Meet Krislyn Rojas – President/Owner of Eklectic Entertainment

Articles

We are proud to share this fantastic article from “Shout Out Miami” of an interview with Krislyn Rojas, the CEO/Owner of Eklectic Entertainment. Check out the full article here.

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

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

In a word: Motherhood. This life changing chapter served as the main motivator for starting my own business, particularly when it induced the assumption from previous employers that motherhood would or “should” steer me away from the stage. Quite the contrary. Never underestimate a Blonde with Ambition 😉

The stage has always been my professional passion and the people I share it with are like family – thus an intense sense of duty arose to build a business that would foster our continued creative ambitions while not only providing for my family but also for the families of our diversified roster of talent.

The most fulfilling part of this decision was being in full control of my own work/life balance – being the “at-home Mom” I wanted to be by day and entertainment producer by night.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

I’ve recently become very retrospective of how Eklectic Entertainment came to be…

At our core, Eklectic Entertainment is an internationally acclaimed talent agency and production house specializing in corporate, wedding, and high end special event live entertainment with an award winning roster of exclusive acts and artists.

How we got here took a lifetime of unique work/life experiences to create our recipe for success.

It’s truly it’s all in our name – my “eclectic” journey started by singing the National Anthem at sporting events at the age of 15, landing me theme park gigs during college summers. The process of producing 30 minute choreographed live Pop & Rock shows featuring 10 – 12 costume changes, live bands, and an often grueling 5-6 shows per day, 6 days a week taught me how to embrace repetitive artistry.

Attaining my Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the Indiana University School of Music should have theoretically meant I studied opera – and ONLY opera. However, I’ll admit I was the black sheep in my 20 person class of vocal majors respectfully refusing to be defined by one singular genre of music. My experience in our collegiate “show choir” The Singing Hoosiers, and in the African American Choral Ensemble were equally essential in my artistic growth.

In the middle of it all, I had to compete to win scholarships to afford my higher education – thus pageantry thru the Miss America Organization was a successful venture teaching me how to perform under pressure, exhibit grace under fire and develop advanced communication skills.

Upon graduation the real world hit fast and furious… With only $1600 in my pocket the need to hustle was real so I did it ALL. I worked entertainment full time at Universal Studios Florida, became a Brand Ambassador & Spokesmodel for Expos around the country, performed in 6 different corporate and special event dance bands and specialty acts and at the age of 25 I began producing my own party bands for casinos, clubs and private events.

ALL that life experience – all those incredibly different performance platforms led me to TRUST in my ability to create something of my own. The most successful flagship act on our roster continues to be Blonde Ambition Band, launched in 2008. But the TRUE potential of this act was realized when our bass player Luis Rojas introduced me to authentic Latin music.

As a native of Costa Rica, Luis brought a whole new world of rhythms and musical diversity that would soon launch our partnership in creating Latin Ambition Band and henceforth an entire Latin Division of talent we produced and managed ourselves. This was like the icing on the cake for our ability to make our mark in the special event industry since we were one of the only teams offering authentically blended Latin American musical representation in the Central Florida market at the time.

Luis would become not only my partner in business but later my husband and an incredible father to our boys. To this day Luis and I are life partners on and off the stage 24/7 and have since brought our entire immediate family into the “family business”. 11 years after officially becoming Eklectic Entertainment, we proudly represent 175 performers, bands, artists, and vendors all over globe – and we did it all as a family.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

To me everyday would start off with a jog on the Miami Beach Boardwalk – I love it! A day visit to the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is a must. Dinner / Shopping along Calle Ocho. Taking in some old school jazz and tasting the best Old Fashion I’ve ever had at the Biltmore Hotel Miami Lounge. Partying at Mangos on South Beach for a night out followed by a morning after brunch at the Front Porch Café.

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?

Although there are far too many folks to count who deserve credit along the course of our successful journey – one person who has created an intensely impactful trajectory for our business is Rebecca Gitles Deutsch: a dear friend since 2007 and a Chicago based Executive Producer of Live & Virtual Experiences. She believed in us since day one and the return from her referrals has been a game changer.