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Why Your DJ Style Is Written in Your DNA

I was listening to the excellent Crossfader Podcast recently when an artist caught my attention. One of their students had quite a meteoric rise, as a DJ, in a relatovely short time. When interviewed she explained that she’d lived in three different countries, and that constant change gave her the confidence to just jump straight into DJing without hesitation.

It’s a compelling story — but if you know the Kolbe Index, you’ll see there’s more to it. According to Kolbe, our conative strengths — the instincts that drive how we take action — are fully formed by around age six. That means her ability to dive straight in wasn’t just shaped by moving countries; it was already part of her DNA. Her environment may have reinforced it, but the instinct to leap first and learn later was always there.

The Quick Start in Action

In Kolbe terms, she’s a Quick Start: someone wired to embrace risk, improvise, and figure things out on the fly. Quick Starts are natural experimenters — the DJs who grab a controller, press record, and learn in real time. For them, the thrill is in discovery, not perfection.

The Other Paths to the Decks

But not everyone’s path looks like that. If you’re a Fact Finder, you’ll research first — gear reviews, tutorials, playlists — until you feel grounded. A Follow Thru DJ builds systems: folders, color codes, and transitions mapped like clockwork. An Implementor thrives on the tactile side — vinyl, faders, and the physical feel of gear.

Each approach is valid. What matters is knowing which lane fits you best, because that’s how you’ll grow fastest.

Nature Meets Nurture

Back to the podcast: yes, her global upbringing shaped her outlook. But it was her Quick Start instinct — conative, unchanging, set since childhood — that made it possible for her to see new environments not as barriers, but as launchpads.

That’s the beauty of Kolbe: it doesn’t tell you what you should do, it reveals how you’re naturally built to take action. And when you understand that, whether on the decks or in business, you stop fighting your instincts and start amplifying them.