It wasn’t too way back that John Summit, 31, (born John Schuster) was commuting dwelling from a grueling day of accounting work in Chicago and chugging chilly brews to search out the vitality to make music. Working at a Massive 4 agency like Ernst & Younger meant some days ended up being nine-to-nine as an alternative of nine-to-five.
On the time, it was numbers by day, music by evening. His day job paid a $65,000 annual wage, however his actual ardour was making music. Whether or not in his school dorm or dad and mom’ basement, music grew to become a artistic escape that will later turn out to be the launch pad for his rising empire.
After quitting Ernst & Younger for its grueling 12 hour days, one other accounting job promised higher hours—so he pivoted. It solely lasted a pair months earlier than he was let go, after exhibiting as much as work with bloodshot eyes from a weekend DJ shift taking part in underground units from 2 a.m. to six a.m. Seems his co-workers had been extra centered on crunching numbers than spinning tracks.
“But by then I was kind of asking for it because I kind of saw a path to being a full time DJ producer. It didn’t matter bc at that point, I already had record label releases,” Summit tells Fortune.
He had extra free time to work on music, and his DJ profession and his profession started to flourish, thanks partially to a web based fan base. Pandemic huge shutdowns additional fueled a crowd that was anticipating reside occasions.
“I was like, okay, thank God, now I can go full all in on this,” he recalled.
In order that’s what he did. Earlier than the pandemic huge shutdowns, he was solely making a couple of hundred {dollars} a gig. In 2020, Summit’s hit “Deep End,” took off on TikTok and launched his profession.
It might be an understatement to say days look just a little bit completely different now.
Swapping the monotonous cubicle for full-time get together life, Summit is now a multi-millionaire DJ, producer and proprietor of his personal music label “Experts Only.”
“I make more in one show than I probably would make in my entire accounting career now,” Summit mentioned.
John Summit on his first tens of millions: ‘It felt like I was signing an NFL contract’
After signing a music publishing deal within the six-figure vary, Summit noticed extra respiration room to completely pivot. In any case, he wasn’t in a position to afford paying hire in his early days—so the advance gave him the prospect to observe music extra independently. His breakout yr culminated in a full-circle second at Lollapalooza 2022, the place the hometown crowd confirmed what Summit already knew: he was within the excellent profession.
The second he describes “he really made it” was when he signed for tens of millions with LIV as part of the resort Fontainebleau Las Vegas, that took him into the seven determine vary. The settlement was 20 exhibits a yr in a 3 yr deal.
“So it’s like 60 shows. It felt like I was signing, like an NFL contract, you know, like three years X amount of millions,” Summit mentioned. From there, the monetary safety allowed him to position bets on greater exhibits.
Summit describes rising his reside audiences from lots of to tens of 1000’s.
“It changes every weekend,” he mentioned. “I just played Austin City Limits, and that felt like the biggest show ever—around 80,000 people. Every week, I’m trying to top myself.”
“The first party we did was three years ago at Floyd here in Miami, to 200 people, and then we just did Experts Only for 50,000 people a couple weeks ago. So I guess that’s a good showcase of how it’s scaled over three years,” he mentioned.
The beginning of “Experts Only” and turning into an entrepreneur
In between touring continents in 2022, the entrepreneur discovered time to start out his personal label “Experts Only.”
When planning for units as much as 10 hours lengthy, Summit started constructing a group of underground, unsigned artists, taking part in as much as 15 of them at his exhibits. Having a distinct segment for being a pattern setter, he thought “why not use my platform for other artists?”
“I feel like I’m very much a good taste maker nowadays,” he mentioned. “Someone will send me a record, it goes off during my set, and I sign it. That gives them the marketing push from me playing it out and championing it—which, of course, makes other DJs start playing it too.”
He finds Specialists Solely rewarding as a result of it permits him to give attention to cultivating expertise from others too.
“When I just work on John Summit, it does feel like very me, me, me,” he mentioned.
“Experts Only” continues to be rising. The corporate now has 10+ core staff (advertising and marketing, radio, administration, and so forth.) and lots of of occasion workers per competition. Summit says he thinks of the model as a group, the place his followers symbolize him like they’d a favourite sports activities staff.
As promoters hit him as much as carry Specialists Solely from Los Angeles to Japan, the ultimate purpose of his new empire is to throw events with out even taking part in at them. He drew the comparability to how Jeff Bezos operates at Amazon since stepping down as CEO. “It still operates without him. That’s the dream.”
“The hardest thing about it is I’m just one person,” he added.
Regardless of ditching accounting–he’s nonetheless far out of the enterprise world
Regardless of escaping the nine-to-five world and going full-on artist mode, the label proprietor hasn’t escaped enterprise life. In truth, he nonetheless attends all his conferences and Zoom calls along with his salaried workers that work in workplaces. Like different employees within the company world, he prefers work-life steadiness, pushing aside assignments at 5 p.m. and treating Sundays as his hibernation days.
“I don’t let anyone talk to me after, like, five o’clock, really, unless it’s just quick little things,” he mentioned. “It’s kind of funny that I escaped the accounting world, but you can never escape the business world,” he mentioned.
“I take Sundays off, that’s my hangover day, but I think that’s kind of everyone’s day off across the globe, right?”
Summit used to do 250 exhibits a yr (4 to 5 exhibits every week), however now he’s modified his enterprise mannequin to 2 large exhibits every week. He’s additionally lively on social media, working with the staff on a number of posts a day.
“When you’re signing a record to the label, you’re getting not just the community that we have, but this giant marketing arm as well,” he mentioned. “I’m not the person that’s going to negotiate money or contract, I think you have to assign certain people to different tasks. I think I’m a good cop in most scenarios.”
John Schuster vs. John Summit
Regardless of beginning his personal model, Summit says he’s a reserved introvert. He doesn’t like public talking however nonetheless has the arrogance to play in entrance of crowds of fifty,000 individuals.
“DJs are traditionally introverted nerds. That’s what we are—we’re on our computer. So to really channel that energy, it’s almost like I’ve had to create a split persona to force myself on stage.”
His album, Consolation in Chaos is a lens into his private journey of bridging his private and non-private worlds. He says his personalities are categorized into two: John Summit and John Schuster.
“John Schuster, is the at home introvert that makes music all day, every day, and then John Summit is my stage name, and it is like a persona and a mentality. You have to force yourself to be in front of people,” he mentioned.
To deal with the nerves, he tries to crank out a bunch of push-ups earlier than getting on stage like taking part in at a giant sports activities sport. “It helps me not overthink everything,” he mentioned.
Summit didn’t know he’d be a DJ from an excellent younger age, his nonlinear path is what made him into who he’s at the moment. His recommendation for dealing with profession imposter syndrome: faux it until you make it.
Regardless of turning DJing right into a profitable way of life path—Summit mentioned he’d nonetheless be “over the moon” to do it if he solely made $65,000.
“I could pretty much retire right now, if I wanted to, but now I just really just do it for the love of the game.”
