Michael Antonia

I bought my first record at the age of 9 (45 of Frank Sinatra’s – New York New York). In 1996 I started DJing by night, while booking and producing shows in night clubs, theatres, and festivals by day. Two years later I took a job in marketing, advertising, and brand strategy. After 10 years of the Ad world I realized I needed more, so I walked away from the clients (stayed pals with the creatives) and moved to LA.

I started The Flashdance from my dining room table during the worst recession in recorded history with a pregnant wife and no money. In almost 5 years we’ve turned it into one of the most highly regarded brands in the wedding and event industry.

Photo: Paul Hense | Videos: Shark Pig

PRESENTATION TITLE: When I’m 64

You’re probably somewhere between your early 20’s and early 40’s right? (so you have 25-40 years left in your career until retirement) If you are lucky you are starting to see some of the fruits of your labor now, if you are really lucky you are killing it and making really great money…

How long do you think it will realistically last? a year? 5 years? 10 years? 40 years? How long do you want it to last?

I have been really really lucky. I started a company 10 years ago that changed the industry, 3 years in I was making more money per year than I had made in the previous 5 combined in advertising, I was DJing around 50 – 60 weddings per year, I was leading a seismic change in my industry, but DJing (much like photography) is not something that most people do at that level all the way through to retirement, I figured I had 5 years at best, so I started a furniture rental company, and once that started working I started a furniture line, and once that started working I bought a building to house all of those companies that doubles as an event space. Last year I stopped taking DJ inquiries for weddings and had the best financial, and most creatively rewarding, year of my life.

I learned the language of business from running the DJ company, I ran through, over, and under the obstacles along the way, and once the infrastructure for everything was built, I only needed to learn a new dialect, I didn’t need to learn the language again. I will teach you how I did that and show real examples of how simple it can be to hack this system.

Some say luck is where preparation meets opportunity… Wanna get lucky?