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\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
With all due respect to our accounting Avengers and the great work they do, it\u2019s hard to believe that most CPAs dreamed of becoming CPAs. That certainly wasn\u2019t the case for John Summit, who went from a monotonous role at Ernst & Young to arguably one of the most exciting careers imaginable: an internationally famous DJ. <\/p>\n
Now, in the second year of his Experts Only Festival on Randall\u2019s Island, Summit and his partners at Medium Rare are showcasing a new model for artist ownership, all while bringing the beats.<\/p>\n
Experts Only is a global movement born from John Summit\u2019s pursuit of total creative freedom. Founded on the ethos of music without limits, Experts Only is embracing genre-defying sound that spans house, melodic, and everything in between. Since its inception, the label has become a platform for talents like Mau P, Kaskade, Odd Mob, Layton Giordani, Cassian, Max Styler, and Summit himself.<\/p>\n
Experts Only has built its live events around nontraditional venues, including cave shows in Tennessee, mountain events in Vail, Colorado and Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and events in Tulum. The brand has also expanded internationally to destinations such as Ibiza and Amsterdam and has hosted a curated stage at Bonnaroo.<\/p>\n
Summit found his passion for DJing while studying at the University of Illinois, where he played local shows in his free time. After graduation, he moved to Chicago and took a full-time job at Ernst & Young. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very soulless job in the sense that I had no fulfillment from it whatsoever,\u201d Summit admits to Entrepreneur<\/em>, \u201cBut the hours are super intense, so I had to have that release of just DJing on the weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n For a while, Summit was burning the candle at both ends, grinding through audits during the day while playing local clubs at night. <\/p>\n \u201cNone of my coworkers or anything knew,\u201d Summit laughs. \u201cIt felt like I was living a double life.\u201d<\/p>\n Pretty quickly, Summit\u2019s music started building an online buzz, which was great for his confidence but not so great for his accounting career. <\/p>\n \u201cI started doing worse at work, started showing up later and later and later. I\u2019d come into work with, you know, bloodshot eyes and people would think I was just up all night partying,\u201d he says. \u201cIn reality, I was just making the music. Well, I was doing my fair share of partying too for networking, but yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n Eventually, Summit quit his job after saving $20,000 to live off while pursuing his DJ dreams, throwing himself into music full-time. Around 2019, things started to take off. Then, the world shut down.<\/p>\n Summit moved back in with his parents during COVID-19, but his commitment to music didn\u2019t waver. He kept grinding, and it paid off. Before long, Summit was touring internationally, playing for millions of fans and reaching heights most DJs only dream of. Then, in 2025, he decided it was time to own the brand he had built. That\u2019s where Medium Rare came in.<\/p>\n Medium Rare is a $75 million entertainment company built by Forbes 30 Under 30 alumni Joe Silberzweig and Adam Richman. What sets the company apart is its unique 50\/50 business model. <\/p>\n \u201cOur model is really simple,\u201d Richman explains. \u201cWe\u2019ll take all the financial risk, and we\u2019ll split the profits 50\/50.\u201d<\/p>\n They used that same model to build Summit\u2019s Experts Only Festival, a two-day music festival that Summit curated on Randall\u2019s Island. Instead of simply paying an artist to headline someone else\u2019s festival, Medium Rare builds an asset with the artist that both sides own.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to risk $10 million plus on this event,\u201d Richman shares. \u201cSo if it makes $2 million, we each get $1 million. If, God forbid, we lose $2 million, John doesn\u2019t lose a penny.\u201d<\/p>\n For Richman, the model works because both sides have a real stake in the event\u2019s success. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have people all the time be like, \u2018Hey, we\u2019ll work with you in this different model,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re just like, not for us. We really found this partnership works best for everyone, and it really incentivizes [both sides]. Nothing is fairer than a 50-50, right?\u201d<\/p>\n John and his team drive the creative vision and brand, while Medium Rare serves as a partner for the festival. <\/p>\n One of the biggest inspirations for Experts Only Festival was an old New York staple: Electric Zoo.<\/p>\n \u201cElectric Zoo was a cultural mainstay of New York City. It grew organically for over a decade in the city, got up to, you know, over 75,000 fans or 100,000 fans across the weekend,\u201d Silberzweig shares. \u201cThat property was sold, and the new operator didn\u2019t really manage it correctly, and it went bankrupt. So we identified a huge void in the market, and there\u2019s huge demand for these types of events.\u201d<\/p>\n Experts Only was built to fill that void, launching the same month Electric Zoo had previously occupied. The inaugural festival brought more than 50,000 fans to Randall\u2019s Island across two sold-out days, and the festival surpassed those numbers in its second year.<\/p>\n While Summit may have left the spreadsheets behind, he still carries the business acumen honed from years behind a monitor. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is just as much of business as fun,\u201d Summit proclaims. \u201cI mean, if you ask anyone in the team I work with and stuff, like half my day is dedicated to business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While some artists balk at the idea of due diligence, Summit finds it oddly comforting. <\/p>\n \u201cI think maybe because I\u2019m used to that from doing the accounting, then doing the music at night, where it\u2019s not fun just doing art 100% of the time,\u201d he shares. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to work both sides of the brain.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He also points out the countless examples of artists getting screwed over because they don\u2019t understand the terms of their deals, and end up going bankrupt.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHow are you making X million dollars a year and then being bankrupt?\u201d Summit wonders. \u201cThat\u2019s why you have to have financial literacy. I think having that background makes this kind of stuff possible.\u201d<\/p>\n As anyone both financially literate and music festival inclined knows, most of these events don\u2019t turn a profit in their first year, or even the first few. But Summit and Medium Rare are comfortable betting on Experts Only Festival\u2019s long-term success.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLook at all the best businesses in the world: Amazon, Meta, etc. No one made money in their first couple of years,\u201d Summit says. \u201cAnd where I\u2019m lucky is that I do well as John Summit, so Experts Only is the true passion project of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n Summit has gone through a career change so dramatic that it will almost certainly be the subject of a documentary one day. His advice for anyone considering a similar leap of faith? Have a backup plan, but don\u2019t let it stop you from fully committing.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re gonna do something, you gotta go all in, he says. And so maybe that backup plan is what gave me the mental stability to know that I could go all in. But you can\u2019t half-ass it, though. I think when you do it in your career, and when you hear about anyone who started a successful business or artist career, it\u2019s because they went all in.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n With all due respect to our accounting Avengers and the great work they do, it\u2019s hard to believe that most CPAs dreamed of becoming CPAs. That certainly wasn\u2019t the case for John Summit, who went from a monotonous role at Ernst & Young to arguably one of the most exciting careers imaginable: an internationally famous DJ. <\/p>\n Now, in the second year of his Experts Only Festival on Randall\u2019s Island, Summit and his partners at Medium Rare are showcasing a new model for artist ownership, all while bringing the beats.<\/p>\n Experts Only is a global movement born from John Summit\u2019s pursuit of total creative freedom. Founded on the ethos of music without limits, Experts Only is embracing genre-defying sound that spans house, melodic, and everything in between. Since its inception, the label has become a platform for talents like Mau P, Kaskade, Odd Mob, Layton Giordani, Cassian, Max Styler, and Summit himself.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nMedium Rare = Maximum Gain\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n
The numbers behind the noise\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Go all in\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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