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player ready...Jeff Bizar’s deejay company handles music for about 400 bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs around the Chicago area each year, but this is not a story about how his firm (www.bizaronline.com) uses digital files to deliver that music.
Bizar runs another operation, called The Good Life Solution Inc., which delivers about 100 motivational shows–backed by music–to elementary schools each year.
To the children who attend those gatherings–and the kids who will see his coming CBS special, “The Feeling Good Concert,” on Aug. 28–he’s known as Dr. Cool.
For Dr. Cool, the deejay business is fun, but the motivational messages serve a higher purpose.
“We speak to kids about self-acceptance, decision-making and conflict resolution,” he said. “And we use music and participation to get our message across. The kids see our message, say our message and then do our message.”
Dr. Cool and his partner, Pride (www.drcoolandpride.com), are staying busy. Last weekend the pair had 20 shows. “We get hundreds of pieces of fan mail from kids each week, telling us we’re making a difference,” Bizar said. “It’s an amazing thing.”
Behind the music and the motivation, Bizar’s Deerfield office operates on the Apple Macintosh platform. And to keep track of fast-changing schedules, clients and prospects, Bizar and his team of about 50 use software called Daylite, made by Ontario-based Market Circle Inc. (www.marketcircle.com).
Think of it as Act–the long-popular small-business contact manager for Microsoft Windows-based PCs (www.act.com) –for Apple.
Using Daylite, Bizar stores and organizes thousands of contacts, and the event schedules for his emcees, deejays and dancers.
The “dancers are the energy of the party,” Bizar said. “They get people going, like in the conga line.”
Because Bizar is now booking events for 2007, the calendar is organized and color-coded by the personnel being sent.
“We keep very careful track of people and dates,” said Dawn Berks, Bizar’s office manager. “I can look by color to see if a person is available or not.”
They also use the software to send contracts to clients. The contracts are automatically attached to Daylite contacts, and the program alerts Bizar if a contract has not been returned.
All of which helps support the messages Bizar shares with the children in his audiences:
“You gotta accept yourself the way you are,” he said. “You gotta expect other people to like you just the way you are. And you gotta treat people the way you wanna get treated.”
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