A struggling former DJ is back in the groove after an article in Quids in! showed him how to make money from his old records.

John* worked as a radio DJ for more than 20 years until the station went bust. He was in his 60s and struggled to find work, despite sending out hundreds of applications.

When the £20 Universal Credit uplift was axed last autumn, John was left on the brink. That’s when his Jobcentre Plus contact mentioned Clean Slate.

“I thought, a clean slate is what I need,” John told us. 

“You get to that stage where you lack belief in yourself and your self-esteem starts to suffer. You think, ‘I’m multi-skilled, I’ve had jobs in the past.’”

He was put in touch with Maggy at Clean Slate, who identified a government fuel payment he was entitled to, as well as a travel card. She also sent him a link to Quids in!, Clean Slate’s money skills project, which has a raft of content aimed at helping people to manage their finances well.

Going online

“There was an article all about selling unwanted items and I realised this was something I could do,” he said. “I realised, ‘oh my God – I’ve got all these things in the loft’. Loads of vinyls and magazines. And then it made me realise I could do the eBay thing and sell things online.”

John thought he had around 10,000 records from his two decades in the trade, and he’s now started the process of digitising then selling the collection.

“I’ve got a solution now, I’ve got all this to do,” he said. “And this can keep me going. I’ve got lots of work now. I’ve got years of pottering around with all my vinyl and magazines and books and just loads of stuff that I can sell on eBay. 

“I’m digitally recording now and I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got to get back to DJing.’ So what can I do? I’ve got all the mixes from the recordings we did years ago. So I’m going to have to start digitising all the vinyl and things and maybe do something through YouTube. Most people are listening on internet radio, more than the national radio now. So I’ve got to go online, haven’t I?”

Find the spark

Reading the Quids in! article was a turning point, but John said in these tough times rediscovering his own creativity has also been key.

“Somehow we’ve got to try and look for a little spark inside,” he said. “We all have creative potential inside us, we just get swamped by the outer things and finances and everything.

“We’ve got to try and seek that thing inside ourselves that can help bring us back from that place.”

*name has been changed

Photo by KoolShooters / Pexels