We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laura Garcia a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Laura, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
First and foremost I must thank you for this wonderful opportunity. For many years I have been working in the event activations industry, from major concerts, festivals to local restaurants and the private sector and one thing I am very particular about is how more efficient operations could happen if this happened or that, etc. I love seeking solutions and alternatives to have a greater impact and when it came to cigar related events I noticed many cigar rollers and not engagement with customers and the idea came to me immediately to mobilize the service to meet the high attended events. From conventions, conferences, trade shows if your 10×10 booth or location is not scene or visited by thousands in attendance then we are losing sales opportunities, thus Couture Cigars was born. Our brand name “Couture” was created on purpose to deliver a high end delivery with every activation we engage with. We are selective and know our target market, the ones that demand great presentation, service and delivery. We are staffed and equipped to offer our services and various events on the same evening, instead of one event at a time like most. We are bilingual and have decades of on premise event management experience.
Laura, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have been living and working in Texas for well over 22 + years and feel as this is my home. I am originally from Colombia and have called the DFW area my home after living the majority of time here. I have worked in various key marketing positions and love activations as this has afforded me the opportunity to launch my own company and service major companies, agencies and event planners with our cigar options. We specialize in hand rolled cigars and all options from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Honduras, we have some amazing blends ready to set up and present at your next event, retail space, patio, conference, conventions, weddings and more. We have mobilized with a service driven experience allowing us to have several stations at any event at same time and various locations. This is what sets us apart and we know what our clients want and always improve our services based on suggestions from clients, they are our main priority. We are most proud of going from idea to reality in a short amount of time and most of all how well received we have been. We just worked a week of wonderful events from PGA Headquarters, Fire Wheel Golf Tournaments and others.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
As most had to do similar changes and adjusts post covid so did we. Prior to covid we had been heavily marketing and activating events with cigar rollers and many “perceptions” changed from the private sector on the “hands on” experience with the product. We had to pivot from the normal cigar roller experience to focusing on hygiene, packaging and overall delivery driven experiences. So, we keep all product free from possible intervention of outside bacterias than can, at times happen in the exchange of “hands on” tobacco rolling, especially if the roller accidentally tampers product in the process so we decided to go with great lines of product that has been pre-rolled and ready for delivery after undergoing process at the manufacture level via approval prior to having them available for our customers. We are ready from one week to another to deliver from 100 to 10,000 cigars, even higher. Fresh, high grade cigar options. This pivot has proven very successful for Couture Cigars.
How’d you meet your business partner?
My business partner, Rikki Rincon and I met at an actual Golf Expo in Spring 2022 while working for other brand clients. We are both event industry professionals and with his marketing, brand management activating experience it was a match that naturally took place. At that time Rikki has a cigar client and I began working his company, Activ8 Live on various projects with several of his clients. We decided the Fall of 2022 to mobilize the cigar business and thus Couture Cigars was born.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.couturecigars.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/couturecigars/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/couturecigarsmobile
Image Credits
Rikki Rincon Activ8 live/Couture Cigars