Manchester, N.H. – Mike Benoit has always been a guy for whom service to his country and his community has been a paramount motivation. In addition to running MJB Entertainment, which services most of New England, he’s a local firefighter and a National Guardsman in his New Hampshire hometown.
For Benoit, 36, the wedding market remains his biggest moneymaker, and it’s a market, he says, that’s evolving in sometimes challenging ways. How does he do it all? Let’s find out:
DJ LIFE: You have a long, professional history of service – can you detail that?
Mike Benoit: I come from a long line of military service and am at least the fourth generation in my family to serve our country. I enlisted in the Army right out of high school and have served in the New Hampshire Army National Guard since 2008. For the first 15 years of my military career, I was a musician in the 39th Army Band, performing throughout New England and even in Central America.
DJ LIFE: How did the firefighter gig happen?
Benoit: At the same time, I pursued a civilian career in the fire service, earning my paramedic degree along the way. I became a career firefighter in 2012 and now serve as a Firefighter/Paramedic for the City of Manchester, N.H., Fire Department, IAFF Local 856. I’m still actively involved in both the fire service and the National Guard, so between balancing DJing, the firehouse, military service, and family, life definitely keeps me busy.
DJ LIFE: What got you first interested in music?
Benoit: I grew up in Manchester, N.H., and I was lucky enough to discover my love for music from a young age. In fifth grade, I joined the school band as a trombone player, and I quickly realized how much I truly loved performing in front of people.
DJ LIFE: How did that progress?
Benoit: After high school, I was torn between the military, music, and becoming a firefighter. I couldn’t decide, so I found a way to do all three. I was fortunate enough to pass an audition with the Army Band, and I enlisted three weeks later. That ended up setting the stage for so much of what came next in my life.
DJ LIFE: What got you into DJing?
Benoit: DJing was never on my radar at all. It wasn’t something I had ever really thought about growing up, and it wasn’t until I was in the Army Band and met my first squad leader that everything changed. He was a great guy named Kevin Sawler. He was about 15 years older than me, but he was always like a big brother to me. We had a lot in common, and we both played trombone together in the Army Band. He was also a wedding DJ, and one day he asked if I’d be interested in coming out as his assistant. He took me to two or three weddings over the next few weeks. I was instantly hooked. I remember saying to him, “Wait a minute – you get paid to do this?” He brought me out several more times, showed me how weddings worked, lent me some gear to help me get started, and introduced me to the team at Main Event Entertainment. I eventually signed on with Main Event and started doing my own weddings.
DJ LIFE: Are you a single operator now?
Benoit: That’s a good question, and it’s actually been a pretty recent change for me. I was with a multi-op DJ company for over 10 years, and I really enjoyed both the team environment and the volume of events I was able to do with them. Recently, I decided to go out on my own and rebrand as a solo-op. That move gave me the freedom to make more of my own decisions about the business, work more closely with the people and venues I truly wanted to align with, and position my pricing more realistically to where I believe I fit in the market.
DJ LIFE: How recently?
Benoit: I launched my own business in December of 2025, and so far I’ve been exceeding every metric I originally set for myself. Right now, I’m the only DJ in the company, and I don’t know that I necessarily want to change that. I do subcontract some additional services when needed, but not other DJs.
DJ LIFE: How many events do you do each year?
Benoit: I cap myself at 50 weddings per year. I still work another full-time job and have a family at home as well, so that number helps me maintain a strong balance while still giving each event the attention it deserves. That said, I do take on some additional miscellaneous gigs throughout the year, including bars, clubs, holiday parties, and other specialty events as they come up. I also work with a few local networking groups and will usually DJ for their events when they’re hosted.
DJ LIFE: What’s your breakdown of events?
Benoit: It’s roughly 85-percent weddings, 10-percent bars and clubs, and 5-percent miscellaneous private or specialty events. Weddings are definitely the core of my business and where most of my time and focus goes. That’s where I’ve built the strongest part of my brand, and it’s also where I feel I bring the most value in terms of planning, hosting, and creating a full experience for clients. The investment in weddings is also very different – so, from a business standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to keep that as my primary focus. That said, I really do enjoy playing bars and clubs. Those events let me lean a little more into pure mixing and crowd energy, and I think they help keep me sharp creatively.
DJ LIFE: What makes your company unique within the market?
Benoit: The way that I market myself. I put nearly 100-percent of my marketing efforts into social-media content, because that’s where my clients are finding me. At this point, social media and referrals make up pretty much my entire business.
DJ LIFE: Why does it work so well for you?
Benoit: I’m very dynamic in what I share. I try to show people everything about what I do. I post clips from weddings, showcase transitions, talk about hot-button topics, give tips, and also share parts of my personal life. I want people to really see who I am, so that they know exactly what and who they are booking. I think that authenticity matters, and I think people can feel it.
DJ LIFE: Where do you fit in your market, and what are your services?
Benoit: My pricing sits a bit higher in the market than most other DJs in the area, but not by a lot. I’m comfortable with that because I know the level of energy, experience, and professionalism that I bring to an event. As for services, I offer full DJ/MC services, uplighting, premium dance lighting, photo booth, Justice of the Peace services – yes, I do often officiate and DJ at the same time – plus CO2 cannons, LED sticks, dancing on a cloud, saxophone fusion, live musicians, and more. I like being able to offer couples a lot of different ways to make their wedding feel unique to them, rather than just giving them the same cookie-cutter package everyone else offers.
DJ LIFE: What gear do you have in your set-ups?
Benoit: I have a Macbook Pro M3 running Serato DJ and a Danny Max Infinity Booth. Controllers, I have Pioneer FLX10 and Denon DJ Prime. Speakers, I have a mixture of RCF and Electro-Voice, depending on the event. I have a Behringer Flow 8 digital mixer for main system audio control, plus Shure wireless SLXD systems. I have Soundswitch DMX control with the Control One built into my booth. I have lots of Both Lighting units. I use Gravity Stands and ProX totems for lighting stands. All cabling is from NLFX Pro Platinum cables.
DJ LIFE: What’s interesting or particular about your market?
Benoit: New England is a very unique area for weddings. We have a little of everything – mountain-top weddings, seaside weddings, barns, ballrooms and everything in between. Being based out of southern New Hampshire, I am an hour’s drive from Boston, the mountains, the lakes, the ocean, and the farms. So, we could be doing a luxury wedding on a wharf in Newport, R.I., one day, and a rustic barn in the White Mountains the next. I really like the variety. It makes things interesting and dynamic.
DJ LIFE: Your website really pushes your experience. How important do you think that plays in a modern client’s decision process?
Benoit: I certainly don’t claim to be the most experienced DJ out there. I have a lot of mentors in this area who have been doing this twice as long as I have and have thousands of weddings under their belt. With that said, having 15 years of experience and over 500 events under my belt personally does give clients a real sense of ease and confidence.
DJ LIFE: How have clients evolved over the years?
Benoit: People are definitely looking for something extra in their weddings now. They don’t want the same experience they’ve already seen at every other wedding they’ve attended. Because of that, I’ve found myself doing a lot more custom edits for specialty moments and formalities, and couples are being much more intentional about the overall feel they want for the night.
I also think couples today are much more aware of style and pacing when it comes to music. I can’t tell you how many inquiries I get from couples specifically looking for a DJ who can quickmix or bring more of a club-style feel to a wedding. A lot of today’s couples are late-millennials and early Gen Z, and many of them spent plenty of time in college and after college going out to bars and clubs. They want to tap back into some of that energy and nostalgia on the biggest day of their lives.
The challenge, like anything else in this business, is staying ahead of trends and being able to adapt without losing what actually works. That’s why I’m always pushing myself to practice more, get more creative with my mixes, listen to other DJs, and stay open to learning. If you want to stay relevant in this industry, you have to keep evolving.
DJ LIFE: What have been the hottest songs for you recently?
Benoit: Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and a Beat” has surged lately. Tate McRae has a bunch of great tracks right now, “Tit for Tat” is doing the best for me. I am also a big fan of the new Bruno Mars album and I like to drop some of the album cuts when I can. “On My Soul” is probably my favorite.
DJ LIFE: You’ll present a tutorial at DJX’26 (“Bet On Yourself: Why You’re Capable of More”). What can attendees expect?
Benoit: At its core, it’s about growth. Not just as a DJ, but as a business owner, a performer, and a professional. The whole idea is that most of us are capable of more than we think – but getting there takes honesty. It takes being willing to take a real look in the mirror, identify the areas where you may be falling short, and then do the work to improve them. That could be your mixing, your mic work, your client communication, your branding, your planning process, your business habits. Whatever it is, the point is to stop avoiding the weak spots and start attacking them.