Wedding Business Solutions

Mimi Brown - A Pivot from DJ to Professional Speaker

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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When is it time to pivot in your wedding business, and how do you know which risks are the right ones to take? What happens when you follow a passion out of your comfort zone, or invest in your own potential before it’s obvious to everyone else? In this episode, I sit down with Mimi Brown to unpack the journey from DJ to professional speaker—revealing how moments of mentorship, purposeful practice, and embracing “the business side” can transform your trajectory whether you’re behind the mic, running a team, or stepping on stage for the first time.

Listen to this new episode for inspiration on making bold career pivots, building your unique value, and actionable tips for amplifying your impact in the wedding and event industry.

About Mimi: 
Mimi Brown inspires individuals and organizations to communicate with clarity, lead with authenticity, and sell with confidence. As a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP)—a designation held by fewer than 800 speakers worldwide—she delivers dynamic programs that help professionals master the art and science of influence to achieve remarkable results in leadership, communication, and sales. Known for her relatable humor and compelling storytelling, Mimi engages audiences through 50–60 presentations annually for Fortune 500 companies and high-profile events. She is the host of the AMP Up Your Impact podcast and the author of three books, empowering professionals to amplify their success.

Contact Mimi:  LinkedIn | Youtube | Instagram


If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com 

Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review (thanks, it really does make a difference). If you want to get notifications of new episodes and upcoming workshops and webinars, you can sign up at www.ConnectWithAlanBerg.com  

View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/


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I'm Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you'd like to suggest other topics for "The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast" please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com

How about a pivot from being a DJ to being a professional speaker? You're going to want to hear this next guest. Hey, it's Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast. I am so excited to have my friend Mimi Brown on to talk about stuff today. Mimi, how you doing?

I'm doing well. How are you?

I am doing great. So Mimi and I met through the National Speakers association where we are both certified speaking professionals. Two of less than 8, 800 in the world or something like that. We've also met on the golf course. Don't ask how we did, but we met on the golf course. And Mimi had dropped on me a while back that you used to have a DJ company in the Detroit area. And I'm like, record scratch. Hello.

Hang on, we need to talk about this. So give a little background. Give a little background. What's your background with the wedding and event industry?

Yeah. So actually I started as a DJ when I was 16 on my high school radio station. So WSHJ 88.3 FM. I was the one and only DJ Flawless. You could see why that might be problematic. I almost quit Ellen, interestingly enough, because my very first day on air, Flawless, I had a hip hop and R and B show. And our system had an issue that day. Got dead air, like, so the worst you can get in live radio.

And I grabbed any CD at the time, if that shows you how long ago that was, threw it in the player. And Lee Greenwood's Amazing Grace came on my hip hop and R and B show. And so to add insult to injury, you know, I had so many listeners at the time. Okay, I had three. It was my mother and the two cats. She calls in and says, did somebody die because you're playing funeral music. And let's just say that I took a little sabbatical from school for a while. That was before, like, virtual school was a thing.

And thank God my mother encouraged me to stick with it because then when I went to college, I started mobile DJing.

Yeah, so you started mobile DJing, but then you built a pretty big company.

Yeah, decent. So worked in Minneapolis, actually, and Detroit. So owned a franchise of a DJ company for a little bit and then went off on my own. So I had grooving DJs and specialized in doing weddings because I like to go to bed at like 11pm, so bars weren't really a thing for me, but I loved the wedding industry.

Yeah. Yeah. So then you fast forward and you know, here you are as a professional speaker, certified Speaking professional. Where did that transition happen? So when did you stop DJing, and where did you go from there?

Yeah, so after college, DJ'd for a little bit, kind of stayed with it, but it was the grind, I think, of keeping up with music. And I genuinely enjoyed weddings, but always had this desire, since I was probably coming out of high school into college, to want to speak and saw my first motivational speaker and got inspired. And so I was doing both for a little while, but then you can't serve two masters. At least I know I couldn't. So I put all my energy and time into speaking. And interestingly enough, to this day, And I haven't DJ, man, probably in about 15 years, but people will still ask me, me, hey, Mimi, you still got your turntables, Mimi, your CJ set up? And I'm like, think about it.

Yeah, well, if there's a piano and it's not locked, you know, I'm playing it. So. Yeah, because I did the band thing in high school and college, and then after college a little bit, and I think it was maybe a year after I got married, I'm like, okay, now this is. I don't need to do that. I have my day job. I don't need to do that. And it's now interfering with family, and, like you said, do that. But I came to speaking differently because I.

I never thought about being a speaker. I just started speaking to help my advertisers not go out of business. So. And then one day I got off stage in Montreal, and somebody said, hey, Alan, you're a great speaker. That's a great speech. Are you a member of the National Speakers Association? And I said, what's that? Why should I care? And next thing you know, I joined, and I was like, oh, I guess I'm a professional speaker. And that was 2007 made. I'd been speaking for 10 years probably by then, so.

So you said you wanted to be a speaker, and who was. Do you remember who your first motivational speaker you saw?

Yeah. So his name was Dr. Joe Martin. I was 19 years old, running camera at my college TV station. And I was so mesmerized by him because they did these things called simulcast, where they would record a session and send it out across campus and across the campus, like TV or campus TV system. And I was so mesmerized that I dropped the camera. And after I got done getting yelled at and eventually fired, I walked up to him and I was just so, so passionate. And I said, how do you do this? Is this a thing I, you know, like speaking? I love speaking.

Participated in forensic competition and speaking competitions and debate. And I said, may I have your autograph? And he said, no. And I said, excuse me. He said, I want your autograph because you're going to do this one day.

Wow. Wow. Very powerful, Very powerful. Have you ever. Did you ever see him again?

I have not. I've actually reached out to his office and we keep missing each other. So after this, I think I need to make sure I do another follow up. Follow up, follow up, which we know both in DJ world and sales, and then in speaking world. That's where the money is made.

That's it. That's it. And it's those, those moments, those connections. I remember when I was writing my first book, I reached out to all the. Our NSA friends, authors, and I said, what do I need to know? What do I need to know? And getting all these tips. And then finally Art Subcheck said, why are you writing a book? Like, he wasn't asking for an answer, right? It was one of those introspective things. But why are you writing a book? Do you understand why you're doing that? Nobody else did. Everybody else just, I'm doing it.

Okay, there you go. Here's how you do it. Here's the mechanics, and I pay that forward. Now, when people like, hey, I want to write a book. I said, listen, the writing is easy. Don't write a book. Write words. But who.

Who is the audience for this? What value are you bringing to them? Right? It's just like with speaking. Who do you want to speak to? Great. Okay. What value you're going to bring to them? Because I do what I do. People have heard this on my podcast before. It serves two things. It brings you value and brings me joy. So it brings us joy to be on stage, right? We love being on stage.

Or as our friend Waldo Waldman said, the former fighter pilot, I hate my job. And we all were like, what do you mean you hate your job? Like, you're amazing speaker. No, no. He said, I love speaking. I hate my job. My job is getting the gig. My job is the business end. My job is all that stuff, right? And that's what people don't see with the DJ.

The 30 hours that you prepped for that wedding, they don't see it with the speaker, the 30 hours that we prep for that speech or whatever, or the training or whatever, they don't see that stuff. So, all right, so 19 year olds, boom. Mind blown. There you go. But you don't just become a speaker. Right. So what's the path?

So, interestingly enough, have you ever had someone give you advice they haven't taken themselves?

All the time.

All the time. So my mother's friend. And at this point, I'm out of college and kind of. Kind of making my way through life, and one of my mother's friends said, hey, I want to start these relationship workshops. And I know that you're good in front of an audience. You've been a dj. Would you consider doing these workshops with me? And I need you to do three things. I need you to get a password, passport, because the first one's going to be in Jamaica.

The second thing I need you to do is go to Toastmasters to hone your speaking ability. And number three, I need you to join nsa, because that's the right environment to be in, and. And that's where speakers are made. So I follow everything he tells me to do. I get a passport, and then I go to Toastmasters. And they look at me and go, why are you here? Because you're not afraid? Because most people join Toastmasters either because they're afraid to speak or to gain leadership experience. And I loved it already. I just wanted to hone that craft.

And then NSA and Alan, when I tell you, I remember this like it was hours ago. It was March of 2011, and I walk into the Holiday Inn in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and someone looks at me and says, welcome home. And as I made my way through the crowd was about 60 people in the room. There were so many obstacles to me making it to that meeting that day. I didn't have enough money. I was working in a call center job, making 13 bucks an hour. I had a 95 Nissan Pathfinder with a hole in the floorboard. And my dad.

Dad would say, mimi, please keep the windows down so you don't die of carbon monoxide poisoning. And I couldn't get the day off from work. And so all the angels must have sung, and all the. The heavens align. But I'm sitting down in that front seat, and Glenna Salisbury is the speaker. And, you know, she is a legend. May she. May God rest her soul in the speaking industry.

And she was giving a speech that day about following your passions and leaving a lasting legacy. And tears started to stream down my face because I knew she was talking directly to me.

Right. Yeah. The NSA family is really. It's really amazing. I went to my first event in 2007, and Marc LeBlanc was the president.

Was that the NSA rocks one.

No, this was in New Orleans in 2007 and he was the president and I really didn't speak to him then, but I went in and I just, I'm sitting next to Leithia Owens and I'm, you know, and in my stupid mind I'm thinking, oh, we're all new here and all these experienced people, these, these great people, but the welcoming of it. And the funny thing is that I never really had a lot of conversations with Mark LeBlanc in 17 years, 18 years of NSA. We were at the CSP summit in December in minus 4 degree Minnesota. Thank you very much. And, and talking to Mark a little bit and he said, we need to have a call. He said, I've, I've seen you around here and I know of you, but we don't really know each other. And we had a call recently and it was just amazing because he's such an amazing person. But, but that's our family.

The, the giving back. And in the, in the wedding and event industry, there are people like that. They were the givers. I actually recorded yesterday with my friend Scott Favor, who's got an entertainment company in Phoenix, and we're talking about givers and takers. And if you haven't read Adam's Grant's book, Give and Take, it's a great book on that. The most successful and least successful people in the world are givers. The givers that know when to say no are the most successful. The givers that don't know when to say no are least successful because they just keep giving to their own debt and it's reciprocity.

But that's. It is. We have the people that give. They give to the industry, they give to other people. They help. I do a presentation on new competition. Everybody hates new competition. And one of the things they say is, well, when you renew, because we were all new ones, right? So don't hate the new ones because we're all new ones.

Who mentored you or who sabotaged you? And if you remember that and say, well, who mentored you? Well, who are you going to mentor? Who are you going to take under your wing to help them do it right? Like an NSA welcome, welcome home. Not, oh, look at the new one. She's trying to take my, you know, my job. She's trying to get my speaking gig. No, we don't think like that at all. Right, so, so that was 2011. Okay, and what did you then do? I mean, you're seeing one of the queens of our Industry speak. You started high, right? Right.

Tears in your eyes. What do you do then? What do you do? You get in the car with the windows down and go home.

Well, the next thing that happened was interesting because it set the trajectory, I think, for the rest of my career. So, and that, that time NSA Michigan had a format of like 9 to 2. It was a long Saturday seminar. And I happened to sit at lunch with the president. Her name is Lainey Calakos. And Elainey, I'm telling her about my passion and she says, well, have you considered our Academy program? And I'm looking at her like, lady, I barely had the money to get in this joint, so I can't even think about investing any more money. But she planted the seed. So fast forward to the end of the meeting.

They were doing these meeting these, they call them hot seats. And so it was a member only benefit, but somehow Mimi Brown slews her way to the front. And I deliver this vignette I've been working on in Toastmasters. And Glenna Salisbury whispers to me, you got what it takes. And so those two seeds that were planted set me forward. So I joined the Academy program still to this day. Know how I paid for it. And I think that's the key is I was willing to be a student, but I also had to take action.

And that's something that Elainey taught me. And so I was then transitioned in my day job, because I was working for a utility company, into a leadership development role. And I was training 70% of the time, so I was honing my chops at that point, knowing how to engage an audience. And even though it was training, similar principles apply from keynoting. I think they're one and the same, just in the delivery and the setup. But that's what set me up for success. And so, interestingly enough, one of the things Elainey said to me was I could see you as president of our association. And I'm sitting in her office and I'm looking around, I'm like, you can't be talking to me.

Wasn't even on my radar. And 11 years later, I've now been the three time president of Natural Speakers that I said, thank you, Elaine, for your belief. But it was those little moments, right? And I think that same thing with DJing is those little moments that you don't always pay attention to or they don't, they seem inconsequential in the, in the space, in that, in that moment that really lead you to greatness and just being consistent and Showing up and having those mentors that you were. You were referencing. And so just kept doing it. And I think for me, the pivot point was probably 2017, where I stopped, as my. As Elena used to tell me, stop getting ready to get ready. And I just start putting myself out there and getting on stages.

And that's the best way as I. And I think you've heard this before, Alan, the best marketing is a great speech, right?

And if you want to be a better speaker, you have to speak more. And. And I tell people, when somebody says, I want to do what you do, I say, okay, you don't want to do what I do. Right. But you want it. You want to help people. Okay, so again, who's the audience? How are you going to help them? What's the value? All that? Because if you say, I'll speak to anybody, that's not a good answer. We all know that.

And very few people have as narrow of a niche as I've built with mine. But I do go outside my niche. I actually have Another book, number 12 is on Amazon. It's a version of why Are They Ghosting Me? Not for the wedding and event industry. It's for anybody, right? So I have that. I'll have four, though. I'll have six of my books that are be not for the industry by before the end of the year, actually, probably before the summer. So.

But if you. You say, okay, there's a business of speaking, and there's the speaking. There's a business of being a deejay, having a venue, being a caterer, being a cake baker, being a wedding plan or whatever. There's the business side, right? Like our friend Waldo Waldman said, I hate my job, which is the business side. I love the speaking. Well, most people in our industry love being a dj, being a band, being a videographer, being a photographer. But there's the business side, and you have to work on that skill. So I tell people who want to be a better speaker, I said, well, you want to have a better speaking business and be a better speaker? Start paying attention to the craft of speaking.

Right? Because when you what you heard that first motivational speaker, you weren't paying attention to the craft. You were caught in the message, which is. Right. Which is good, because you weren't thinking about being a speaker, right?

No.

Now that we're speakers, we see the craft and we see people who do things really well, and then sometimes we cringe and go, oh, why did they do that? Why did you do. First time I spoke In Dubai. This guy get. He's been 10 years a British guy or Australian guy. I forget the accent, but he's 10 years in the Middle east working on SEO and social media. Okay. And this guy looked like a male model. I'm like, oh, great, I got to follow this, you know, six foot two male model.

And then I get up there and the first line. Yeah. First thing he says to the audience is, you know, I really don't know the wedding industry, but I saw your eyes there. If those of you listening Mimi's eyes, just open, the first thing he said is, don't listen to me. Right? So again, if. If you were in that audience thinking about being a speaker, pay attention to that and go, no, no. Just like, if you're a DJ watching other DJs, you appreciate the craft, and then somebody will do something and you'll be like, oh, why did you do that? Why did you do that transition? Why'd you. Like.

I've seen people have the. The clipboard out at a. Like a business songs do you want? And they're just going from genre to genre to genre. The dance floor is full. The dance floor is empty. The dance floor's got two people. The dance floors, that. Right.

They're. They're not really reading the room. So you want to be better at something, you have to intentionally be better. And it's another podcast that I just did and a couple of books that I've been listening to where they talk about, we could be doing something for a long time. Like golf, right? You and I played golf together. I've been playing golf since I'm 16. I don't play golf to get better at golf. I play golf to go out with friends and have a good time.

So no matter how much time I've played, I get Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours. I might have played golf for 10,000 hours, but it was not purposeful practice. To get better at was just to be there. I sit and play the piano. Most of the time, I'm not playing to be better. I'm just playing to enjoy it. But once in a while, I'll be like, oh, let me try something I haven't done before. Let me do.

Let me push myself just beyond that barrier. And with speaking, with training, whatever. So those of you listening, a lot of people have said, hey, I'd love to be a speaker. Listen to what Mimi said. The NSA National Speakers association, where the other nsa, we're the ones that speak, not the ones not who listen. Yeah. As the NSA Academy, which is to teach you the business of speaking and the craft of speaking. Right.

How many. Did you do it in person or virtually?

Maybe I did it in person. 18 months was our program at that point.

Right. And they also have a virtual version. So if there isn't an NSA chapter near you, you can join it virtually. But you're, you're going to get into the weeds of what it means to have a speaking business as well as to be a professional speaker. And the craft of speaking and working on that, that's intentional. You're doing that because you want to do this. You just want to be on stage. Your local association needs free speakers all the time, and they put people on stage all the time.

Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're not. And that's what you get. Right? You get what you pay for. That's what you get. I'm not saying it's wrong. I understand. We have associations. Right.

When you speak for NSA chapters, or I do, we don't charge them. Right. But that's us giving back that, that, that for me, after it's gonna be 18 years as a member, that's me just giving back to the chapters. So the. You want to get better at it. It's got to be purposeful practice. Right. You want to be a better dj.

It's, you know, knowing all the music. Like you said, you, you said, I'm. I don't want to do that work anymore. I don't want to have to keep up on that. And then. But you knew it's also time to turn off the lights.

And I knew it was time to make that transition. And I still love music, and of course I listen to it and so on my runs or when I'm working out. But it is a different mindset when you are a dj, as I know many of your listeners will attest to, of listening to it from a commercial standpoint of what's going to hit the floor or what's going to get people to hit the floor. What's going to be the most popular love song that I'm going play as a first dance song. You're keeping all those things in mind. And I was, at that point, I was kind of done with it, so I knew it was time to, like you said, hit the light switch, shut it down.

Right. And those of you that know Mike Michalowicz, who wrote Profit first, he also wrote the Pumpkin Plan, where he talks about trimming off the small pumpkins so that the big ones get all the, the all the food. It's the same with our businesses. If you don't enjoy it, remember, for me, it's got to bring me joy while bringing you value. If it doesn't do both of those, I cut it off.

And that was the interesting part when you say joy, because I remember I would have some of my DJ colleagues who loved being at bars or loved being at clubs, hated weddings. I loved the weddings because I loved the coordination. I loved being able to make sure that all the details were. Were given attention and then to see the bride and the groom's face when their favorite song came on. Because what I sold myself on as my unique a selling proposition as a DJ was I know how to orchestrate the reception. You're not just paying me to play music, which you can get Uncle Bob or your teenage son with ipod at that point. Because they're like, I remember that someone said, oh, well, we're just gonna get iPad or ipod and put it in the middle of the dance floor. Let me know how that works out for you.

Right, but. Right, yeah. People have found that out the hard way.

Correct.

And it's the same with conferences. I got a call yesterday from this conference. I've spoken at wedding MBA for 17, 18 years, since the first one. And they asked me about a potential speaker who reached out to them and she said, have you seen them? Do you know them? And it happened that I did at NSA at our conference last summer. I said, yes, I've personally experienced that person and I will vouch for them. I will say there. Now. Other times I've said, listen, I've been on stages when they've been on other stages.

I've not seen them myself. I'm going to be perfectly honest, I haven't seen them. Right. So I can't give you that critique. But she came to me because she knows I'll critique the content as well as the stagecraft, and it doesn't represent the conference there. But in this case, I was like, yes, yes, yes, I can definitely vouch for them. And then I messaged them on Facebook and I said, hey, just FYI, I got somebody checking up on you. And I gave them.

I gave him the thumbs up there. So approval.

Awesome.

Yeah, yeah. So, right, so let's wrap this up. So, Toastmasters, if you're thinking about getting into speaking and you're not necessarily comfortable in front of people yet, Toastmasters is a great way to learn that. I did not come up that way. I was the accidental speaker. Right. But I also played in bands like You're a dj. Being in front of people wasn't a thing.

Yeah.

And I. But I wasn't intentional like you were with becoming the speaker. If you need to speak because of what you do, you need to get up in front of groups or whatever. Toastmasters is a great way to learn that. If you want to be a professional speaker or you want to be a better speaker and have a speaking business, the NSA Academy would do that. So nsaspeaker.org is the main site and you can find your local chapter or you can certainly reach out to me or to Mimi. We'd be glad to help you with that. But, Mimi, we could go on forever about this because, you know, I love talking to you online, offline, whatever.

But thank you so much for sharing with us. Where would people find out more about you? We'll put it in the show notes, but where would they find out more about you?

So you go to my website, ampupsuccess.com so amp a m p u p success.com and I'm on Instagram X and Facebook at Hey, Mimi Brown. And then on LinkedIn as motivational leadership speaker.

Great. And amp up your success books. You have three books. Two of them are ramp up your success. One is be a communication rock star, which you are. You are a communication rock star, my friend.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining me and thanks, everybody for listening.

Thanks.

I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or you can  text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

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©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com


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Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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