Out of Office

The thing about this newsletter is it isn’t just for you, it’s for me too. It’s like a public journal. In 5 to 10 years, I’m going to be able to look back at this and see week-by-week entries of my life as I went from blindly ambitious and confident —> defeated and humbled —> to rich in time, relationships, and money.

I want to be able to show some random person who was just like me, who’s afraid to take the leap or “do the thing,” that it really is possible. And this is what it looked like for me.

We just closed out the first quarter of the year. I look back and want to take a second to acknowledge how much I’ve tackled and tried — going from “I left my job, how do I make money now?” to proudly building a community, service, and personal brand whose core principles are bringing people together and improving their health.

After taking the leap, it can get really easy to fall victim to hustle culture and go into what we call “founder mode.” I’ve seen over and over again from the people I draw inspiration from, there’s no clear path on how to get “there.” The through line I see through everyone is that they were extremely excited and passionate about whatever they worked on because they loved it and were having fun with it. They were obsessed with whatever they were doing.

I’m obsessed with health, fitness, the outdoors, and genuine connection. So is everyone else that likes to beat their chest while they build a business in public. There’s one other obsession that has been quietly bubbling over for the last 12 months.

My obsession love for house music.

After moving to San Francisco in 2024, I’ve been reluctantly quiet about my history as a DJ. A lot of people know that I have an obsession with house music, but not many actually know that I DJed for 4.5 years prior to moving here. And that I was pretty damn good 💅. I befriended some people who run businesses where they host events that need DJs. Over the past 12 months, I’ve been casually dropping to them that I would be open to DJing one of their events if the setting and vibe were right.

After DJing lunches and brunches for the first two years, scraping for a spot, I was over being background music and only wanted to be front and center at an event. That’s hard to skip past as someone who does not have much of a reputation as an established DJ in a new city. Last month, we added a new team member, Gargi, to Plunge Party who has experience throwing events all around the city for herself and up-and-coming platforms like Vently. While I’m stoked to have her as a member of the team, I’m also proud to call her a friend.

Earlier last month, she asked me if I wanted to DJ one of their upcoming events, where they were throwing a private party. I had to check the following:

• Will I be background music? —> No ✅

• Will the sound setup be loud? —> Yes ✅

• Can I play the tracks that I want? —> (Sends SoundCloud over) —> Yes ✅

Me: “Ok I’m in.”

I took a step away from the DJ scene in SoCal because it felt a little too toxic, snobby, and pretentious. After you’re in the DJ scene for long enough, you hit the glass ceiling, where larger organizations won’t book you unless you produce music or kiss the ass of the people who run the events. I was not going to do either of those things.

My goal was never to become a full-time DJ or music producer. I loved the rush of finding unknown tracks and marrying them together to make people feel some type of way (groovy 🕺🏼). That’s why I picked the DJ name Out of Office. I had a full-time job, and I wasn’t looking to do this full time. (Yes, there’s some irony here now.)

That plan remains the same.

No experience, nor any drug consumed, has been able to recreate the feeling of playing on a 10k-watt sound system, seeing the crowd react, while some 23-year-old kid you don’t know is having the time of their life dancing like a lunatic because of the track I just played.

I honestly love this. I still remember in my first month, I met an investor who said she met one of the founders of Notion and that he showed her his obsession with sound engineering. She told me investors love and bet on personalities that are obsessive. My response? “I’m obsessed with house music.”

She laughed at me.

Some people love playing guitars in jam bands, or the piano (probably went to an Ivy League school), or a drum set. Most people see that as a wholesome hobby that correlates to a “professional” career.

The moment I tell someone I am a DJ, they scoff and say, “Yeah that makes sense.” I fit a certain stereotype, and I’m fully aware of that. I’m a 6’1” fit, white guy, used to live in San Diego, and bleach my hair every 3 months. I don’t care. I like to do things my way, and if you’re not going to take me seriously because my passion is something that’s associated with drugs, late nights, and high school burnouts — that’s fine. That’s not what’s going to happen with me.

This past weekend, I played a set for over 200 people. I spent 8 hours digging for new tracks and getting the rust off to be ready for this private party. I knew no one was as much of a pretentious snob about the music as I was, but if I was going to put something out into the world that I wasn’t gleamingly proud of, I wouldn’t have taken the opportunity.

If I’m going to build a business or lifestyle that I’m excited by, this is the way I’m going to do it.

Jesse Itzler was a rapper first, Andrew Wilkinson was a DJ before building MetaLab and Tiny, and John Summit was an accountant at EY before headlining Ultra Music Festival this past weekend.

When you’re early, it doesn’t make sense to everyone else. Looking back, the through line is obvious.

Here’s to stepping out of retirement and playing more shows around San Francisco.

Because I love this shit.

Love ya,

Jared

P.S. - I recorded the set and it’s featured this week 🕺🏼

Things Work Clicking

A few gems I found on the internet this week - no digging required

• Deleted Sales Advice from a reddit post.

  

• Nick Martel on how to build and engaging post. It worked for me here (17k impressions on linkedin). Try it out.

• How to restore your adrenal health. Found in my friend, Alec’s, new newsletter.

I Dig So You Don’t Have To

1 Set: Hey look its me!

2 IDs: 2 Tracks I played in this set 👆🏻👆🏻

Gentlemen’s Agreement 🤝🏻

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