She sold out an entire club in 24 hours. She got herself onto the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show field team through sheer hustle and genuine relationships. And she did all of this while holding down a full-time corporate job, running a women-only party empire across multiple cities, and navigating a fibroid diagnosis her doctors had been dismissing for years. Delilah Dee is back on Yo Quiero Dinero — and this episode is everything.
Listen in:
The Hustle Mentality Was Inherited
Delilah Dee grew up watching her mom do what so many immigrant mothers do — hold down a corporate nine-to-five while selling Mary Kay on the side, selling gold, cleaning businesses after hours, and finding every legal way to bring in more income. That wasn’t desperation. That was strategy. And it planted something deep in Delilah.
By the time she was 14, she had her first summer job. By college, she was on the exec board of every organization she joined, coordinating events and building community before she even had a name for what she was doing. The hustle mentality wasn’t something she had to go find. She inherited it.
“There are multiple ways to make money, not just one source of income. My mom showed me that before I even had the language for it.” — Delilah Dee
How She Got Hired at iHeart Radio With Zero Corporate Experience
Here’s something nobody tells you about getting into corporate spaces you’re not “supposed” to be in: your resume is not always the thing that gets you hired. Delilah walked into her iHeart Radio interview without a single corporate-level credential in events production. What she had instead was her city, her community, and the confidence to walk in and say — I know exactly what these people want, and I know how to create that experience.
Her hiring manager told her straight up: there were people with five-plus years of corporate experience in that same role. She hired Delilah because she could see the hustle. Because she’d already been planting seeds in Philly, and she had the receipts to prove it. Not fancy receipts — just glowing reviews from every person she’d ever worked with.
The lesson here isn’t fake it till you make it. It’s show up as yourself, know your value, and be willing to say what you bring to the table even when your resume doesn’t say it for you.
Getting Furloughed and Building From Zero (Again)
Delilah loved her job at iHeart. She was the only Latina on the executive team in her market, she was opening doors for other Latinas, and she was producing some of the biggest concerts in the city — including the Jingle Ball and Pyra House concerts. She did not want to leave.
Then the pandemic hit, and iHeart furloughed her along with thousands of others.
Instead of job hunting in a market where nobody was hiring, she pivoted. Events were moving online. She taught herself how to produce virtual summits and conferences that went beyond Zoom fatigue — think the energy of those Verzuz battles, applied to the online event space. She became the behind-the-scenes production coordinator for a roster of entrepreneurs and nonprofits, and built her entire client base through referrals alone. Never paid for a single ad. Just did incredible work, got recommended, and kept booking.
“I literally was booking events back to back to back. All of my work came from referrals because the pandemic had everyone doing virtual summits.” — Delilah Dee
She Launched Jefatona and Sold Out a Club in 24 Hours
In March 2023, Delilah launched her first Jefatona party. An all-girl event for Women’s History Month. She’d been behind a screen for three-plus years and genuinely wasn’t sure if anyone would show up.
They showed up. She dropped the tickets and sold out an entire club in 24 hours.
What started as a one-time party became a movement. Jefatona is now a multi-city, all-girl party series that has expanded into wellness events, a podcast, a run club, and an influencer program. It is entirely run by girls, for girls — Delilah only hires female talent, female vendors, and female-run establishments wherever possible.
The Real Revenue Behind Throwing Parties
Okay, let’s talk numbers because this is Yo Quiero Dinero and we don’t do vague over here.
Delilah’s events revenue comes from a few different streams:
- Ticket sales — the obvious one, but not the only one
- Bar kickback deals — she negotiates tiered revenue splits with venues. Hit a certain bar number, get a percentage back. Hit a higher number, get a larger percentage. In a good night, this alone can bring in an additional check
- Sponsorships with brands and organizations
- Branded social media and marketing partnerships
On a solid night, Jefatona brings in $8,000–$13,000 in combined ticket and bar revenue. Their biggest event — a Dia de los Muertos party that also raised $3,000 in scholarships for Latinos in STEM — did close to $30,000 in one night.
Year one of Jefatona: a little over $60K. By year three, they’d crossed six figures twice. She’s done close to $250K running this as a side hustle while holding down a full-time corporate job — with Fridays off, which she negotiated.
“This was literally supposed to be a one-time party for Women’s History Month. But we sold out and everyone kept saying: we need another one.” — Delilah Dee
She Walked Away From Money That Didn’t Align
Delilah spent three years as part of the building team for an online fitness startup for women. She helped grow that platform’s community from the ground up. And then she left — because what was happening behind the scenes didn’t match what was being put out front, and her nervous system was telling her something was wrong.
She left without a backup plan. That decision forced her to go all-in on Jefatona. Not every event after that was a hit — she’s been in the red before, and she’s had nights where she didn’t take home a check herself. But she always made sure her team got paid first. Always.
That’s the kind of integrity that builds long-term trust with collaborators, vendors, and talent. And that trust is part of what keeps Jefatona growing even through the hard moments.
How She Got Onto the Bad Bunny Super Bowl Halftime Show Field Team
This story is genuinely one of the best examples of long-game relationship building I’ve ever heard on this show.
Delilah had been part of several Bad Bunny milestones in Philly already — his first sold-out concert at Wells Fargo, his headline set at Made in America festival, a live watch party for his Amazon Prime residency. When he was announced as the Super Bowl headliner, she publicly declared she would be at the Super Bowl. Not as a fan. On the field.
People laughed. She didn’t care.
She started reaching out to everyone in her network who worked in entertainment. Her best friend Ashley — a producer at Access Hollywood who had already worked the Super Bowl three times — referred her directly to the production team and sent her resume herself. As soon as the application opened, Delilah was ready. She submitted immediately. On December 30th, she got the email: she was on the Super Bowl field team.
“I don’t know how. I’m gonna let you guys know. I’m gonna finesse my way into that stadium — because I am going to be a part of this event.” — Delilah Dee
Behind the Scenes of the Biggest Stage in Super Bowl History
Bad Bunny’s halftime show was not just the most-watched Super Bowl halftime performance in history — it was also the biggest stage setup Super Bowl production had ever attempted. Every scene — the casita, the bodega, the ATM, the Volta — was built from massive modular carts assembled by the field team in seven minutes or less.
Delilah’s role was field team member. She was assigned a cart, learned the assembly process from scratch, and practiced through weeks of rehearsals where every single day brought a new element — first just carts, then timing, then dancers, then Bad Bunny himself.
Phones were locked in Yonder bags the entire time. If you were caught trying to sneak a recording, you were fired on the spot. Hundreds of people held that secret until the moment the world saw it play out live.
Delilah says the full dress rehearsal — an intimate run-through with no crowd in the stadium — was more powerful than game day itself. That’s when everything came together and she fully understood the weight of what was being created: a performance honoring Latino culture, community, and love, at a time when Latinos were being told they didn’t belong.
31 Fibroids, Years of Being Dismissed, and Advocating for Your Health
The morning after the Super Bowl, Delilah was on a 5 AM call with her surgeon.
She had been getting screened because doctors initially suspected cervical cancer. It turned out to be fibroids — 31 of them, several the size of melons, making her stomach appear six months pregnant. She’d been telling her doctors for years that something felt wrong. She was consistently dismissed, prescribed birth control, told to take ibuprofen and get a massage.
Fibroids disproportionately affect Black and brown women, and they disproportionately go undiagnosed because you can’t get tested for fibroids through a standard blood panel — you have to be specifically screened. Delilah had to go back through her own chart notes to see just how many times she’d raised concerns and been turned away.
She had her surgery on March 3rd, five weeks after the Super Bowl. And she’s been sharing her story publicly ever since — which has already led other women to get screened and get diagnosed. That’s impact.
“If you know something is wrong with your body, something is wrong with your body. Get a second opinion. Demand to be screened. We know our bodies better than a lot of these doctors do.” — Delilah Dee
The #1 Thing She Wishes She Knew: Financial Literacy
When asked what she’d tell herself before turning creativity into a business, Delilah didn’t say anything about events strategy or brand building. She said: financial literacy.
She made over six figures young, with no kids and a lot of freedom — and spent it without the knowledge to manage, protect, or grow it. When she left the startup with no backup plan, she felt the full weight of not having invested, not having saved properly, not having a financial foundation to fall back on.
If you are manifesting more money, Delilah’s advice is this: manifest better financial literacy first. Get someone on your team who can teach you how to invest your money, grow your money, and make your money work for you. Because making it is only one part of the equation.
Key Takeaways
- You don’t need the perfect resume to get into the room — you need to know your value and be able to speak to it with confidence. Delilah got hired at iHeart Radio without a single corporate credential because she knew her city and walked in ready to prove it.
- Referrals are the most underrated growth strategy in business. Delilah built her entire virtual event client base during the pandemic through word of mouth — no ads, no big platform. Do great work, treat people right, and let the recommendations do the marketing.
- Ticket sales are just one piece of event revenue. Bar kickback deals, tiered revenue thresholds, brand sponsorships, and social partnerships are all on the table. Know how to negotiate them before you sign anything.
- Walking away from money that doesn’t align with your values is one of the hardest and most necessary moves in entrepreneurship. Delilah left a stable income with no backup plan because her gut was telling her it was time. That decision led her to go all-in on Jefatona.
- Getting onto the Bad Bunny Super Bowl field team wasn’t luck — it was years of genuine relationship-building paying off at the right moment. The people who got her in the door knew her character and her hustle. That’s what real networking looks like.
- Financial literacy is especially critical when the money starts flowing in. Delilah made six figures and didn’t have the tools to manage, invest, or protect it. Get financially literate before the money arrives, not after.
- Black and brown women are disproportionately affected by fibroids — and disproportionately dismissed when they report symptoms. If something feels off, advocate for yourself. Demand to be screened. Seek second opinions. You know your body best.
Resources Mentioned
→ Follow Delilah on all platforms: @iamdelilahdee
→ Follow Jefatona: @Jefatona
→ Jannese’s book Financially Lit! — The Modern Latina’s Guide to Level Up Your Dinero
Listen to the Full Episode
This blog post only scratches the surface of everything Delilah and I covered. Listen to the full episode to hear:
- The full story of how she pulled together a Dia de los Muertos event in a week and a half and made $30K in one night
- What the Bad Bunny stage assembly actually looked and felt like in real time
- The moment at dress rehearsal that made her cry before a single fan was in the stadium
- Why she started an influencer team that gives promoters 50% of every ticket sale they generate
- The raw conversation about what it felt like to walk away from the startup with no backup plan
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify | Watch on YouTube
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