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Meet Michael B. Graham II of The Signature Eventx Entertainment in Spring

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael B. Graham II.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Michael. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Oh my, you want pre-Signature Eventx details, huh, Well let’s see I was born right here in Houston Tx July 21, 1986 on a Monday! I love Mondays! Get after it early! My Monday Motto!

My hobbies include Family, poetry, bowling, Business, and DANCING!! I have lived in several major cities in Texas, landing in Houston where I attended and graduated from THE Texas Southern University receiving my bachelor’s degree in Marketing. I’m trying to decide if I just love challenges and learning new skills or I’m a glutton for punishment as in addition to earning my degree I decided to get both my insurance and real estate licenses as well!!

While attending TSU, I entered the poetry world, while working through my stage fright! Yes I got into poetry and had huge stage fright, even forgetting all of my lines in a competition once… Eventually, I did overcome and became the captain of the TSU Slam Team which by the way, was Texas Southerns first-ever official collegiate Slam Team. A slam team is a team competes against other teams at different schools such as Darthmouth, Penn St., Prairie View, etc using original and memorized poetry to be judged. I was a founder of an organization called ” Poetry and Politics” and we would make waves on campus by going on the yard and spitting poetry really loud in attempts to draw crowds! We were very successful in drawing sizable crowds gaining a large following and supporters among our peers. We also performed in on-campus shows where we were constantly kicked out of events for being viewed as “too radical”, oftentimes almost starting a riot! Those were great times! I even think there is a youtube video of us somewhere floating around lol Shout out to my P&P Crew.

We had two awesome advisers who always fought for our rights to speak freely, Dr. Obike Kamau and Mr. Keys. Our mentor Nefertari Raven though owned a poetry spot called ” The Secret Word Cafe” where we would hold practice and where she once told me I would make a great host! Sparking an interest. So with that, I became a co-host with a mentor and friend of mine L.A. who was helping me hone my hosting skills.

There I met this DJ by the name of DJ Regg and we became a great duo working together at the Secret Word entertaining crowds every night. It wasn’t until I started going to nightclubs with Regg and learning from his then legendary and great a friend Emcee Davon Daniels A.K.A D-Dolla, that I really start learning Emceeing and the differences between a host and emcee and how to combine the two. Never in our wildest dreams did we think having fun at the poetry spot/ Clubs every night would turn in to what we have today, but I am truly thankful for it clearly…

So, that’s a little back story of me now LET’S BEGIN!!

Has it been a smooth road?
Absolute NOT! The struggles are always lessons for sure as the thing about being an entrepreneur is that there isn’t a manual and everything is trial and error, Even being in a somewhat saturated industry such as entertainment.

Some of my biggest struggles were learning to trust others with the processes we created as we always tend to want to run everything all the time. Finding the right people is the single hardest phenomenon that I don’t wish on my worst enemies. There are those that love what they do and then there are those that need what they do, the difference obviously being the mindset of we vs me. I have to tell myself constantly no need to rush and expand into a bunch of different cities and hire hundreds of people if the formula can’t stay the same and produce the same results.

As I mentioned earlier, I earned my degree in business marketing so I understood quite a bit thanks to Dr. Delonia Cooley who played no games and I needed to learn how to rely on others in order to grow. As a business owner somewhere along the way we become so fixated on what we need to do and how we need to do it and by doing that, we potentially cut off really great growth resources that if you don’t catch it in time ultimately will put you out of business. I knew I wasn’t good with organizing or accounting etc still getting better day by day just a little. so I found a professional, utilizing their love for what they do to help me run and establish what I love to do.

Family, Friends, and Culture sometimes make you want to tear your hair out which I am bald now because of it … Just kidding, but a challenge for me was to learn that support isn’t always in the form of monetary value and it doesn’t have to come from those closest to you or within your own culture either. I think that perception has misguided a lot of entrepreneurs when they get started, Let me tell you this and it has to be understood for anybody wanting to succeed at anything… TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS YOU HAVE TO WORK IT LIKE A 9 TO 5 AND THEN SOME! There is an obstacle that folks face who go into becoming an entrepreneur called laziness or even complacency. They make you think that by making a few post, holding a few events, kissing a few babies and shaking hands with folks will allow them to be successful at it. Popularity does not produce prosperity! Growth/success demands sacrifices and it’s not all fun nor should you expect it to be.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
OMG, where should I start!!! We have so many monikers (The BowTie Guys, Dancing DJ’s, CRAZY) lol.

We started off in weddings as a DJ/MC Company, originally I founded this company with a business partner Reginald Collier II ( DJ Regg ) in 2009 while attending Texas Southern University. It wasn’t in our plans to start the business either Regg was an accounting major and me in marketing, but as they say God had other plans. One thing led to another and we found ourselves DJ/Emceeing a wedding for the fun of it at a venue called Heaven on Earth and that’s the night everything changed.

Once the wedding was over the owners were singing us high praises because they had never seen a DJ/MC duo entertain the way we did and from that point on, we were to be the main house Entertainment. It was crazy because we took the old DJ’s spot in one night then was asked about our services, company name, and fees which we didn’t have, LOL. You know you have to put on a game face at all times and I think we told them we would send everything to them in an email when we got back to the office or something like that.

From that moment on though, we did some research on DJ companies in the industry and learned that none of them ever used a professional emcee as many of them would always have the DJ play both roles of DJ and Emcee simultaneously. This is where we completely changed the game and built our brand because of hosting the poetry spots and emceeing the clubs, we understood that the roles were completely separate and had its own criteria to follow to create a completely different atmosphere at events. Our DJ’s focus solely on the music and our Emcees focus solely on the people and flow of the events. What this meant is that by allowing the individual professional to focus on a specific role while working together, It created a totally different element to just the typical stand behind the booth and press play or have pre-recorded/ Set mixes DJ scenario.

In year 2 when it was time to expand we went to get our friends who had a passion for DJ’ing or Emceeing as well and because we were still learning how to officially run a company, We required everyone to start their own business and hired them as a contractor rather than employees which allowed all of us to learn, make mistake and grow together. So instead of one particular person being the “BOSS”, we were equal counterparts attempting to grow something and make it bigger than ourselves. We had dis-agreements of course and fought like family but growing isn’t easy with so many brilliant minds in the room, Beyonce said it best ” Of course sometimes shit goes down when it’s a Billion Dollars on the Elevator ” and it was all love and wanting the best for each other at the end of the day which is why our team dynamic is really cool and we can get through anything.

A BIG separation from our DJ’s compared to many out there is that they play any genre of music no matter what, you will find that a lot of DJ’s out there can only play one, maybe two genres really well and then fall flat on everything else either because they personally don’t like the genre or they don’t want to put in the time it takes to learn new music and keep up with it (i.e., really good at hip-hop not so good at country, etc. ), Also our DJ’s DON’T REQUIRE PLAYLIST at all. We feel like what’s the point in having a client create one if we are the professionals, Also we think it is funny to call ourselves a DJ and not be able to play any genre but then ask clients for a list of songs like if they do all that work then why hire us!! Hands down I can put our DJ’s up against anyone in the industry and know we can outplay/hype any party! We like to tell our clients that we are your DJ’s favorite DJ!. If you couldn’t tell I have great faith in my crew and I even know some awesome DJ’s in the industry so I say it with absolute love not arrogance as we are all great friends who support each other at the end of the day.

Side note: “All professionals talk to each other in the industry so if you’re a crazy client, I guarantee you that your name has been passed around as someone to be aware of! Remember we are human and not defined just by our titles or job description.”

Our Emcees are highly energetic and very interactive which people love about us. Sustaining energy is one of the hardest things to train for in the industry and remember I had huge stage fright in the beginning so it was hard for me to imagine waking up and saying let’s go entertain 8500 people with a microphone. Everyone of our emcees have something in them that allows them to excel in crowds as they overcome stage fright in a big way you could say. Our emcees have to be really quick thinkers in order to catch proper moments to highlight during an event, proficient at public speaking of course as they make announcements, assist with running any given scripts/itineraries, written Oral presentations, all the way down to becoming an Auctioneer at charity events!! YES, we do it all. Oh and……… WE LOVE TO DANCE! Every emcee has to learn to dance and be able to lead and teach dances, from line dance to 2 steps, to salsa WE GET DOWN! We tell our clients our emcees have what they call ” HERE HE COMES AGAIN SYNDROME”. Most folks would downplay the MC role as a hype-man from the club but honestly, it is so much more than that so give us our respect we deserve it. Putting both the DJ/MC elements together and you have absolute MAGIC! Also please note that NOT all Emcees can work with all DJ’s and vice versa you will see folks attempt it and it ends up a train wreck if they are not in sync or one element is unable to perform adequately. I have seen it and it isn’t pretty, Just think of it as a forced relationship that nobody wanted to be apart from the beginning!

Our uniform is typically suspenders and bowties which we started wearing about 3 yrs into it because we had a dilemma of sorts. We would traditionally wear standard black tie dress attire and match our shirts with the color of the wedding or event we were doing, which people loved naturally and every time we did an open house or bridal extravaganza or Houston wedding showcase people would automatically recognize us. This worked great for us until we decided not to do a show up one year and got a call that there was a company who knew we didn’t do the show and dressed just like us. (WHATTTT) . People started to think they were us and it became a thing so we switched it up because we knew nobody in the industry wore suspenders and bowties at all, This time if someone tried to portray us everyone would know and trust me they still tried and let’s say it was a hilarious outcome.

About five years into our endeavor, my partner Reggie wanted to explore a different business opportunity in the fitness world as Signature Eventx was seeing some success and still growing so what did I do…. I SUPPORTED HIM!!! Because that’s what you’re supposed to do with your friends and family. So, we had an awesome split at that point and he started “RC Fitness ” which has become one of Houston’s leading women’s fitness transformation centers, quick shout-out to him because he has absolutely taken the fitness world by storm and is killing it!

After the split, I wanted to continue my journey of making Signature Eventx an actual company in the eyes of all who came across it. You don’t know what you don’t know and for me, after five years and tons of research I knew my industry, I knew my goals but I needed help getting there! So with some help, I incorporated and changed the name just a little too “The Signature Eventx Entertaiment Inc.” and re-branded. The name change along with the logo update was all to show that we matured as a company over the years which is necessary, was it easy? Nope but was it worth it ABSOLUTELY!

Since then, we have expanded drastically going from a simple DJ/MC Company to a full-blown entertainment firm. We have always offered Lighting and monogram services but now we have Photo-booths, bands/solo musicians, etc. and we travel anywhere you wants us to go. We have received several letters of recognition from the GREAT City of Houston. We have met and worked with amazing people and going into year 11, I feel like we are just getting started!

If you can’t tell by now, I am a super happy-go-lucky type of person that loves this industry with all I’ve got and if it wasn’t for the bonds between myself and Reggie and the push from my family and friends to become better I can truly say that Signature Eventx wouldn’t have grown this far.

It’s my personality so I do need to give some shout-outs real quick to some folks who have helped along the way because to me there isn’t such thing as “self-made” as growth and success demands sacrifices of those involved.

Jesus Christ because through him all things are possible.
My wife Carmen Graham and two kids Maeli and Yuri who literally support me through early mornings and late nights to this day I love you.
Melanie Hall (Melon Head Photo), Aisha Khan (Ama by Aisha) and Tiffany Leal (Shutterbooth Houston) for capturing epic moments of us in the photos you see.
My Brother Reggie Collier II we doing it!
MY head of DJ Development Durell Richard and the entire Signature Eventx Team
All of our clients for entrusting us to make it happen THANK YOU!
and to Voyage Houston remember “You can have a party or you can have an event BUT nobody will remember unless it’s with SIGNATURE EVENTX”

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Houston Texas is an AMAZING starting place for any entrepreneur. Here in Houston, because it’s so diverse you will typically find a target market for just about anything. Even with multiple of the same businesses, there is always somebody that want’s what you have, so remember it’s what makes you unique that sales the most. As many of us know Houston, aside from oil and gas, runs off small business and I know it’s one of the largest and fastest-growing small business cities in the country.

Like anything there are always improvements that can be made in Houston I think just giving the Small business Entertainment industry its own platform would help out a lot. Most folks can easily find restaurants, blue and white-collar services but when it comes to the entertainment industry, we don’t have our codes or classification we are usually lumped in with the “other” category for most businesses.

Pricing:

  • Our price ranges anywhere from $750 – $2500 for basic services depending on event type. We get asked a lot about pricing compared to others so let me say this, I talked earlier about all professionals talking to each other and we do which is why most of us don’t compete on price as we feel like everyone is in their own lane and price just determines the value. I have never told myself that I wanted to be absolutely phenomenal and cheap and you should definitely question anybody who tells you differently. Like how that is even a mindset to some is kinda crazy to me but I do know we value our skills and our knowledge which will always reflect in our price.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Melanie Hall ( Melon Head Photo) , Aisha Khan ( Ama by Aisha ) , Tiffany Leal ( Shutterbooth Houston) , Tyler Rebekah Wright

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