We had the good fortune of connecting with Nick LaGorga and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Nick, what do you attribute your success to?
I think the most important factor is my love for live entertainment. We have all heard someone say, “if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life”. Well I love setting stages, I love creating artwork for advertisements, I love running sound, I love using stage lights and I love seeing people enjoy the experience. It keeps me motivated and when I’m motivated, the ideas just flow.
Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I think I have had an artistic sense since I was a kid. I used to doodle a lot and dabble in painting. My mom was a great artist and always encouraged me to be artistic. When I started learning to play the guitar it started helping me re-invent myself. I felt more inspired all the time. Music made me drop my dead end 9-5 and start thinking outside of the box. That’s when I decided to move to the Yampa Valley. I joined bands, started my online publications Good Morning Acoustics, and GooG art and just kept letting my inspirations flow. Every little piece of my “hobby’s” started turning into the building blocks for my business. GooG art gave me a solid year of digital artwork experience. Good Morning Acoustics gave me endless hours of studying how studio recordings work as well as operating cameras and post editing. It was fun to learn and empowering to produce videos and artwork all by myself. My business today has parts of it that are not always fun. But to think that I spend 70% of my time using my creative tools makes me feel that I’m on the right path. It’s only my first year running my business and I have a lot to learn, but I have a feeling that I’m creating a legacy that I will look back on someday and be very proud of.
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.
First we would go eat breakfast at the Wild Goose Granary up the road from my house, and leave with “nutty goose” coffees to go. Then I would take them to the core trail in Steamboat springs and walk up and down the Yampa River. From there we would go to Seedz restaurant for lunch and immediately head to the strawberry hot springs. After soaking for a few hours I would take them to the Yampa Valley Brewing company for a few drinks and head home.
The rest of the week would consist of hiking the flat tops, eating backdoor burgers, and enjoying the views of my Werner and howelson hill.
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would have to say that two of my largest influences are Steve Weed of Steve Weed Media and Sean Regan of Old Town Pub.
Steve Weed has been building his personal business for 6 years or so know and has made tremendous strides that I’m always blown away by. He’s just one guy and he livestreams full blown skate competitions with the pros we grew up idolizing, as well as major sports events that get thousands of viewers. He has given me the confidence to take on my company as a individual. Plenty of people think I’m crazy for putting on the shows that I do all on my own, but I have literally watched Steve absolutely crush events by himself and I know it’s possible.
Sean Regan is one of the kindest people I have met. He opened his doors to me just a little over a year ago and allowed me to continue learning live sound and artist hospitality in his already well established venue. I got to work with national traveling acts and packed houses. OTP is known for there ability to get the hottest up and coming bands on there stage, or bands that are traveling to red rocks. Being able to be a part of his team and get some of those experiences under my belt is truly priceless to me.
Website: YampaValleyEntertainment.com
Instagram: @Yampavalleyentertainmentllc
Facebook: Yampa Valley Entertainment
Youtube: Good Morning Acoustics
Other: @GooG_edits @GoodMorningAcoustics @yampavalleyentertainmentllc
Image Credits
Nick LaGorga