IAM622- Music Director Puts Latin Culture on a Pedestal in the US

Pedro Night is the Chief of Operations and Music Director of ADOBO. A Nicaraguan DMV native, he is already a veteran in the DC music + nightlife industry, having served the area in several different capacities. Apart from assuming the day-to-day tasks of ADOBO, he is an open-format DJ, often seen performing at some of the area’s best parties. Pedro’s main goal is to put Latin culture on a pedestal in the United States, and looks poised to accomplish this through ADOBO.

• • CEO Hack: Giving the right people face time
  • CEO Nugget: (1) Putting culture as a first priority (2) Creating an environment where people feel safe to express themselves
  • CEO Definition: (1) Having a vision and building towards it (2) Setting the course where you want to take your entity

Website: http://www.adobodmv.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/elpedronight?lang=en
https://twitter.com/AdoboDMV

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elpedronight/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/adobodmv/?hl=en

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Pedro Night of ADOBO. DMV.

Pedro, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Pedro Night 0:39

Thank you for having me today.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

No problem. Super excited to have you on and before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Pedro so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing.

Pedro Knight is the chief of operations and music director of ADOBO, DMV, and a Nicaraguan DMV native. He is already a veteran in the DC music and nightlife industry having served the area in several different capacities. Apart from assuming the day-to-day tasks of adobo, he is an open-format DJ, often seen performing at some of the area's best parties. Pedro's main goal is to put Latin culture on a pedestal in the United States and poised to accomplish this through Adobo.

Pedro, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Pedro Night 1:17

I am, born ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:19

Let's do it. So they kick everything off, I want to hear those beginning of the day rootsy how you said you were born ready? Can you take us through your story, what led you to start your business and all the awesome things you guys are working on?

Pedro Night 1:31

Well, ADOBO, I like to like to call it like to describe it as the fight. I've been training for my whole life pretty much I fell in love with music at the age of five. I played the piano for five years in elementary school, switched to the alto saxophone, did that for 10 years. Then along the way, in high school, I started getting into DJing. But besides that, my life has pretty much just been a journey of me researching and finding out and discovering as much as I can about music. That's why that spirit has been with me that energy has been with me ever since the age of five.

It's been almost a daily grind, and just, you know, figuring out new stuff about music, trying to gain more of an understanding of the power that music holds within our world and within our communities. So, in high school, I started working for this, event promotion company called Club Glow, they are the longest-running dance music party in Washington DC. They've been doing parties since the 90s. About, you know, 20-some years or so is now and they operate out of the best some of the best venues in the DMV area, primarily out of go stage and soundcheck in DC.

I started as a promoter working my way up to becoming one of their interns. After about a year of doing so, I was offered a salaried position. So I dropped out of college, I was going, I was going to community college at the time. And I dropped out of there to work full-time at this job. So I was there for a couple of years, four years in total. And unfortunately, I got let go by the company due to you know, just a juvenile mistake that I made on my part. And I spent about eight months in limbo where I was trying to figure out what my next step was going to be not just in the music industry, but in life.

I was looking at the climate of the DMV nightlife I was looking at, you know what was going on. And I wasn't really satisfied with how Latin culture was being portrayed, and the offerings that Latin promoters and venues were, you know, given to our people, namely, the fact that there are venues and promoters in DC who you know, will play Latin music. And I saw hypocrisy with that because, you know, through my extensive research on the history of music, I've learned that you know, the best examples of Latin music that we have that we cherish that we celebrate, they were made by black people, if you look at the history of salsa, bachata have met and get of reggaeton Dembo, Colombia, you know, there's such an undeniable and huge African influence on our music and not just on the music but on the art on the culture as a whole.

So I found it to be very hypocritical for Latin venues and promoters to be playing essentially black music to be playing salsa, reggaeton, Dumbo, met and get, kumbaya at their parties but them not letting black people live. You know, and it's a prank That, unfortunately, has been happening, not just in DC, but in a lot of other areas in the country around the globe. And that's something that I actively combat, that's something that I, you know, directly inspired me to do my own thing, because I was born and raised in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which now it's, it's gained the reputation of it being a very diverse place, one of the most diverse cities in the entire United States.

And if we're one of the most diverse cities in the United States, then that means we're one of the most diverse places in the whole globe in the world. You know, I'm saying so the way that we came up, you know, it was in my middle and high school, you know, it was Latinos and black people as we ran, we ran the schools, you know, when we, you know, we play sports together, we, you know, we laugh together, we cried together, we danced together, we would, you know, party with each other, I remember, you know, when I would first start going to middle school parties, this was back in the whole iPhone, or iPod Shuffle era, you know, where you couldn't control what song was coming up next.

Luxury to do so now, back then, you know, I remember the parties, hearing the blend of genres and musical styles where you could hear, you know, hip hop song by 50 sets. The next song would be, you know, Don Omar, some are gonna tone. The next song would be Butterfly by CCB. Gogo, after that, it'd be some Bachata vibe, and do it. And I remember, you know, love hearing all that stuff, and seeing how the people would react to it. And it was as if, you know, no one has missed a beat.

You know, we're jumping from genre to genre from country to country from continent to continent, but the party is still going, every everybody is still, you know, in tune with what's going on, despite the differences in, in the, in genre, in sound and culture. So that was a direct influence and a direct inspiration for me to create a double, I wanted to create something that'd be inclusive, where it wasn't just a Latin party, where it would be an experience that celebrated DMV minority culture, not just Latinos, but also those who come from Africa, those who come from the Caribbean, and the black DMV natives here, this area.

So that's why, you know, you come to our parties. And I think this touches on the third question of what makes me and my organization unique. It's that there's an unparalleled level of diversity that we bring to nightlife that can't be found anywhere else. It's the type of pool you're you'll hear music from all over Latin America, all over the Caribbean, all over Africa, and here in the United States, like, we're probably the only Latin party that plays Go Go and that champions go go, we're probably the only one that's actually done a Go Go with TCB and UCB like, there's no one else who can really say that.

You know, people ask a lot, what do you call yourselves an Afro-Latina party? I mean, I'm Afro-Latino. My business partner, Walter, is a Salvadorian. And my mentor, Marcus Dowling, is black. So you know, yes, the team is Afro-Latino, in essence, but I prefer to look at the music that we play, the chant the cultures that we champion, and also the people who show up. If you come to our events, you know, you'll find a whole rack of Latinos, oh racket, Caribbean's West Indians, Africans, you know, especially from West Africa, they show out. And, you know, the native black people from here in the DC area.

So it's just something very beautiful to see, to see everybody just basking in the community, you know, celebrating what it means to be a minority in this country. So yeah, that's that's a little bit why I started the business. Why did we start adobo, we just didn't like what we were seeing from Latin parties. We wanted to bring our little Gaithersburg, Montgomery village flavor, we wanted to, yeah, we just wanted to make something that truly reflected the diversity of the DMV area, which to me, is unparalleled. It's something you can't find anywhere else in the globe.

Gresham Harkless 9:02

Nice. So no, I appreciate that. I know you kind of touched on, you know how difficult it was. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. I wanted to get behind the veil a little bit here a little bit more on some of the things that you learned that we can also learn, you know, as entrepreneurs and business owners, so I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So that could be like an app or book or maybe even a habit that you have was something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Pedro Night 9:25

I think a good habit that I've I guess forced myself to take on is giving people FaceTime giving the right people FaceTime. I think especially in the business that I work in, it's very relationship-based.

Gresham Harkless 9:44

I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget, so that could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice or something you might even tell your younger business self.

Pedro Night 9:53

Like I said earlier and touched on this, I think when you focus on the culture, when you put that first when culture is, your first priority. And I know that you know, within nightlife, some people, they just want to throw pop and party, they just want to, they just want to have a cool hip hop or EDM or, you know, I don't know, there's a lot of parties out there.

But, you know, with us, it's more of an experience, it's more about celebrating the culture before anything else, it's more about celebrating what it means to be a minority in this day and age in this country, under this, you know, social-political climate, you know, so with that, it's, it's not just about, it's not just about playing the music, it's about, you know, making, creating an environment where people feel free and feel safe to dance and to express themselves.

It's also about bringing in the food from our countries from back home and making sure that they have, you know, a place at our parties, which we have that's been, you know, one of the proudest things that I've been able to bring, you know, the fact that we've had, like Central American food at our parties.

Gresham Harkless 11:03

Yeah, no, that makes so much sense. And I think, at least from our perspective, as well as, like, when you're mission-driven, when you have a strong mission, and for the culture, as you said, too, I think that lasts longer than all of those things. Of course, you know, lead parties are always something good that you try to go to, but when you really are not only, you know, able to build visibility that supports the community sports causes sports people that, you know, you appreciate that you want to get back to, I think that's really when things, you know, go to an entirely different level, and people can get behind that, as well.

Pedro Night 11:34

Yeah. So it's like, why not? Like, why wouldn't you party for a good cause?

Gresham Harkless 11:40

Right, if you're gonna, you might as well do it for that. Right. Nice. So I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So Pedro, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Pedro Night 11:54

There are two things that make a CEO and not everyone is a CEO, I think the two things that separate what makes a CEO compared to other integral positions or roles within a company or an entity, is that the CEO has to have, they have to have the vision, I think, a good CEO should be able to think, you know, not just like, for me, it's not just about thinking about the next party, it's about thinking about what's gonna happen the rest of the year, it's also about what's going to happen and in five years, what's going to happen in 10 years and building towards that, I think it's the role of the CEO to be able to manifest that vision and to set the course, in terms of where you're going to take the company where you're going to take the brand or entity.

Gresham Harkless 12:44

Appreciate that definition. Appreciate your time, even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can find out about you or the awesome things you guys are doing. And of course, how best to get in contact.

Pedro Night 13:00

Alright, so we've got, an event this Thursday night. There's this huge Bachata Bandhas Group, that we're probably the biggest in history and they're called Ivan Duda. We're going to be doing their concert after party at Abigail and DuPont. For your listeners, we haven't announced this yet, but we are going to be doing a brunch event on Ninth Street at Poboy Gym. That's around us street around Florida Ave. We're gonna be doing a brunch and Day party on Saturday, March 28. And I'm working in April on solidifying some cool, really, really dope things from May and the rest of the day party season.

You said so that's what we have coming up. Oh, Saturday, March 14. I'm going to be a panelist at the Made in the DMV conference. I don't know where that's at. But if you Google made into DMV conference, I'm sure you can find all the available information. I'm going to be talking about most likely a dope about DC nightlife. Some of the stuff that we talked about today, but yeah, there's gonna be a whole lot of great people there great creatives, Teddy Riley, he's going to be headlining so I'm looking forward to that. How best to get in contact with us? You can follow me on social media. It's E L. Pedro night with an EN-like nighttime. I'm on Twitter. I'm on Instagram and Facebook.

You can follow ADOBO DMV, which is a D O B O DMV. We are on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and you can also hit up our website that's a double dmv.com anything I'm leaving out I think that's it I know we will have and we'll definitely have the links in the show notes but just depending on when people listen to this, the events you always put the events on your website. Yes, you so we usually announce what we announce our events on Instagram and Twitter. But the way to get your ticket to get all the information is on the website, Adobo. dmv.com. can find everything ADOBO-related about us on there. And yeah, I think that's pretty much it.

Gresham Harkless 15:32

Oh, cool. Well, I definitely appreciate that and appreciate your time again. game we'll have the links and information in the show notes that everybody can click through as well too, just to make it even easier to follow up with you follow along and all the awesome things you guys are doing but I appreciate you and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Outro 15:48

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

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Thank you for listening.

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