Meet Carlos Troncoso | DJ Charlie Woods

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carlos Troncoso and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carlos, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?

After working for many years in different venues and private events as DJ Charlie Woods and also as a musician/producer with different music projects, I realized that the Miami entertainment industry mostly focused on nightclubs and bars but not on high-end hotels or fine dining restaurants.

That’s when I decided to start a DJ & Music Booking Agency based in Miami. Charlie Woods LLC works with a dedicated team that shows their ability to create the perfect ambience and unique music curation for retail stores, restaurants, and bars.

Social impact: how does your business help the community or the world?

At a local level, I want to give DJs and musicians more opportunities for gigs. Since I started this new journey as a business owner, I have opened the doors to many professional friends and talented people around Miami. A lot of them are now resident DJs or permanent musicians in different venues under Charlie Woods LLC. From a business point of view, Music is vital for restaurants and its status grows when there’s a lead entertainer.

When international guest enters a venue, and sees a DJ or musician, they subconsciously know that the full experience is going to be elevated. The restaurant takes a different dimension. You have to be able to read the guests’ minds. As a performer, you can feel what the venue is feeling with every transition. Song after song, the restaurant’s ambiance, and energy changes. People start moving their shoulders, some clap, some snap, others follow the downbeat with their feet. The commensals are going to be drinking more, eating more, and enjoying more just because of the environment. There’s even a change in the vibe of the personnel’s mood when the music is good, especially when you can take them to a different moment of their life. You want to create a memory for the guest that might never have the opportunity to return. Make the time they have special. I’m always looking forward to giving the best experience in order to maintain my clients happy and expand my company further year after year.

If you are a parent, what do you think is the most important thing you’ve done as a parent in terms of the impact on your children?

I have a 9-year-old daughter that takes every opportunity to follow me to set-up an event or do a sound-check. She loves being involved. She runs the cables and helps take the equipment out of its cases. She’s learning at such a young age how the signal flow works on the sound systems, giving me advice on what music to play based on the venue and event theme, why the lights should be at a certain color and pointed at one spot and not at that another. She knows that getting to the event early gives you the opportunity to troubleshoot and make sure the night will go smoothly.

I believe the impact of responsibility in this job is huge. It’s priceless knowing that she is learning from experience and common sense, while also having the freedom of being creative. She is going to be better than me if she decides to continue this type of career of course, but if not, this is a good starting point of being responsible at any human level.

How to know whether to keep going or to give up?

I believe that comes with time. Listening to my grandfather (79), I could tell that the idea of stopping and enjoying life is a matter of time. The only moment that I was thinking of giving up was when COVID-19 stopped the world. I was falling into a dark moment in my career as a creative person, all events were canceled, hotels were closing for the first time, any sort of group celebration was prohibited. It was very hard for me to focus, to keep going, to push forward. But humankind is strong, and we together kept pushing to re-establish what we had before COVID-19. That “keep going” was the light in my career. After passing that obstacle, I’m stronger than before, trusting more and more in Charlie Woods LLC. I don’t think I’m going to give up for a long time.

Work life balance: how has your balance changed over time? How do you think about the balance?

Balance is what gives you purpose in life. You cannot focus only on one particular thing; you have to take time here and there for your body, mind, and family. Balance changes over time in my life. I’ve found time to do the things I had to drop in the past. I finally got back into tennis and started picking up books on a daily basis. I performed a routine that 80% of the time is the same, that’s the way I work; I specifically schedule my free time to meditate, the time that I exercise, the time that I read, the time that I work, and time to be a father and husband. Sometimes that 80% routine is out of balance, normally because my focus leans towards Charlie Woods LLC or maybe high season is about to hit. Opportunities come once in a while so you have to be prepared to take the risk and give your 100%. Grab the chance by the horns and make it yours.

What makes you happy? Why?

Happiness has different faces. One of them is when I see clients feeling like their experience was more than what they expected. I feel happy when clients force me to grow, to make my business get bigger, louder, brighter. I’m happy to always learn something new about customer service because a lot of what I do is to keep a good relationship between the clients and the memories they’re creating. I’m happy as well when I see my family having a good time and that all my efforts have an impact on their future.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

When I was 13 years old I decided to be a musician, a singer. It gave me so much joy, that nothing else could compare to that feeling. Performing in front of people, making people dance or thrash, makes you feel powerful in a way. If you taste those emotions, your life has to continue on that path. It is hard to deny your creative abilities just because society tells you to change. It is more stressful to become better if something is missing from the bottom of your heart. After going from singer to producer, I realized that being part of the creative process behind a musical project was so incredible that I decided to open my mind to more emotions of sound. Then I realized that I had a different talent, I have something called “taste”. That’s when I started DJing and realized that everything was connected since day one. So I would like to say that more than pursuing an artistic or creative career, the career had chosen me.

taking risks is part of the game, it’s the challenge of getting better. I think that without taking risks I wouldn’t be where I’m now. As an immigrant, just taking the risk of leaving your country, learning a new language, and not knowing anyone, puts you in a position of constant risk for the purpose of succeeding. Coming from a military family, music or any creative career was not on the menu so it was risky even telling them about my goals. Risk in my life/career is everything.

The most important factor behind my success is to stay true to myself and to be original. I believe listening to different people’s opinions helps in the entire process, but in the end, it’s only advice; your personal judgment is the only way to succeed beyond your limits. Another factor to success is a failure; nothing is easy as it looks. You have to fail many times in the process to learn the right path. People might see you in the spotlight but that’s only after failing many times before. From that point, your success can go further. Success also comes when you realize that there is more room for growth in your brand. I believe I’m still in the process of learning to amplify my brand to different cities, and maybe one day, different countries as well.

Success for me means patience. Meditation. Hard work. Punctuality. Learning. Failure. Accepting advice. Keep pushing forward and never giving up. Success for me is pursuing happiness.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

The Wynwood area is a must in Miami nowadays. Just walking around the blocks opens your mind to creativity.

Another good spot for outdoors would be south point park at the end of Miami beach. It’s a huge park that collides with the beach and the pier.

One of my favorite places to have a drink and spend the night talking and laughing is “the corner” in downtown Miami.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to thank my grandmother Delia and grandfather Carlos for being always there for me. To my younger brother Luis that has become one of my best friends in life. to my wife Lorena and daughter Rafaela for supporting every step that I took in this long journey. To my uncle Carlos Guerrero for being an image to follow. To my 2 best friends Gonzalo and Daniel, we 3 are like 1 person. and to myself for being true and original.

Website: https://www.charliewoodsmusic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charliewoodsmusic/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-troncoso-b2b4733a?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Flinktr.ee

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charliewoodsmusic?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/1210534657?si=im087JrzQQG7Bt4CokXMxA&nd=1 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/charlie-woods Itunes: https://music.apple.com/profile/charliewoodsmusic