Welcome to another installment of our student-propelled success stories.
Each installment highlights a current or past Stukent student and the cool things he, she or they are doing online. We hope this motivates you to see how other students from around the world are using their entrepreneurial and marketing skills to add value to the world.
Meet Brady Aste
Brady felt as though he wasn’t getting the education he craved from the classroom, so he started his own business, DAF House Media, a brand that throws events and acts as a talent agency. His company has since thrown the biggest and most well-known rap cyphers (shows) in Utah.
The creation of DAF House Media is a passion project that fulfilled Brady’s drive for learning about branding and marketing.
We asked Brady some questions about his story to learn more about his experience building DAF House. You can read his interview below:
Hey, Brady. Let’s start off with you telling us a little about yourself.
{Q} Where are you from?
Manti, Utah
{Q} What university did you attend?
I attended Utah Valley University
{Q} What did you study?
Marketing
{Q} Why did you want to study Marketing?
I wanted to study Marketing because I always have loved business, but I wanted to work on the creative side of business, and marketing has allowed me to do that.
{Q} What are some of your hobbies?
Some of my hobbies are photography, videography, planning events, men’s fashion, music (listening & writing a musical)
Tell us about your cool venture
{Q} When/Why did you start?
I started DAF House by accident during the Fall of 2016. I had a mini rap cypher with some friends at an ambassador retreat at UVU and I thought to myself that we should do this more often.
Shortly after that, I had the first rap night at my apartment. Afterward, people kept asking me what the event was called and when there would be another one. From there we made a name and the rest was history.
I started DAF because I wanted to put into action all the things we were talking about. I wanted an all-encompassing marketing experience: creating a brand, targeting a niche market, communication with those people, and building an audience. I would sell the vision of DAF to others and get others on board to create a team. I would brand DAF doing all the design from logos, fliers, graphics, videos, production of music, to designing and selling swag items.
{Q} What’s unique about what you do?
The unique thing about DAF is that it is so unexpected. We throw HIGH-QUALITY Rap shows in Utah County. Who does that? DAF is the quintessential college party. You go to college expecting everybody to be doing all this fun original stuff, but you find out that nobody really does anything you imagined and all you are left with are the same old dance parties.
{Q} What has been the hardest part working with your business?
The hardest part was the legal stuff. The ambition was always there but the paperwork was a hassle. Also, the idea of DAF was a difficult sell because its not easy to explain to people what it is and therefore sometimes hard to get people to come out to the events for the first time.
{Q} How are you marketing your business?
The key to DAF’s success is personal contacts. I tell everyone about DAF and they get excited about it. The next is fliers/direct marketing. I also do a lot of social media marketing in the form of paid Facebook/Instagram Ads.
{Q} What advice would you give to a college student looking to start down a similar path as yours?
Just do it.
So many people make excuses as to why they aren’t good enough or can’t because they don’t have time. Find something that you enjoy and make time to get better at it. Then just start promoting your work and make connections. It’s not that hard you just have to go out there and do it.
{Q} Do you have a favorite book, website, online tool/service that you’d like to recommend to Stukent nation?
Favorite books that inspire me: the Alchemist, Atlas Shrugged, The greatest salesman in the world.
{Q} What Stukent product did you use, and how did your experience using it help you with this new venture?
I remember that about the time I started doing DAF I was in a digital marketing class where we were using Stukent’s Digital Marketing Essentials textbook. I loved the text and how simple it was. I really used a lot of what I learned about Social media marketing in that class to help with DAF.
I would like to thank Brady for sharing his story. You can check out some of DAF’s past events on it’s Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube channel.