We were lucky to catch up with Luis Gomez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Luis , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
The moment I shifted my focus from serving myself in a selfish manner, to utilizing my gifted talents to serving others in a ‘selfless’ manner, my mission of WHY I do the things that I do has never been more clear. It’s difficult to ‘hustle’ or chase a dollar, but as soon as you start to network with the right people, put yourself out there, be involved with opportunities that align with your beliefs, things begin to attract to you. It’s almost like that saying, you reap what you sow. When I first started dj’ing, over a decade ago, of course I had aspirations to be center stage, playing the best music in front of thousands at a festival. . . I never thought that becoming a wedding dj would be the route I would take. The beginning stages of the business my wife Tawnee and I run, This is Urban Shindigs – a weddings and events company, started out so organically. Everyone loved our high school sweetheart love story, they wanted to work with US because of our style and uniqueness, and what we brought to the table was a dedication to our hard work and attention to detail. Over the past decade, we have expanded in other areas of our business, in areas that our own lives have grown in. For example, as our family grew, we began serving more in our community, at church, at local schools, and hosting local town events and fundraisers. We understand that we are here in this moment in time to truly leave a lasting legacy, and there is no better way to accomplish that, than to help a fellow neighbor, or family in need, and to do so, all in the name of love, with every opportunity that comes along.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hi, My name is Luis Gomez. To some, they may know me as DJ Luis the Beast. To my students, they know me as Mr. L. To those in my community, The Honorary Mayor of Alpine. But to my family, I am Dad.
For over the past decade, I have been providing music for all types of events, fundraisers, and weddings by dj’ing and providing sound. This past year, I recently left a corporate job as a print production assistant at UCSD of 15 years, to truly pursue a life of entrepreneur. My wife and I run a weddings and events venue in the heart of our town, Alpine, called L 1920. At our venue, we also run a children’s learning hour called ‘Little Learners’ with the Alpine Education Foundation (AEF). AEF is a non-profit organization that provides steam learning programs for the Alpine union school district students, where I am also a full time instructor. I am very connected to my community. My family moved here about 20 years ago, and since, I have helped my local church with sound, and have been voted as Alpine’s Honorary Mayor, through the chamber of commerce. My wife and I are high school sweethearts, and have been together more than half our lives! We have two beautiful boys, and being a father surpasses all that I have accomplished.
I got into dj’ing by accident. I was already into playing music, guitar and drums, and had a passion or love for music to begin with. In my early 20’s, at a party, a friend asked, wanna learn? He showed me some basics and I drew to it right away. By the next week, I had already bought a dj controller and asking to dj anywhere I could. My style is fun, I like to beat match and concentrate on smooth transitions from song to song, playing all types of genres and blending different songs together. My ego wanted to take this opportunity to clubs or festivals, but as my friends were getting married, everyone was asking me to dj their weddings. Wedding dj’s already had a bad wrap, so I wanted to flip the narrative. Dj’s are responsible for 80% of your wedding! The most memorable aspect to a wedding is the music. So, with that in mind, I wanted to leave a lasting impression. There is no other feeling than having a room filled with love all vibing along to the music you’re playing. Looking back on a decade of dj’ing, I have lived out my ‘rockstar’ fantasy. I have been able to travel to amazing wedding venues, play at some awesome places that have never had a dj before, and party with rockstars! Besides the party aspect, this role has allowed me to be involved with the bigger picture of life, and help those who need it the most. I am so grateful to have been able to use my equipment and skills to provide sound for fundraisers that benefit children. I have also had the chance to teach a ‘learn to dj’ course to young students interested in the art.
After leaving the comfort of a full time corporate job, it has given me the opportunity to spread my wings, and truly step into my highest self, and express my highest potential. I am authentically being myself, and utilizing the god given talents that uniquely make me, me, and carrying that energy out in the environment that matters the most to me, my community. I am most proud at the name we have made for ourselves. Whenever there is a ‘life event’ that needs to be celebrated, everyone knows to call U.S.
When we first started, our company was called Urban Shindigs. We had to take a little break from our company to focus on ourselves, and as we grew, we shifted toward This is Urban Shindigs. Eventually, nicknaming it This is U.S. Because, this is us. We wear our hearts on our sleeves, and are passionate about what we do.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Two very pivotal moments in our business / life careers come to mind.
The first; we were at a crossroads between leaving our corporate jobs that we had been with for years or leaving and running our business on the side full time. We knew that we couldn’t do both. We were working full time, and still managing to do almost 30+ weddings a year. There was a ‘golden handcuff’ type situation that our corporate jobs had us in, all the benefits, 401k, etc and that was important to us, because we wanted to start our family. As hard as the decision was to slow down, or stop doing our weddings and events business to shift into a more family mindset was, it was the right time. We had the extra time to really focus on ourselves. At this time, I had a health scare. I was diagnosed with a fatty liver. My lifestyle was about partying, drinking, and a poor diet. My wife and I paid more attention to our diets, incorporating a whole foods plant based way of eating. We started to work out more. And within a few short months, found that we were pregnant with our first child.
The second pivotal moment within our career / business life was during covid. As things were shut down, I was able to be home with our child on a paid leave, while my wife worked from home. During this time, our corporate jobs at UCSD were writing in new policies and procedures, in the name of covid, to follow. Our strongest convictions told us not to participate with any of these new policies, so we were firm in saying NO. They did not provide us with any other avenues to protect our jobs, so after a year long fight, we were fired. This decision propelled us to reopen our weddings and events business, and to try to work as hard as we had ever had to before. We knew we were being tested, but knew the only way to truly make a way, was to pray and have faith. We both put our trust in whatever outcome God had for us, and knew he would always provide. This is when we found out we were pregnant with our second child.
There are many challenges to owning and operating your own small business. Those challenges get even more difficult when you add children to the equation. The main focus for our businesses to thrive is to find a balance, and luckily we have the opportunities to do all of it together, as a family.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
When I first started to DJ, I was really having a good time just learning how to read crowds, learn what songs were the best at certain moments, what songs blended well with each other, and just really getting into my own groove with my equipment. Going through the growing pains of ‘oh no’s and what not to do’s. I was putting myself out there for any and every event opportunity that I could to get my name out there. Luckily, I found that there aren’t that many dj’s out there that were open to doing weddings or special events. I was like that when I first started. I always thought I would be a club dj or festival dj or something. I got married when I was 24, and learned how to dj a year after that. There was not that many dj’s that were young or cool or into the same type of music my friends and I were all in, so when my friends started asking me to dj their weddings, I had to make sure it was the best time ever. This is how my career took off, word of mouth. And still to this day, it is mainly about word of mouth, or someone experiencing my craft live, and passing it on to someone they know. I think my wife and I had a really unique niche that helped build our reputation within our market. A real husband and wife duo that provides the strongest points to a wedding, the behind the scenes with the planning and coordination, and the fun party and dancing with the dj. We wanted to provide outside the box way of bringing our couples’ vision to life, breaking from the norm of tradition, but with traditional values.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thisisurbanshindigs.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djluisthebeast/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DjLuisTheBeast/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/urban-shindigs-san-diego
- Other: these are some mixes that highlight my creativity mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/LuistheBeast/ soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/luis-the-beast
Image Credits
andy king photography brogen jessup wedding photo sabrina lynn photo