It’s 2005. I’m a self-employed DJ living in the South of England, actively getting gigs but wanting to get onto a DJ agency roster. So, I start cold calling DJ agencies. I get told the same thing from most of them: you lack the experience, you don’t have the following yet, but stay in touch.
It stung more than I let on at the time. I was 21, hustling every gig I could get, and call after call it was the same polite version of no. You start wondering if you’re actually good enough, or if you’re just going to keep grinding away at the small stuff and never get near the rooms you actually want to be in.
Then I call Chantelle Durand at Most Wanted Agency. We have a really good conversation. And instead of rejection, she says something different. She says, “look, you seem like a really sound guy. I’ve got a friend of mine, Steve Richards. He’s a DJ, and I think you two would just get on really well. You’re in a similar position. Do you mind if I connect you?”
So, Steve and I connect via a phone conversation. We hit it off immediately, and at the end of the convo, he says, “what are you doing next weekend? I’ve just secured a gig DJing for the entire summer in Ayia Napa, and I’m having leaving drinks at a club in Fulham on the Kings Road. Would you want to come hang out, meet me and my friends, and have some beers?”
I said yes and the following weekend took a train to Fulham to meet a total stranger and his buddies (Chantelle was there too).
Turns out Steve and I were born in the same hospital and grew up a couple of streets away from one another in West London. Almost a brotherly connection formed straight away. Ten days later, I’m at work and he calls. “Si, mate, how are ya, son?” (a prowper London geezer, is our Steveo). “Listen mate, the guys who bought the bar in Ayia Napa, have decided to buy another one, and we need a second DJ. Would you come to Ayia Napa next week and spend the summer DJing with us?”
I said yes to that too!
So off I went, and spent the best part of six months in the sunshine, DJing up to 14 times a week!
The bar gig was six nights a week, but it opened more doors, I quickly got recognised (as did Steve), and we started getting booked for the big club gigs.
Steve and I soon started promoting our own event, serving the staff that worked in the area, fellow DJs, bar staff, promotional teams, restaurant staff, basically anyone that lived and worked in the area. We called it Sunset Sessions, a Sunday afternoon event, that started at 3 PM and finished at 6, just before everyone had to head on to work until 4am in the morning!!
It was truly a magical, hedonistic time. By the end of summer, Steve and I ended up managing a whole team of PR people working for us on the beaches and towns promoting our events and gigs. We DJ’d at almost every venue, including Nissi Beach Bar, to more than 4000 people every Sunday. Steve went on to call the place home for more than 20 years. Setting roots, living there permanently, marrying his now wife, and having children. He became a full-time resident DJ at The Castle Club (Ayia Napa’s largest club), and ran their entire media, marketing and promotions, booking every DJ under the sun, including Tiesto!
I returned to the UK and launched my own nightclub promotions, and discovered the art of salesmanship, which rolled into discovering the art of B2B sales and a whole new career started to unfold — more stories on that to come soon.
All of that came from putting myself out there, never taking no for an answer, getting just one introduction. One conversation. One opportunity and most importantly, one yes!
So, fast forward to June 2026…
I attend an industry networking event, get introduced to a chap called Will, and we begin to talk. We exchanged details about each other’s businesses and after I explained what Revenue & Beyond does for B2B Founders he very quickly said, “you need to meet Jordan, you 2 will get on like a house on fire”. The following day an email intro was duly received.
A call was booked, and a 20-mins Zoom, soon turned into a 1hr long chat between 2 kindred spirits, both of a similar age, both with a professional DJing background, both have launched, scaled and sold similar businesses and now both have coaching businesses for B2B founders. The similarities were spooky!
The call ended with Jordan and me setting a date in July to grab a beer and continue the conversation.
We met in person for the first time on Thursday just gone, and absolutely hit it off. Now we’re talking about collaborating on various different business ventures, with a trip to Dubai booked for later in the year to progress things further. It smacks of exactly the vibe I got when I first met Steve in 2005, and look where that led…
So here’s what I want to leave you with, folks.
What’s the introduction you’ve been meaning to follow up on, but haven’t?
What’s the invite you’ve talked yourself out of, because you couldn’t see where it would lead?
Who’s the person you’ve been putting off saying yes to, before you’ve even worked out why?
The reality is, hearing 100 “nos” is the normal price you pay to get 1 “yes”, meaning you must expect rejection, but you must also learn from each conversation, and never ever quit.
The best opportunities rarely announce themselves, so get out there and start speaking to people.
Happy Sunday, and have a cracking week ahead of us!
Onwards!
Simon