We recently connected with D’Lisa DarLuz and have shared our conversation below.

D’Lisa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s go back in time to when you were an intern or apprentice – what’s an interesting story you can share from that stage of your career?

I interned at a church one semester prior to graduating with my Bachelor’s Degree in Recorded Arts. I’d frequented the church regularly, before asking for the internship. I’d even served as an AV volunteer, so I was pretty confident I’d be successful in the internship.

I quickly began utilizing the skills I’d learned through my school courses to navigate the church’s 32-channel mixing board, control the weekly, PowerPoint presentations, operate webcams, and upload the church service online to the livestream website. I felt very secure in my role and within a couple of months, I was moved to the AV Director position.

One evening, I came into the church to run the sound for choir rehearsal. To my surprise, a stranger was sitting behind the mixing board, in my favorite chair. I introduced myself and welcomed him to the church. When I asked the musical director about rehearsal, he informed me that this “new” guy was going to be hanging around as additional sound help. The AV volunteers had become burnt out with assisting more than twice a month. I couldn’t blame them. Two services each Sunday can become exhausting when you’re volunteering every couple of weeks. I gladly welcomed his knowledge and assistance. We became a friendly duo and ran the AV team together.

Throughout this transition, I became ill and had to undergo a couple of surgeries. This kept me away from the church for about six months. I scheduled volunteers and monitored the live stream sound from the hospital, my living room, and even the bed when I needed to. I served as an active director of what would become the church’s virtual team. I had 100% faith in my AV team and my new partner who would be physically operating the sound system until I returned.

Well, long story short…I finally returned to the church and was allowed to complete my internship as the AV director. My new teammate didn’t like this. When I showed up to start the day, he mumbled under his breath and express his disapproval of me being there. I was eager to be back and so involved in preparing for service, I never understood why he was so fussy that particular Sunday. All I know is ten minutes before the service started, he disappeared to the backroom and then came back during the one-minute countdown for the live stream. He abruptly blurted out “If everyone thinks you sound better and you run things better then I don’t need to be here.” Off he left from the AV booth, grabbing his personal items and some of the technical equipment he’d loaned the church. One of those items was the digital converter needed to send the webcam and microphone feed from the church service to the live stream. He sabotaged the live stream and left the church.

When I spoke to the musical director about the situation and apologized for the lack of live stream activity, he simply explained, that my new teammate never liked the idea that I was there. He didn’t see the value in my AV skills because I was a woman and he’d gone as far as writing the musical director a letter that explained why he felt he should be hired instead of me. When I was away on medical leave, a lot of the congregation and the online audience asked about me and inquired about when I’d return. They also mentioned that they preferred my audio engineering over the current technicians. I guess this upset my teammate so much it caused him to quit.

Needless to say, he didn’t step foot in the church ever again. I would’ve never seen this coming because we had a very fun and playful work relationship. We handled the equipment well together. We consistently agreed and shared the same ideas regarding the audio setup. I thought we became an organized team pretty quickly. I gained more life skills during this particular internship than audio skills. The experience taught me how important it is to be confident in my skills, especially working in a male-dominated role. People may judge the outer appearance and may do so often, but once I set up and the music plays….the vibe speaks for itself.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a female DJ, an award-winning author, creator, and pioneer, bringing the light by way of music, books, and clothing. I’m an empowering empath who cares about others as much as myself. I see light in all eyes and harvest this love within my creative works. When it’s all said and done, I leave it all on the 1s and 2s.

I specialize in grandeur tone settings for private events, corporate parties, and special occasions. My main goal is to uplift my audience’s spirits, to the point they can no longer sit. Whether it’s Top 40s, RnB, Jazz, Blues, Electronic, HipHop, House, Old School, Latin, or Rock…I do it ALL and I do it well. I tailor my DJ sets to meet the client’s expectations from each end of the music spectrum. I take pride in setting an upscale tone for the event to match the audience’s needs, while remaining friendly and approachable.

Music heals us. Music transforms us. Music brings us together. In 2009, I decided to listen to my heart and pursue my passion for music. I switched my studies from psychology to audio engineering and within 2 years, earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Recorded Arts. In 2012, I landed a gig as an AV Director (a male-dominated position) within a local music venue. During my spare time, I produced and sold music tracks. Although this role brought me joy, nothing compared to the feeling I’d receive when setting up to DJ during family functions.

It’s been over 10 years now since I graduated and I’ve never looked back. I’ve created music mixes for New York Fashion Week, provided music at Florida mayoral events, Sunfest Film Festival, DJed for the Women’s Conference of Florida, and even provided DJ services for Ben & Jerry themselves, during their Tampa and Clearwater grand opening celebrations.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I started recording my DJ sets when I’d practice at home. I was doing this so I could play the music mix later and critique myself. I’d never intended for anyone else to hear the mix. One day, after watching one of my favorite DJ’s youtube channel, I thought to myself, “My mixes sound just as good as his. I should put them out for the world to hear!” So, over the course of two weeks, I created different music mixes with individual themes. One mix contained all old-school RnB. The other was a throwback Pop mix. The third was a HipHop mix with songs from the late 80s and 90s. Then, I created a Latin mix with Reggaeton, Reggae, Salsa, and Afrobeats.

I went into my favorite graphic design software and started making digital covers for each individual mix that would be eye-catching to someone scrolling across Youtube. Then, I built up the courage to upload my DJ mixes (each 45 minutes to an hour long). I was shocked! I started gaining followers from all over the world. One of my videos has even hit over 60k views within 2 weeks.

My advice for building followers on social media would be to be patient. Don’t worry about what others in your industry are doing or how many followers they have. I’ve also cleaned up my posts to only reflect professional portraits. I’ve removed anything that doesn’t reflect my branding. Anything that’s personal or rough shot, I place in my stories so they’re only a temporary post. People will follow you if they like how clean and less invasive your profile appears.

I’m also a stickler for making sure every platform, site, or marketing material links to the same social media accounts. Make it easy to find your business and harder to ignore you once your company is searched online. Create a large footprint for yourself.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I’m sure, hands down, my reputation has been built through word of mouth. I welcome referrals and provide discounts to clients who send new clientele my way. When you treat people with respect and reward them for loyalty, they speak good words about you. I also email every client personally after a gig, thanking them for the experience. Building a relationship with your customers makes them excited to leave positive reviews and claim you as their own individual provider.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://delisadarluz.wixsite.com/darluzthedj
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/darluzthedj
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/darluzthedj
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCyEznMA_LymgaXQIZg3NrhQ