We recently connected with Luiggy Gomez and have shared our conversation below.
Luiggy, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
Speaking things into existence doesn’t happen without doing the work for it. When I first thought of creating my own business I had to ponder the name and what the business was going to be. From all the experiences I’ve had in my life I decided to create a lifestyle brand called “Uptowns Finest”. Art comes from everything so I decided to introduce the world to Uptowns Finest by curating a 3 day art show with each day having a different theme behind it. It took me 6 months to properly plan it, from booking the venue, DJ’s, workshops, vendors, licenses etc. I decided to have my opening night be a kids art show(which 85% of the art sold with all profits going to the kids!). Followed by the other 2 days working with 10 adult artists, the second night was an Uptown themed art show with the last day being a freestyle and the artists bringing whatever they want. Grateful to say I had over 500 people in attendance! I did reach out to friends who worked with me to make my dream come into reality because this was not easy alone.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Luiggy Gomez, I’m of Ecuadorian descent (Quayaquil baby!) and I’m a native New Yorker who’s been here all 35 years of my life. I take pride in naming my business “Uptowns Finest” due to the amount of time I’ve spent in my life in all of Uptown (Washington heights, el barrio, west harlem, the Bronx etc). I’ve been raised through the streets, different schools and overall different lifestyles. I’m a hoodrat, so with every single hooky, party, event, concert, art show etc, it’s molded me to be who I am and what I want Uptowns Finest to be a representation of. Not only am I an event producer, curator, host and creative consultant, I literally do it ALL. When you’re a solo business owner you have to wear every single hat and be interchangeable at any moment. Also, outside of that I sell merch and candles(vegan candles at that!). For my clients I can cover almost anything they need due to my 4+ years of experience being a business owner. What separates me from other businesses is me, being 100% authentic with what my services & products are, but also me being a real genuine human being. I’m most proud of my consistency, I’ve been able to produce over 45+ events on my own within the past 4 years of operating which I take major pride in. Working with Uptowns Finest any client will come out feeling absolutely inspired with a new artistic direction that’ll supersede their own expectations!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In February of 2020 before the pandemic happened I had just finished doing my very first silent art auction which 100% of the art sold with my amazing artist friend Syespinal. My momentum was hot, shortly after the pandemic happened and it changed my entire business model. Being an event producer I could not produce anything since everything outside was shutdown, so I had to pivot. My best friend Brandon is the founder of a business called “Pretend Labs” and he helped me live stream events through the pandemic. His knowledge and expertise helped me keep my creative juices going, which I was able to live stream events through twitch. Booking DJ’s to play online with cool background visuals and keeping the chat room alive was what helped me stay relevant. Also, I was able to do a fundraiser to give funds to the DJ’s who assisted which was awesome since venues weren’t open for business to book them. Thankfully live streaming was a great help to keep Uptowns Finest relevant with some awesome streams that will go down in history!
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Adapting, simply said. After the pandemic the world changed entirely, so I had to learn how to be prepared for any single thing to happen. 9/26/20 I was granted the opportunity to do an event at Raw Gallery in the Bronx, which I absolutely took lol. Outside was slowly opening up, but with restrictions that I HAD to abide by to make this work. There was a huge community of people who were looking to finally step outside again and feel safe, so I took it upon myself to be that leader and take a risk. Not only was it a successful event, my clientele changed entirely after cause it was my first time doing an event in the Bronx. From my perspective being one of the only people doing physical events throughout the pandemic while respecting the health rules it changed my entire future of Uptowns Finest. I was able to build confidence that showed to all of my clientele/community/supporters that adapting can help at any single moment!
Contact Info:
- Website: Uptownsfinest.nyc
- Instagram: Uptwnzfinest
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luiggy-gomez-118281138
- Twitter: Uptwnfnstnyc