Women in Tech: How Tina Bonner Found Success in Digital Marketing After Career Burnout as a DJ

WHAT DID YOU STUDY AT VCU?

Tina: At VCU, I studied communications. My one question to my advisor was “What is one major that I can do and get through the easiest?” He said, “Communications” and I said “Sign me up for Communications.” I’m in love with education, the concept of education, and I love knowledge. I really wanted to get into the technical parts of the school system and I couldn’t do it. I was a little frustrated with school and I was trying to get in and get out. I will say that I was excited to go because I am the first person in my family to graduate from college. It’s something for my children to be able to follow. Either way, I know it’s important.

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED AS AN ENTREPRENEUR?

Tina: A lot of people said, “How did you transition from DJing all the way over to marketing and tech?” The transition was birthed out of pain. I was tired of DJing. I was in the club four or five nights a week. I had to get to a point where I said, “What I tolerate is going to become my normal, so if I tolerate this, it’s going to be my normal life. I have to do something now before I really burn out.” I started using the skills that I have and I challenge anyone who’s listening to look at the inventory and the skills that you have and how to transition. In business, it takes a level of toughness. Entrepreneurship is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. So many nights, I wanted to cry. So many nights, I have cried. So many nights, I have applied to jobs and didn’t go to the interview because I’m like, “I just have to keep going.” It’s been very tough. I’ve had a bank account at zero many times. That’s just the transparency. I think what kept me going is knowing that this is for a bigger cause. DJ’ing was great for my network. Between the business cards, people just coming up to me, and rocking the mic a little bit that allowed me to have network so when I did transition to the next thing, I was just able to carry everybody over. That’s really what I got out of it-a lot of great connections. I think I got charisma,too. The ability to have tough conversations- I had to punk some people to give me my money sometimes. I’m not going to call anybody out because you know who you are! All that stuff gives you the soft skills to do business.

I have always been a designer so I said, “Maybe I can figure out how to tap into design work.” I found a developer over in Bangladesh who was developing apps. I put my designs over the top of it and he was charging me 4 or 5 dollars and hour and I would upsell it for four times the price. I got into the tech field that way.  The idea about ladder switching is that I built apps for people in the industry that I was already in. My first few clients were The Park, DJ Quicksilver, and DJ DC. Those were my first few clients and that’s the idea that all I did is stay in the industry that I was in and I transitioned slowly. 

SO TELL US MORE ABOUT TINA B THE BRAN AND BUSINESS?

Tina: Since I moved to Atlanta, I have a couple different things going on. The personal brand is booming so I’m excited about that. I’m at a really good space. You know when you feel yourself getting better? You used to try to bench 200 and then you’re like, “I’m really bench-pressing 200 now!” I’ve been trying to bench 200 for a long time and I feel like I’m at a place now where I can walk in the gym and I’m benching it with no problem. I feel like I’m getting better by the second. Because of that, I really want to share what I know with others so that’s what the personal brand is about. My business day-to-day is two parts. One is more strategy based. I’ve stepped into technology consulting so if you have an app idea, web idea, or something stuck in your mind like, “How can I make this come to life?” we do consulting and help people bring their ideas to life as it relates to technology. The second thing that I do is, I have a startup. I’m at the Atlanta Tech Village and I’m excited because I’m actually on a scholarship there. We’re one of the few companies there that are on a scholarship. What we’re building is a platform to help influencers monetize. A lot of people have big followings, and big networks and aren’t making any money or they aren’t making it residual. We want to help people make money and tap into residual income but do it automatically. Our software once you plug in, you’ll be able to do that.  We’re about seven or eight months in and we should be finished with the platform at the top of the year.