painting your building and you are a, you know, an accounting company, you're not a painting company, the painter you're bringing in is is a contractor. And so it basically that person is their own business, they have their own federal tax ID number, they take care of their own taxes, they're self-employed, they deal with all of that. They're doing their own FICA, Medicare, Medicaid themselves, technically in self-employment tax that they play that they pay. And it's actually financially like, you know, when the when you when a when a W-2 person gets paid, they get paid all the money. So if I am paying you a thousand dollars to go DJ something, then I'm giving you a thousand dollars as a 1099. And then it's on your, it's on you to then save 30% and then pay that. And but then you're also like taking keeping track of your expenses and you're writing off your mileage and all these things that then go against that so that you are, but it's you're running a little business and you have to like, you know, you have to have your own workers' comp. You have to have I mean, there's all these things you have to have that you should have when you are a contractor and when you are a 1099.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

More or less all the same things that you're provided when you're a W-2 employee, you have to have if you are operating your own business. And in that case, you can be a contractor because you have all of those things in place. Everyone is still compliant. It's just like, are you compliant by yourself or is someone doing the compliance for you and you work for them?

SPEAKER_02 33:25

And I and over the years, I and I and I've had friends in other businesses where they get paid as $10.99, where they really don't understand that they should be keeping track of the money that they're making. And I I made it very clear when all the DJs were $1099, like you have to pay your own taxes. Like you will, like you get paid pretty well here. And a and a and a side product of being paid well is that you have the problem of having to pay taxes. Like that is a that is a high class problem. So save your money and all DJs will be like, I didn't save any money and now I owe $14,000. And it's like, I paid you a lot of money. This isn't my problem. Like this is, you know, your problem to deal with. Um, but I am empathetic and I definitely have tried to help people when they've been in that situation. Um when so one of the biggest things about independent contractors is element of control. So if you are telling people how to do things, where to do things, when to do them, how much they're gonna get paid, when they're gonna get paid, like I mean when you get it paid is kind of, I mean, if this is net 30 or whatever, then your contract, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:23

As a contractor. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

As a contract, you make your own contract and you set your own terms. And if you're like, I want, I need to get paid net 30 or before or whatever, you know, the company can agree to do that or not. But that's that is not a judgment call. That is just, you know, like the facts of the relationship. Yes. Um, and so control is a huge issue. So if you're telling people how what to wear, um, how to do the job, anything, that is all considered control. And you can, if you're if your work is telling you what to do and how to do it and when to do it, you should be W2. That you should not be period end of story. Period, end of story. Um so as you know, I've I've spoken many times and referenced the the audits that I have that I um I was subjected to um over my time here. And when I I got audited, when I got audited, it was very confusing because I'm like, I'm doing everything the way everybody else is doing it. Like I didn't know I was doing it wrong, like my accountant didn't know I was doing it wrong, my bookkeeper didn't know I was doing it wrong, my lawyer didn't know I was doing it wrong. Like I I really had no idea. And the law doesn't care, you know, if you didn't know, they just want their money.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

They hope that you didn't know. Yeah. Um correct you to the tune of thousands of dollars.

SPEAKER_02 35:35

Yes. And um, and so when I when I first got audited, I I basically I lost on the element of control. And but they all they did was they wanted me just to pay the back the back unemployment taxes for the year I was being audited for. And then I just sort of strengthened my contracts and tried to make sure that we were, you know, doing things and it we had to jump through some serious hoops. I mean, it was so dumb. Like, you know, DJ assistants became co-DJs or something. I don't we had, I mean, we did all of this like dumb semantic shit to like make it so that it was okay that we were operating as 1099. Um, while meanwhile, everybody else is operating as 1099 without any kind of care in the world. Like everyone in the wedding industry is 1099 because it's all a bunch of artists and, you know, like people that just happen to be good at making flowers look pretty and they're not business people and they just want to like do their job and get paid and you know, be a part of the, you know, economy or whatever. Um, and so I'm going along, I get audited again. And that time I lost because um they're one of the tenants, at least in Illinois, and I don't know if this is federally, but I think it is, is that the contractor can't do what the business does. So if you are a DJ company and your 1099s are D your DJs are 1099, they have to be W2 because you are a DJ company. You are, you know, like that is how that works. Um, you know, conversely, you know, like we have we started offering live music, but we're not a like I'm not a live music person. And so we are our live musicians are 1099 because those are the I I have no control over that. Like, you know, you and the client have the conversation. Like I really have nothing to do with that. So um anyway, it sucks because you know, when I finally got audited the second time and it was on the fact that we, you know, we did the thing. And then I'm thinking to myself, every other DJ company is DJ that's 10 and 9 is doing the thing that every planner, every, you know, photographer, everybody operates that way. And it it's very frustrating because, you know, I'm I then have to normalize the process of becoming, you know, a W-2. It sucks because, you know, I would like to be able to make them 1099. And every time I talk to like an accountant or a book, whenever I'm talking to anybody about why they're 10, like if it's something like I, you know, I'm trying changing payroll companies, let's say, or something like that. They'll be like, well, why are they 1099? Why aren't they 1099? We should pay them back to 1099. I'm like, bitch, I would love to. I would love nothing more than to make everybody 1099 because the DJs can barely even benefit from the things that the W-2 benefits give them. You know, like we don't like we we have to like give them like paid time off. It's like like for every 40 hours, they have to get like 30 minutes of time that goes towards their PTO.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

Always trying to round a whole square peg, you know, kind of situation. Because uh again, uh things that I deal with all the time are the fact that like DJs give us their availability. So, like, how do you take PTO when you're telling me when you're gonna work?

SPEAKER_02 38:49

Yeah. I mean, it's it's one of these it's like it's like I get why like um like big corporate douchebags are Republicans, because the amount of regulation that you have to deal with and the amount of money that just disappears towards various insurance and you know, the people that you have to, you know, the bookkeepers. I mean, my bookkeeper used to cost me $50 a month and it is not cost me $50 a month anymore. You know, like it's just it's it it's a lot of a lot of money just goes to like all the things like you can't do any, like you said earlier on, what kitchen design. I was about to say the kitchen design because it's like, you know, I I um and I'm I'm also I also hate how everything is moved to the cloud. Like I don't own anything. Like if QuickBooks servers go down, my fucking business disappears with it. And you know, and it's and it's one of these things where like with the hostilities that are going on in the world, it could be very QuickBooks would be a very, very, very smart thing if somebody wanted to target and ruin America, would be to just melt the QuickBooks servers.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

This podcast.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

What'd you say? QuickBooks is not a sponsor. They are not, they're not a they're not, but they could. I mean, I would if they were to bring back maybe they kind of are in a way. Uh if they brought back the desktop version, I would definitely be okay with um with uh that.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Yeah, I find it very like, you know, sort of interesting and and I I think probably compelling to people listening is you know, someone breaking down the definition, you know, of those two things because it uh it it does put us in just such a uh I think great position as a as an employee, as a worker. And I know you've very much advocate for like a DJ union. Um I would love a DJ union. I would I want an event industry union. That is where yes. An event industry union so that these things could be more universal, right? So like everyone would have to sort of operate um in the same fashion because you know, for us from a recruiting standpoint, even like you know our the say $1,000 uh, you know, per event, you net, you know, a certain amount of that because it's going to pay all of these things, like your, you know, FICA and your social security and whatever, which is great. Um, and whenever you're uh 1099, you're supposed to be sort of doing those things for yourself too. But you get a check for $1,000 instead of a check for $1,000 less, all of these extra things. And so you have to, as a as a person, uh won't understand the value of what the business is doing for you.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

Um well, and you have protections as a W-2 employee in theory that you don't have as a 1099. Like a 1099, you can be fired at any time, and there's no recourse at all. And I mean, and that's not to say that like you have a ton of rights. I mean, because almost every state is an at-will state, which means that you can be fired for any and any or no reason, um, except unless you are a protected class, and uh, which is, you know, race, uh, religion, sex, uh, gender, expression, age, age, and uh disability. Uh and so if you get fired for any of those reasons, or if you're pregnant, uh, those are all reasons that are you those you legally have room to stand on. Uh, but in theory, if you get fired from a W-2 job, you don't have the same rights either. I mean, you know, it's it's a little fucked up.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

I mean separation aspect of it. But like even internally, you know, you have a a certain you work a certain amount of time, you get a time to eat. You know, like all of these things are like, you know, thoroughly baked into the W-2 system that don't exist in a 1099 world.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Whether they're being respected or not, and you know, whether those employees understand their rights and you know, whether or not they can even I mean, I think a lot of the bad labor things that we are dealing with in this country are things that people are just doing even though they're wrong and no one's really able to because people are working so hard and they're so broke and they're so worn down, they don't have the like the space to like go, you know.

SPEAKER_00 42:56

Yeah, make sure that that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:58

Um but yeah, but as a 1099 employee, like I have friends who are like graphic designers at employ at like advertising agencies and they're contractors. And I'm like, but the agency does that thing.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

You know, and it's just getting busted.

SPEAKER_02 43:11

But it's you know, and but and because they don't want to have to pay all of the money that for workers comp and FICA, Medicare, Medicaid, you know, all of these things that are we ever gonna really get to use them anyway. Like, I don't live in a world where I'm getting social security. Like I don't, I don't feel like it's gonna be there when I get to the point of, you know, being very surprised. Very surprised. Um but you know, I think, I mean, this is all going towards my, I think we're heading towards a revolution where like people are not that we're not getting anything for the money that we're paying out into these things. But for 1099s, it is. It's it makes me very resentful towards these businesses that are um able to run their businesses and pay and because it makes it hard for us to compete because there's other companies that can that are paying more. It seems like they're paying more, but they aren't. When you're at 1099, it's harder to prove income. Cause like, you know, for instance, if you're trying to get a mortgage or a car thing, they're gonna ask you for your W-2. And they don't and so if you are getting money as a 1099, first of all, it is really hard to prove income because you don't have like a pay stub that can show you all the money you paid and all the money that's going in and like how consistently you're getting paid.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

I mean, you can do it, but it just takes, you know, and it's harder to live in a structured world of W 2 ness to do things like buy homes and cars and uh that kind of stuff that requires you to have this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

And you're not paying into and you're not paying into the social security system the same way that a W-2 employee is gonna because as a as a independent as an independent contractor that's paying self-employment tax, you're paying whatever the percentages that they make people who are on self who are self-employed. But I mean, that's all going towards the con you know, the the the total of your excuse me, your you know, your social security. And I think it's really, you know, I'm we're a little older, so we're we're we're gonna possibly I mean, not on the inside. But we these are things that we are concerned about. I mean, we think about to a certain degree, and I truly don't think social security is gonna be there when I get to that point, but um, but it it it's in theory it should be. And so when you're as a 1099, you're not paying in any systems, you have no protections, you know, you can you have no you have if like during COVID, actually, one of the things that I was able to do is that because the DJs were employed were employees by the time COVID rolled around, I was able to let them all go on unemployment. And um, you know, which I was glad that we could do because it was they wouldn't they wouldn't have been able to get that otherwise if they're 1099. I mean, I think there was they were there was like a self-employed version of PPP, PPE, but I don't think it was I don't think it was very easy to get and it wasn't very much money, it's hard to prove income, you know, because it is so you know, it's so it's a way to dodge taxes, but it's also a way to not participate in the system. Now, is the system gonna still be there? Dunno. Um but it does suck.

SPEAKER_00 46:06

You gotta do the things. The other big thing that I think occurs to me and that makes me very happy that we operate this way is that where companies aren't doing the things that they're supposed to do, they could get audited at any moment. And that audit might make that company not survive. And then all of a sudden, if you are somebody who's employed by one of those companies, you no longer have a job where because you're looking for a company that as irritating as they are is dotting all of the I's and crossing all of the T's, that isn't knock on wood going, you know, to happen to us.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

Yeah, but there's a reason why we've been around for as long as we have, you know. I mean, 2017 wasn't because it was 10 years ago, Jesus Christ. Nine years ago. But you know, we ro we operated for 13 years as 1089 without a problem. And you know, and I was very happy that way. And when I I actually when I went to DC in October for the 10,000 small businesses Jamboree or whatever, the conference I went to, um, I got to go to um uh they part of one of the things is we got to go to Capitol Hill and talk to our representatives. And um I well, you talked to their aides, which the aides actually are the ones who actually get things done. And uh we talked about the fact that you know, we needed like so many businesses don't have like classification within the government to be able to even know how we're supposed to be taxed or what the employees are supposed to be. So I actually talked to them about trying to figure out if we could figure out like a third thing that is in between 1099 and W-2, where it's like not entirely a contractor. Like you're not just coming in and doing that, you're not just like a hired gun that's coming in for one day to do something, but you're not you're you're not you're part-time, it's seasonal ish, you know, you make your own hours. Like there's not really a thing for that kind of employee.

SPEAKER_00 48:04

Yeah, I think which makes it even more sort of tenuous and expensive for us because we're always trying to sort of uh scrap to get the information that we need in order to be compliant, instead of it being sort of like, here's how you operate, here it is. And then we're just like, oh, is this, you know, like having talked to numerous uh HR style, you know, uh consultants over uh the years of like, you know, explaining to people um, you know, the things that just legit don't make sense, like the one I was talking to the other day about, you know, if you're uh on site for X number of hours, you're supposed to have a a break that allows you to leave the premises. And it's like, you can't leave a wedding. Yeah.

unknown 48:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:51

So like what do we do? It's funny.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Like I'm watching the X, we're we're watching the X-files, and it's like, uh, and you know, it's like Mulder and Scully, you know, they're going and they're like doing stakeouts and they're flying across the country and they're doing all these things, and I'm like 23 and a half hours. Yeah. And I'm like, so how are they able to do this job? Like, because I feel like now it'd be like, um, I need to get time and a half and I gotta sign off on it, and you gotta make sure it's approved, and you know, and it's like, you know lots of would not, yeah, exist uh in Mulder and Scully's world. Uh when they reboot it, I'm very curious to see how that goes. So um, all right, Melissa, we'll go uh sell this company so that mama can get her w another not sponsor, but geez Louise. Uh Waterloo has does this did this like uh thing with Guy Fieri's Flavor Town, uh, which initially made me never in a million years want to support it. Um but they have a root beer flavor, and my son and my husband are both very into root beer, and I'm not into the sugar, so I'm like, wait, but this will be gross, but let me try it. It tastes like a root beer and it's water.

SPEAKER_00 49:57

And it's water. Sasperilla. Um Sherory. Uh, someone who uh doesn't sponsor us yet, um, but that I would like to have sponsor us, um, that I discovered uh in good spirits. Have you heard of this store? Um total NA bottle shop uh in like down on like Chicago and Ashlandish. Oh and uh I'm giving them all of my money now. Like uh instead of buying eight fifty dollar bags of uh pirates booty, it is going toward the incredible people at In Good Spirits Small business, and there's no way that they're making anything at scale in that place. Go there, taste all of their amazing things. They have their own brand of NA spirits that are like so delicious and succulent and make my mouth water just thinking about it right now.

SPEAKER_02 50:53

I love a groovy mocktail. Yeah, so put some of your Guy Fieti water in your in my in my in my uh my no my fake Amaro spritz.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

Yes, that's what made me go there because I got so hooked on those things when we went to Midbus DJ's live.

SPEAKER_02 51:11

The phony Negroni? They're like 16 bucks. I know, I know. God, but the phony Negroni is so good. It's so good. It's really good.

SPEAKER_00 51:21

Okay, I'm gonna go talk to some peach.

SPEAKER_02 51:22

All right. Bye, everybody. Thanks for listening to All of the My Lady Business with me, Mary Nasty. Uh, we'd love for you to like, review, subscribe, follow us at All of the My Lady Business on the RAM. And if you're a female identifying person and you want to dance, you can follow. I mean, everybody can follow us, but if you want to be a part of the magic at hot watch dance party, sign up for the new to find out where our next party's gonna be. And if you are looking for a teaching hotel in the area or anywhere else, you know, money's the same color everywhere. Fly us out. TokyamTech.com has the best. And listen to my radio show. I have a radio show on Chirp Radio at chirpradio.org. That's Mondays. Every Monday, we call them Tokyo C S T. Today's episode is produced by Shiraz Data Team Song, composed, and performed by the guest at Shiraz Data. Alright, guys, peace out.