Meet The Disruptors: DJ Exeqtive Of The Exeqtive Suite On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Having a class on being a mentor to people who aspire to be where you are in your career. I feel where I am in my career is because of my mentors!
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing DJ ExeQtive.
DJ ExeQtive is one of the leading DJ’s in the music industry, having worked for major brand names such as Fenty by Rihanna and Nipsey Hustle, and radio stations SiriusXM, Hot 97, WBLS and many brands outside of NYC. DJ ExeQtive is the creator of The ExeQtive Suite, which provides a platform for upcoming and established star talent such as Skip Marley and Chloe Bailey. DJ ExeQtive has worked all over the world, and proven himself to be a premium radio entertainer and musician.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I’m a Guyanese-American DJ from New York City. Raised in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. I started off playing basketball up until high school. My Canarsie High School’s Basketball coach, DJ Tommy Allen (RIP), who also had a slot on one of NYC’s biggest & most popular mainstream radio stations, Kiss FM, was one of my influences. My father was my 1st though; watching his love for music and also building sound systems for a few big Caribbean DJs back then was where my love for music started.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Hmm disruptive in a good way.. me focusing on interviewing RnB artists. I love RnB music and don’t see a lot of highlights on RnB.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One story which wasn’t so funny at the time was taking a DJ booking out of state in the DMV. I was super excited and promoters had seen me DJ several times in NYC so they knew I was able to rock a crowd. I get to the venue. I’m DJing, the crowd rocks with me but not heavy ’cause they wanted GoGo music! At that time I knew nothing about it smh. That taught me to always be prepared by doing research of the club, party goers and type of music, which now I’ve traveled to so many different states & countries DJing for different people/cultures.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I have a lot of mentors throughout different parts of my journey. But I’ll narrow it down to 5 people. DJ S-1 , Reggie Hawkins, Pat Robinson, DJ Pupp Dawg , DJ Superstar Jay. DJ S1 (aka DJ Snatch 1), an experienced DJ, played a vital role in the trajectory of my career. In 2008, I became the opener for DJ S1 at his events, and sometimes played extended sets that would last half the night. Years later, DJ S1 gracefully passed me the torch and connected me with Manhattan club promoters and events. I learned a great deal about the business side of DJing along with things not to do while on radio ( like cutting songs short before the bridge) lol!
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the reverse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disrupting an industry in a positive way is by doing something I feel is different or something that others are not willing to do, but it’s all about pushing positivity like having cameras follow you showing your process of ups & downs to get to a positive goal in the end. A negative way I’ll say is doing something that you know will highlight you/ make you trend but will hurt someone’s feelings or make people uncomfortable watching but you do it anyway to go viral.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
- Consistency- if you believe in what you’re doing stay consistent and it will happen!
- Preparation- Always practice so when the opportunity presents itself you’re ready!
- Trust the process- There’s steps in everything you wanna do… find out what they are and simply do it!
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
I would love to write a book. I have several ideas but haven’t decided on direction yet.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I enjoy listening to my friends podcast #DeadAss by Devale & Khadeem. It resonates with me ’cause we are all married and entrepreneurs. Hearing people speak about issues that you think sometimes only you’re going through actually helps ’cause you can get advice on how they deal with things.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Consistency is more important than perfection” Because I was consistent in my entertainment business I was able to leave my 9–5 6 years ago and focus full time on my business.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Having a class on being a mentor to people who aspire to be where you are in your career. I feel where I am in my career is because of my mentors!
How can our readers follow you online?
They can follow my Youtube @DJ Exeqtive and Instagram @djexeqtive!
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Meet The Disruptors: DJ Exeqtive Of The Exeqtive Suite On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
