Inga D'Angelo


Inga D'Angelo, an amazing mom, keeps people of all ages movin' and groovin' with a DJ business that's rapidly expanding and taking her all over the country!
 
Inga, a very hip mom of 2 teenagers, finished her studies of Elementary Education and Psychology at Temple University and knew right away that she wanted to work with kids in some capacity. While student teaching at Greenfield she met Sal, her husband, "out of the blue!" she says. 

Six to eight months after they got married, Inga became pregnant with her first, a baby boy named Carmelo (now 14). After Carmelo was born, Inga quickly fell into the role of a stay – at – home mom and loved it! "I love kids, I always have!" say Inga. Sal, her husband, owns D'Angelo's Ristorante Italiano in Philadelphia. "When Sal expanded his restaurant, he asked me to play a few records at the lounge because he didn't have anyone at the time," she says. "He asked me, because I was always playing music in the house, I couldn't exercise without it!" she laughs. 

 At the time, there weren't very many real "nightclubs" in the Rittenhouse Square area thus D'Angelo's became the new late night hot spot, and Inga's training ground, to becoming an up and coming DJ to watch and see. 

"I would play song after song, I learned how to feel the crowd, I just loved making the crowd happy with music we loved!" says Inga. And boy did the crowd love her too. 
The restaurant closed for a few months, and with its' return, came a restaurant and dance lounge. "Sal is 20 years older than me, but very young at heart. He has a love of youth and has very youthful energy, so he wanted to instill that in his business." Inga happily explained.   
With this new addition Inga was very excited to share her hip, enthusiastic personality and hard-earned skills with everyone who came through D'Angelo's doors. 

Being a full-time mom and working late nights is a lot of work, but Inga does this with real love, genuine happiness, care, and excitement. So how does she make it work? Balance, preparation, and a great group of friends!

"I am lucky that I have a great group of friends. It's important for moms to find a group that's supportive. There is so much to be shared amongst moms whether it's about tutors, classes, etc." she says. 

And while it's helpful to have a support system to keep you balanced, it also helped Inga to instill some independent nature into her kids' morning routine.
"Because Sal and I both work late nights, I taught the kids at a young age how to get themselves ready in the morning before school. I would be up with them, but they learned to how to get themselves organized for the day." 

Inga is very adamant about teaching her kids about nutrition, taking care of your body and your mind, and how important it is to just be yourself. 'Especially nowadays, kids get teased a lot, compare themselves, a lot, it can be hard, but I always encourage them to see how wonderful they are, the gifts they have, and how to give, and get outside of themselves."

This lesson was particularly important and highlighted in Inga's world when her son became very depressed and wanted to end his life. "You have to keep up on your kids," she says. "Ground work is important. Their peers and priorities can be out of whack as they grow up and change." She marvels. 

"One day it's cutting and the next it's shopping. It's insane what they are exposed to! It's scary." She admits. 

In dealing with her son's depression, just as they thought he was getting better, the next thing you know, he would break down again. "He looked at me one night and blurted out "I hate the way I look and I'm unhappy because of the way I look!" "I was shocked!" she exclaimed! "I thought, I see you every day and I don't see your face I see the beautiful person inside of you. It really opened my eyes." 

The very next day, without hesitation, Inga googled a school for the visually impaired and found Saint Lucy's Day School. She met Sister Meg, a wonderfully helpful nun who suggested that Carmelo come and work with the children. "I thought, he needs to work with kids who can see who he is without looking at him, people who love him for who he is, not what he looks like." she concluded. 

This divinely inspired idea helped save Carmelo's life! He went every Thursday to work with the kids and realized that these kids couldn't see what he looked like, yet they accepted and loved him just as he was - his personality, his intelligence, his being. This was a blessing.
Now Carmello is doing better than ever, pursuing an acting/writing career and traveling to and from New York City for classes all by himself. 

"Guys also care about their appearance. He [Carmelo] almost wanted to kill himself. Kids that age don't talk about it."

As Inga helped her children boost their confidence and go after their dreams, she also experienced a confidence boost herself.  To pursue a successful DJ position in the entertainment world, Inga realized her confidence needed to be high to go after her goals, so Inga started self-promoting like crazy!

"I started throwing it out  there to people that I knew, that I'd be happy to DJ their parties, events, etc." she says. "I emailed places, PR agencies, found names, got emails, and then I just bombarded their facebook pages," she laughs.  

Another perfect example of taking advantage of unexpected insights, was shown when Inga contacted an event planner that she had seen on "The Housewives of New Jersey." Inga found the planner's contact information, reached out to her, and before she knew it, she was hired to DJ an event within weeks! 

 "You just have to believe in yourself and ask for help! It's all about intention, my intention is to make a crowd happy." she says. And she's doing just that!

Now Inga is the new Friday resident DJ for STK, a trendy very well-known steakhouse in New York City! No matter what your age, you can take big leaps towards your dreams.  "I feel like this age (36) is aspirational and inspirational. Don't dread it, you want to get to this age and it's important to gain the knowledge of how to maintain looking and feeling good by eating healthily and what works with your body, so you can go after your dreams."

A mom who keeps moving forward while learning and instilling the importance of family, health, and self-confidence in her children and those she meets, Inga is shining her light as she goes. With self-confidence and self-love, your dreams are possible and this mom on the move is a wonderful example of that! 

Learn more about Inga and download some of her latest music mixes here: http://www.mixcrate.com/djinga
 

   

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