The path wasn’t always clear, but every chapter gave me something I could carry forward. What once looked like a collection of unrelated experiences became the foundation for everything I’m building today.
My Résumé Makes a Lot More Sense When I Explain It.
Hand-painted T-shirts. Selling candy at school. Event planning. Teaching people how to roll sushi in their homes. Yoga. Making custom mala jewelry. Intimacy and relationship coaching. HR. Brand and talent management. Websites. Creative direction. Consulting. DJing.
There have been a few chapters.
And no, they weren’t all part of some perfectly mapped-out career plan.
I followed ideas that interested me, built businesses around things I knew or wanted to learn, took opportunities that made sense at the time, and changed direction when something no longer fit.
But every chapter gave me something.
The Sushi Party Company taught me how to turn a skill into an experience people would pay for. Yoga taught me how to teach, guide, and meet people where they were. Making malas taught me about products, e-commerce, community, and building something that could reach beyond my own city. HR taught me about people, organizations, communication, and how businesses actually operate. Events taught me how to think about every detail from the perspective of the person experiencing it. Branding taught me how to make an idea make sense to somebody else. DJing taught me how to read a room, trust my instincts, and build an entirely new identity from skills I already had.
None of those things looked particularly related while I was doing them.
Looking back, I can see exactly how they connect.
Turns out, I wasn’t all over the place. I was collecting experience.
Eventually I Stopped Trying to Pick a Lane
For a long time, I thought having so many different interests meant I needed to narrow myself down.
Pick the thing. Find the title. Build the brand around it.
But every time I tried to fit everything I knew how to do into one neat little box, something important got left out.
Eventually, I realized the range wasn’t the problem. I just needed to understand how it all worked together.
Today, that range is one of the most valuable things I bring to the table. I can look at a business problem and see the brand problem underneath it. Look at someone’s career experience and see an opportunity they haven’t considered. Look at an idea and start thinking about how it gets positioned, packaged, monetized, taught, marketed, or turned into something people actually want to experience.
I don’t need every problem to fit neatly into a category.
I’m much more interested in figuring out what the real problem is.
Then I Taught Myself How to DJ
In 2020, I decided I wanted to learn how to DJ.
And because apparently I’m incapable of simply having a hobby, I built a brand around it.
But this time, I wasn’t starting with nothing. I brought everything with me.
I knew how to build a brand. I understood marketing and business. I knew how to create experiences, connect with people, develop offers, tell a story, and turn an idea into something other people could understand.
I just had to learn how to DJ.
DJ Monie went on to become a nationally recognized entertainment brand, taking me into corporate events, brand activations, festivals, nightlife, private events, and rooms I never imagined I’d enter when I first got behind the decks.
Along the way, I was named one of DJane Magazine’s Top 100 Best U.S. Female DJs in 2023 and 2024 and became a Red Bull Turn It Up DJ Battle Finalist in 2024.
But what makes DJ Monie important to this story isn’t the recognition.
DJ Monie became proof that you can take everything you’ve learned in seemingly unrelated chapters and use it to build something completely new.
I wasn’t starting from scratch. I was building from experience.
Then I Outgrew the Way I Built It
This might be my favorite part of the story, because building something successfully doesn’t mean you have to keep building it the same way forever.
For years, Si’mone and DJ Monie existed almost like two separate people.
DJ Monie was the public-facing brand. Si’mone was behind the scenes consulting, building websites, developing brands, teaching, creating, advising, and doing all the other work that didn’t fit neatly under “DJ.”
It worked — until it didn’t.
Managing two brands became exhausting. Explaining everything I did became complicated. And the more my work evolved, the more obvious it became that I had built the structure backward.
DJ Monie was never the whole brand. She was one of the things Si’mone created. So I changed it.
Today, Si’mone “DJ Monie” Lewis is the personal brand. DJ Monie remains part of my story and an experience you can book, but she no longer has to carry everything else I’m capable of doing.
I didn’t throw away what worked. I made room for what was next.
All Those Chapters Led Me Here
Today, everything I’ve learned across those different chapters shapes the way I work. I help people think through ideas and pivots, build brands and businesses, turn knowledge into learning experiences, and create moments that connect with people.
Sometimes that means sitting across the table from a founder trying to make sense of ten different ideas. Sometimes it means helping someone figure out what comes next in their career or business. Other times, I’m building a brand or website, teaching a workshop, developing a program, speaking to a room, collaborating with a brand, or getting behind the decks as DJ Monie.
The work may look different, but the thread is the same:
I take what people know, what they’ve built, and what they’re imagining — and help them turn it into something that makes sense.
Official Biography
Si’mone “DJ Monie” Lewis is a strategist, entrepreneur, educator, speaker, creative director, and nationally recognized open-format DJ based in Atlanta, Georgia. Her multidisciplinary career spans business, branding, education, entertainment, and creative development, bringing together decades of entrepreneurship and an unconventional collection of experiences that now shape how she helps people and organizations build, evolve, and make sense of what comes next.
An entrepreneur since the age of 12, Lewis has built businesses across events, education, wellness, e-commerce, consulting, and entertainment. Over the course of her career, she has worked with more than 250 brands across 35+ industries, with clients and projects including Salt-N-Pepa, Cheryl “Salt” James, Trae tha Truth, Kash Doll, Brandi Harvey, Fract, Wanderland Society, SeneGence International, and Faded Truth Podcast. Her work has included brand strategy and development, digital platforms, creative direction, education, and business advisory.
In 2020, while living in Las Vegas, Lewis taught herself to DJ and launched DJ Monie, applying years of experience in branding, business, marketing, and audience engagement to an entirely new creative pursuit. What began behind the decks in Las Vegas grew into a nationally recognized entertainment brand, with performances at venues including Ghostbar at Palms Casino Resort and Jardin in Las Vegas and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. She has also headlined the Melody Music Festival and performed for audiences across festivals, nightlife, corporate events, brand activations, and private events.
As DJ Monie, Lewis was named one of DJane Magazine’s Top 100 Best U.S. Female DJs in 2023 and 2024 and became a Red Bull Turn It Up DJ Battle Finalist in 2024. Her DJ career and entrepreneurial journey have also been featured by media outlets including The Hype Magazine and KLAS 8 News Now.
Today, Si’mone is based in Atlanta and works with individuals, founders, brands, and organizations through strategic advisory, brand and creative development, education, speaking, partnerships, and select DJ engagements. She is also the creator of The Monie Method™, a framework shaped by the lessons of her own career and built around Clarity, Positioning, Monetization, Experience, and Evolution. At the center of her work is a belief she has lived more than once: you don’t always have to start over to build something new. Sometimes you need to recognize the value of what you already know and decide what comes with you.
