Conversations with Mayank Gandhi

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mayank Gandhi.

Hi Mayank, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Mayank Gandhi, and I am a licensed clinical psychologist, a board certified behavior analyst, and a DJ.
I attended college at the University of Georgia where both my DJ career and psychology career began. In 2016, I officially changed my major from biology to psychology since I found that I wanted to be a doctor, but not a medical doctor. Psychology has always been a part of my life. From having an anxiety diagnosis to coming from an ethnic background that sees mental health as a taboo. I felt like I could bridge a gap with my community by becoming a psychologist. Fast forward a bit to 2018, I got accepted into a Doctor of Psychology program at Mercer University in Atlanta, GA. I was elated to stay in my home state of Georgia and to be able to pursue a dream. When grad school started, I was very adamant that I would never work with kids and when I started my first practicum, I intentionally signed up to work with kids so I could know for sure that I did not want to do that. Within a month of starting my training at an Autism assessment center, my supervisor and then mentor, got me to fall in love with working with this population. I found an interest to helping this population receive a diagnosis that would clarify questions caregivers had regarding their child’s development, but it wasn’t until I went on my doctoral internship that I found my true passion: working with kids with autism that engage in challenging behaviors (e.g., aggression, self-injury, pica, etc.). It was during my formal doctoral internship and my postdoctoral residency that I grew into the clinician that I am today and that I grew to love the work that I do, no matter how challenging it is day in and day out.

Just like I changed my major to Psychology in 2016, I also learned how DJ. I had always been interested in music; specifically, in listening to it, dancing to music, and learning about how to make it. I was on a collegiate Bollywood fusion dance team in undergrad and in our competitive circuit, DJ’s would create mashups of famous Desi songs with songs of other genres. Because of my interest in music, I took it upon myself to learn how to make mashups and how to actually use a DJ controller. I began DJing sorority and fraternity parties and club formals, super small events where I would just DJ for the exposure. Eventually, this led to me DJing around the nation at various dance competitions in places like Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, and Columbus, OH. Throughout that time, I also created a mashup mixtape for a dance competition in Australia and won best dance mix at the Desi Dance Network’s National Championship called Legends. After formally retiring from the collegiate dance world, I joined a wedding event company called M4U Events based in New Jersey. Through M4U, I am able to DJ Indian weddings all over the world where I can help a couple celebrate their love. The feeling of playing the right songs and seeing the happy couple embrace each other and sing at the top of their lungs is incredible.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not been a smooth road one bit. One of my former supervisors has always told me and reminded me that progress is not linear, and I believe that’s true for both DJing and my actual career as a psychologist. Getting licensed as a psychologist absolutely kicked my butt. I had always been good at school, but I struggled to pass my licensing exams and invested lots of time and money to get to where I am. The same goes for my certification in behavior analysis. I struggled so much to overcome standardized testing and that feeling of not knowing why I could not pass. Eventually I earned my psychology license and my BCBA, however, I always keep a chip on my shoulder and am always thankful for the hard work I put in to earn those titles. Similarly to DJing, I could not figure out how to transition between songs when I first started, nor could I figure out what kind of music to play. I honestly almost quit. But I kept practicing. Lots of mix sessions where I would spend hours with friends and run back transitions over and over again, run through the creation of my music library or set list, and I just worked on perfecting my craft. In no way am I perfect, but I have perfectionist tendencies, which is why not passing my exams and not being good at DJing were so hard for me.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a DJ, I am known for my mashups, my transitions when I’m actually DJing, crowd reading, and caring nature. I specialize in a variety of genres of music, but I would say that my wheelhouse really is in the following genres: Bollywood, Latin/Reggaeton, and Pop. Each of these genres is so different and each has lots of music that helps give a couple at weddings their moment. In terms of my mashups, I have amassed close to 2.5 million plays on SoundCloud through my live sets and mashup mixtapes. I would say the projects that I am most proud of on my profile includes: Buckeye Fusion @ Legends 2019, BollyAus Nationals 2019 Mixtape, and a mashup I titled Gur Nalon Love Mitta. Each of these holds a special place in my heart and shows a wide range of my creativity. I think that what makes me a really unique DJ is just my ability to relate to people. I really try to make sure that the couple that hired me is having a good time. To me, any wedding is that couple’s moment to celebrate their love with the people they love and I want to make sure I am giving that to them.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think that both of my careers involve taking risks. For the psychology side of what I do, there are not a lot of centers in the US that specialize in treating challenging behaviors and specializing as far as I have to work with this population, really limits the places that I could work. Additionally, I am the first psychologist in my family so navigating a field where I didn’t have a lot of help from family was scary at first. I was really trying to find a way to establish myself and I’m thankful that I did.

Additionally, being a DJ came with a lot of risk. When I started, I was doing events for free and then I slowly began increasing my rates. As I increased my rates, I was getting pushback from potential clients and that was giving me pause so I actually capped my rates. DJing is so much fun, but what a lot of people don’t see is all the prep work that goes into making sure the weekend is as close to perfect as possible for the couple or the person that hired you. DJing and getting hired for events is almost entirely based on reviews and messing up a little or not owning up to your mistakes can really hinder your chances to get hired again. It can be anxiety filled but is also so much fun.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.m4uevents.com/dj-mg/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djmgmixes/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mgandhipsyd/
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mgandhi96
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@djmgmixes