We had the good fortune of connecting with Luis Lacau and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Luis, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I have always had some sort of business going from managing local bands, digital art, film production, podcast and most recently organizing conventions.
The story behind starting this last company was actually funny. Naomi Chusid my partner in everything now came to me and said “I did a thing”, I asked what was that, and she replied I rented a hotel. I immediately thought oh were going on vacation, I was wrong. She said nope, in 3 months we will be hosting a Villain convention.
That started it all, so what is the thought process, an idea was talked about in casual conversation and you just do it, it’s never a good time to start something. You have to make that leap of faith and put in your blood, sweat and tears into the attempt. Failure is a learning curve, you can’t give up.
What should our readers know about your business?
Starting anything is never easy but you have to make that effort to just do it. If you don’t then you will never know if you could have been successful. None of the great titans that started businesses had it easy or were successful at first they struggled and endured that’s what makes for the great American journey.
Our first show was a sell out show, we then decided to go big or go home for the next show. We turned a 1 day pop up into a 3 day celebrity driven and self financed show. This 3 day show was a not as successful for our artist and vendors. But what set us apart of other shows was that we went around and talked to all the vendors and spoke with them, we had created a community that supported us.
After the show we both had wanted to call it quits but the artist and vendors literally messaged us daily asking when the next show was… constantly trying to give us encouragement and support. The outpouring of the community was amazing and we came back because of it. The next shows were both 1 day pop ups and artist spaces were sold out within 5 days of each announcement. We have various shows now in Miami, Orlando and Tampa, as we continue to expand our brand of events.
Our brand is about giving opportunities to new artist, cosplayers and business owners, by keeping our prices low these new business can risk breaking into a different market. I am extremely passionate about our shows and when I talk with these artist I believe they know I’m genuine and know that we love what we do.
In summary we are passionate about TV and Movie fandoms, we embrace our inner imagination and try to share these with the world. We want to bring a safe space for guests, Artist and cosplayers to be themselves and encourage them to do the same to others. We want the world to be a beautiful place where we can accept and embrace our differences.
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.
In Orlando we have such a massive cultural diversity that every week we have new and exciting events to go to. Some of my favorite events; are “Diverse Word” an open mic spoken word group that host at different venues every week, “Spookala”, “Mycon”, “Fantasm”, “Megacon”, or any of our events if they are being hosted that week.
Food in Orlando is always very diverse some of my go to’s are; “Fuel” BBQ in Sanford, “Yellow Dog Eats” in Winter Garden, “Backyard Burger” in Maitland, “Cubans on the run” in Altamonte Springs, and “El Cerro” in Clermont. These are always great places to stop for full course meals. If you just want sweets then “Gideons Bakery” in Winter park and Disney Springs, or “Donut King” in Clermont and Oviedo.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Two people in my life have driven me. First is my grandfather Jorge Nogales, he was a larger than life character that pushed for me to embrace myself and trust my instincts. Recently my wife Naomi Chusid has been the inspiration and the person that has MADE me push myself beyond anything I thought I could do. She is truly a force of nature that allows me to be myself, my crazy quirky, insane self.
Website: http://www.lunattix.com/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/lunattix_presents?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/Lunattix
Image Credits
Photo credit to Nocedo Photography and Greg Rice Photography