Meet Christopher Rhodes

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christopher Rhodes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Christopher, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

Truthfully, it feels more like my purpose found me. I knew from a young age that I wanted to entertain people. It’s always brought great joy to me, making people smile or laugh. When I first found “the stage”, was in middle school theatre class where I knew for a fact that I would be an actor one day. As I grew, that vision changed to Stand-Up Comedian then to Movie Star. I put those dreams somewhat behind me as I ventured into the world after high school, deciding I didn’t want to spend my youth chasing fame in some hotshot city. I wanted to experience life like a “normal person”. Venturing deeper into that “normal person” life, half-thought decisions and consequences began piling up. I had begun to drift through life with no real plan, no real future in mind. In June of 2022 I finally made the choice to give up alcohol and my how life began to change. It took a while, but good things started to come my way once I started to feel like myself again. Three months after making that decision I finally formed my LLC I’d been “planning to do” for years. Now you may be thinking, “how does this tie-in to your purpose?”. For a while I was curious about that too. It wasn’t until very recently that I had seen my purpose in a new light. I thought it was my purpose to entertain people, to put a smile on people’s face. No, that’s my PASSION. I’ve realized now that my purpose on this planet is much more simple than that. My purpose is to share this message with everyone I possibly can; It gets better. Life gets vastly so much more beautiful, so much more accepting. Life becomes everything you want it to be, but you can’t give up. I have so much room left in my life to grow and blossom into my full potential, but when I look back on who I was just two years ago, five years ago, I know my potential has no limit and neither does yours!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Currently, my main gig is host weekly free-events open to the public in bars, breweries, and wineries around Winston Salem, NC. I’ve hosted 12 three-month seasons of trivia, I’ve hosted retro game nights, but my biggest event I do is hosting Music Bingo with my DJ equipment. One of the things I’ve done to separate myself from the others who host bingo, I call my Prize Partnership. Every Thursday at Fiddlin Fish Brewing in Winston Salem I have a local vendor come set up in the brewery for the evening during Music Bingo. They’ll offer a couple prizes to the game, then people can meet them and purchase from their booth as well. I also post a reel to my socials that week introducing everyone to the partner. My goal for this is getting small businesses connected with those in their community.

A new branch of business I’ve been working my way into is DJ’ing weddings. I now have four weddings done and four more booked over the next year! As well as weddings I’ve also started booking more vendor markets, providing tunes for the day keeping the vibes right.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. Patience is a virtue. You can’t just build a real business overnight. And of course, most people already know this one, but there’s more to it than knowing to be patient. You aren’t just waiting for your success. You’re trudging through waves of uncertainty and self-doubt. You’re showing up to (if you’re me) host an event for less than 10 people. You’re constantly comparing yourself to other people in your field. You’re comparing yourself to people who aren’t even in your field. It may be cliche but the best advice doesn’t need to be unique, it just needs to work. So be patient. Be patient with your business. Be patient with your followers. But most importantly, be patient with yourself. You’re doing something new, something scary, something the majority of people don’t have the guts to do. You started a business! And just that alone is enough to make you great, to me.

2. Open Minds don’t judge first. In an ever-changing world you HAVE to be open-minded. You gotta be willing to try things and be okay with them not working out because you’re just gonna try the next thing and the next thing until one of them stick. So you keep that one, then try the next thing. When you take yourself out of the box you THINK you belong in, you wouldn’t believe the opportunities that are going to come your way. With an open mind, you can network with people that can help you get to places you wouldn’t have thought possible if you just “stayed in your lane”.

3. Be Nice. This may feel more like personal advice (which it is), but I can’t tell you how much positivity will come back into your life by being nice. You have to mean it though. You can fake a lot of things in life, but you can’t really fake being nice. And if you’re thinking to yourself right now that you totally can, trust me. Everyone totally knows when we’re being fed a load of it. Staying on topic, you may never see for yourself exactly how being nice to the world will help you in return, but I don’t think that’s how it works anyways. We treat each other with love and grace because that’s what we deserve as humans. So just trust me and be nice. Be nice with every fathomable portion of your heart. Be the reason that a person who decided to say hi, has a great rest of their day. I promise, it comes back (in time) ten fold.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I’m always looking to collaborate!

If you’re reading this and want to collaborate, the easiest way is through Instagram @RhodesAheadEntertainment

Are you a vendor close enough to Winston Salem? Come set up at Music Bingo with me one week!

Do you put on small events and think a DJ would be a fun addition? I think so too! I’d love getting on the mic and connecting with your crowd some time soon! You can book me through my email [email protected]

Are you interested in hosting events yourself? Come hangout with me at one of mine, ask some questions, get your feet wet!

Basically if you wanna work with me, I wanna work with you. Let’s find the right way together!

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Nick Jones – Onyx Media Group

Gwen Fletcher – Red Cardinal Studio

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