She started from scratch. Beverly Bond is a renowned DJ who’s played for basically every A-lister out there. But after reaching the top of the lineup, it was time to chart new territory, so she put aside her records to set new ones as the founder of Black Girls Rock. “The goal was to give girls the best possible tools, exposure, and everything they needed to become their best and greatest selves,” she says.

Here, the 50-year-old explains how she recruited celebs like Gabrielle Union and Regina King to her ranks, how she pioneered as a model-DJ, and what Jay-Z had to say about their first meeting.

Why did you become a DJ?
I love music. I grew up listening to everything. I was gonna loc my hair, move to Jamaica, and be a bass player in a reggae band. [Laughing.] That was my dream. I was also a dancer, so I knew all the DJs, would look at the vinyls, and knew who wrote what and what band members played in what bands. It was my geeky thing that I loved, but I didn’t think it was a real job.

What made you start to take DJing seriously?
I was about to move to LA, and my friends out there were like “Bev, you got to have something to do. It’s not like New York. You have to have a clique.” At the time, [my friends] were all living together and had poetry readings at their house. I was like, “I’ll DJ the after party.” I wasn’t a DJ then, by the way, when I said that. That was just my plan… You know, I never got to LA. I ended up DJing in New York, and from my first gig, people started to pay attention.

What was it like taking that leap?
I was a model before I was a DJ, and back in 2000, the model-DJ was not a thing to be celebrated. When I said I was gonna be a DJ, most people didn’t take me seriously, but there were a couple of people who [gave me a shot] early in the night. They said “Sure, nobody comes that early so you can’t mess anything up.” [Laughing.] That first night, I was super nervous. I remember the manager of the club laughing like, “Oh my God, she can’t even turn on the equipment.” But by the time I finished, his friend who was a DJ was like, “There’s no way this is her first night.” By the 3rd week, I [booked] a birthday party for a radio personality in New York, Angie Martinez, and DJ Enuff.

As a “model-DJ” and businesswoman, how have you learned to advocate for yourself?
Well, I always deliver. I was thorough; I’m thorough in every borough, so they can’t go stopping me when I’m doing what I’m doing. With everything I do, I bring my passion and I go the extra mile. As a DJ, I did that, which gave me a reputation super quick. As I was climbing, I was noticing there were very few Black girls in the same spaces I was [in]. I could have easily taken a role [like], “Everybody’s cool with me, so I don’t have a problem with this,” but I was never that person. I think it was even a shock for people when I started Black Girls Rock because for some reason, people took that as a thing against the industry. So what does that say? It was just me standing up and saying, “You know what? We matter. We rock.”

How did you grow your idea into a multiplatform organization?
I started an award show! The cool thing about being everybody’s DJ was I was everybody’s DJ. I started with D’Angelo the 3rd week I was playing, and you remember Enuff? After that party with him and Angie Martinez, Enuff and Jay-Z were there, and they both told me how dope I was. Jay, when he opened [his club] 40/40, all the DJs across the country were trying to get that job. He was like, “Only Beverly Bond’s opening up this club.” So I was a hot-ticket item.

So you leveraged your network to launch the program?
When I started [Black Girls Rock], it was at the time VH1 was doing Hip Hop Honors. In 2006, they were looking for a woman’s voice in hip hop who could be part of their celebrations. Everyone kept bringing up my name. Now, I wasn’t even an advocate yet, but I guess my advocacy showed through how I represented myself. They called me, so I asked if I could launch Black Girls Rock as a part of [their] first weekend, so VH1 was our sponsor for the first Black Girls Rock awards. By 2007, Black Girls Rock had gained so much steam. Regina King and Gabrielle Union were our very first hosts. And then Kerry Washington—I remember she was in town—she’s like, “I’m not sure what this is, what y’all doing. Black girls rock. Let me in.”

You now run Black Girls Lead, too. How did you know it was time to grow the organization?
You know when you know… We used to have a program where we would mentor local girls on Saturdays. It was a really long day of empowerment circles, DJ classes, and food. But when we [appeared on] TV, we started getting calls like crazy. My humanitarian spirit was like, “How do I help all these girls?” I can’t start chapters across the country because that’s massive amounts of money. So I was like, “Maybe we do something where they come to us,” so we started it as a camp. Girls started calling and coming from everywhere. Our very first applicant was actually a Black girl living in Japan. It was a new venture for me. I’m naturally a mentor, but learning to organize, it’s almost like a school in knowing what you want. That’s how Black Girls Lead was built. I knew it was time because people were demanding it and calling for it.

What’s your advice for young women taking their own career leaps?
This is a different time from when I came up. There’s a lot of social media, so there’s a lot of comparing yourself to people. Please don’t do that. Don’t compare yourself to where someone else is. Just run your race and know that every step is the way.