22 NOVEMBER 2026 By Mark Hays Adam Blais’s love of music has grown into a budding DJ career, complete with school events, private parties, and a rapidly growing social media following. Adam said his interest took off after attending his uncle’s wedding and watching DJ Ryan Ingram perform. He started producing his own music about six years ago, when he met Ryan, who agreed to give him a few lessons. “I’ve grown up loving music,” Adam said. “Ryan showed me just like super basic stuff, and I was like, ‘This is awesome! I would love to do this.” His parents gave him a small DJ board the following Christmas, and he began practicing after school. “I’d come home and just play on it for hours. I loved it,” he said. As he began booki ng gi gs, Adam reinvested his earnings into equipment, gradually building his setup with a new mixing board, speakers, subwoofers, and lights. His work eventually expanded to high school football games, basketball games, and assemblies, as well as weddings, bar mitzvahs, birthday parties, and private events. Adam said he particularly enjoys house parties, where he can mix electronic dance music with familiar songs that get people singing along. One of his most memorable experiences came when he organized a party at his own house. With security, wristbands, and a small stage for his DJ setup, the event drew about 200 people. “We just packed inside my house and were dancing all night long, and it was so, so much fun,” Adam said. “It made my heart so full.” Adam primarily plays house music, a style of electronic dance music he said offers plenty of mixing opportunities. “The thing that I love about it is you can be so creative with it, yet it’s so simple at the same time,” he said. That creativity comes through in the technical side of DJing, too. Adam explained that DJs work between two tracks, finding ways to transition smoothly from one song to the next while both are playing. Techniques can include adjusting a song’s high, midrange, and low frequencies, swapping bass lines, and layering vocals over another track’s instrumentals. “The whole idea of it is, how can I get from song A to song B by sounding the best?” Adam said. More recently, Adam began sharing his work on TikTok, where he said he gained about 30,000 followers in the first month. He sees social media, original music, and reaching new audiences as key steps toward turning DJing into a full-time career. His ambitions extend to major music festivals, where he hopes to perform alongside established names like Calvin Harris. “My goal is to get into that scene and play headliners in front of like tens of thousands of people,” he said. For now, Adam keeps building his experience one event at a time, driven by a passion for music that began years before he stepped behind the DJ booth. And who knows – at your next local event? You might see a familiar face behind the decks. AHS student finds rhythm behind the mixing board ADAM'S CURRENT HOUSE RECOMMENDATIONS “Ladies and Gentlemen” – Ben Miller “How Ya Feelin’” – L.P. Rhythm “Fancy Footwork” – Chris Lorenzo, Chromeo “Without U” – Silva Bumpa “World Hold On (Fisher Rework)” – Bob Sinclar Adam Blais blends house music, creative transitions and crowd favorites to keep audiences dancing at events big and small. PHOTOS COURTESY OF ADAM BLAIS

23 NOVEMBER 2026 By Madalyn Paltzik When Arcadia resident Alexis Magness spotted a group of women dressed in pink at a business development event late last year, her curiosity was piqued. By the end of the event, she had approached Six-Figure Chicks founder Mel Carr with a question – although the setting was unconventional: the bathroom. “I approached Mel and asked her if I could join the Six-Figure Chicks while she was washing her hands,” Magness laughed. The encounter ultimately led h er to contribute a chapter to Six-Figure Chicks: Scottsdale Volume 2 , part of a nine-book series featuring women sharing stories about their lives, careers, and challenges. After meeting with Carr and reading a previous Phoenix volume, Magness was hooked. “She asked me if I’d like to author a chapter and I said ‘yes’ before I even knew what that entailed,” she said. That meant writing candidly about something that had followed her through much of her life: self-doubt. “I spent most of my life feeling inadequate, unworthy, and undeserving,” Magness said. “I’ve always been very hard on myself.” Reading other contributors’ stories encouraged her to share her own. Their willingness to discuss difficult experiences, she said, showed her that vulnerability could be a source of connection rather than weakness. “If I can help one woman who is feeling insecure to feel more confident and rise to her potential, I’ve accomplished something,” she said. Writing the chapter also forced her to identify the common thread behind her personal and professional choices. With help from an editor, she landed on an answer: helping people. Since Six-Figure Chicks: Scottsdale Volume 2 was published, Magness said she has surpassed her 2026 professional goals and received invitations to appear on three podcasts and speak at a two-day women’s conference called SparkleFest. She was also offered a board position with the Scottsdale Women’s Council of REALTORS. The book reaching international bestseller status added another milestone. Yet she hopes readers take away something beyond professional achievement. She cautions women against becoming so focused on caring for others and saying “yes” that they neglect themselves. Her advice for women hesitating to pursue a new opportunity is equally straightforward: do it. “Sometimes we just need someone to tell us ‘you got this.’ Sometimes we need to tell ourselves that,” she said. For Magness, the experience has allowed her to share a part of her story she once kept to herself and, hopefully, remind another woman that she is capable, worthy, and ready to take the next step. sixfigurechicks.com Every story is worth sharing Alexis Magness