We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Deion a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Deion, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

The biggest risk I ever took so far had to be when I left my retail job at Nordstrom in May 2021. I worked in the women shoes department. Ever since 2016, I’ve been working for this company but also doing my dj business on the side. The thought of me leaving my job to pursue this dj life was always on my mind. A lot of my co-workers at the time use to tell me I should just leave and take that risk . I was never ready at the time because I was not getting enough bookings and the pay was not great since I was just starting as a beginner. I was also in college paying for classes which also made me continue to work for the company. It was like this until the beginning of the Covid Pandemic. When we was all on lockdown, I was home more and it was helping me get better at dj-ing. I was doing live streams on twitch and instagram . My confidence and publicity grew from that day on. Doing the live streams shift my focus from my retail job to now my hobby. I started to work for the company again after they made guidelines for retail stores. So what lead me to finally take that risk was just me being exhausted from dj-ing and working on the same day. Also all the other cons of working at a retail store drove me away from caring about working. Then I came to the decision to leave due to a conflict on the job and realizing I will have more time to focus on my craft. The bookings was coming in a lot that year and I was making a better living of it than actually clocking in for 7 to 8 hours. My only contemplating moment was thinking about what would happen if we got back into another pandemic or the bookings start to run low for me. So one day I just had the guts to just take the leap. Came to realization that if I believe in my self enough , it can happen.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am Deion . I dj here in South Florida but mainly in the Wynwood , Miami Beach location. I first started of as a student by always being around my brother at a young age and he use to dj in the house with his friends. So before he had money for equipment , he use to dj on this software for the computer and I was just observing everything and learning all the fundamentals about dj-ing. Once I got into high school, everything changed where I will be home making mixes for friends to play in their car. A lot of people use to come to my house to get new music. This was before the streaming services. So hearing new music and having new music was different. So one day I remember coming up with the idea of making mixes and I download a software called adobe audition . With that software I was making my mixes with that before I had proper dj equipment. Once I got the equipment I was able to do weddings, birthday parties, baby showers and etc, The products and service I provide now is the whole party experience. That is having the right speakers , lights, and music for every event. The only thing that I can set me apart from others is just my approach at dj-ing the event . I mean every dj have their own style on how they approach parties. I’m proud now about how everyone compliments how I dj and also how people enjoy the music I play.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I build my audience off of social media by just posting content, interacting with new followers, posting mixes on Soundcloud and Apple podcast. Its been times where I be out doing errands and I will run into a follower for the first time and they will tell me how they found out about me . Its a great feeling that social media is a tool now to reach people local to global. Being consistent posting content and also adjusting to the new trends will help you build your audience. Putting in the effort and time to make sure everything is proper.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I would say it would have to be the relationship you build with people. Connecting with people and understanding people have to be the most rewarding aspect. Personally , I feel like nothing is better than having a great bond with people. Like having a great relationship with your followers, promoters, other dj friends, other creatives that don’t involve music. Just the feeling of having a family feeling with other people is really the best feeling. Just supporting each other and showing love is the most rewarding thing to me. I say this because it shows that you genuinely care about that persons art and that person.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: deiondadj
• Twitter: Deion_Mvo
• Other: https://soundcloud.com/therealdjdeion

Image Credits
@iamRadskillz @dafeteransmedia @popphotography