Conversations with Refined N Aktiv

Today we’d like to introduce you to Refined N Aktiv

Hi Refined N Aktiv, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Refined N Aktiv began as an answer to a question. The question being ‘Where are the fun, positive events for the grown up crowd in LA? Our very first event was Rhythm N Brunch. This was by design as we were looking to satisfy the needs our friends identified. Good food, good music, good vibes. So we connected with Chef Yealang Smith who at the time was the Co-Founder and Head Chef at Soul Kitchen in Hollywood, we crafted our audio to fit the good-natured energy we wanted to inject into our events and then invited a lot of friends, family and guests who would soon become friends and friends turned family. At our first event we hosted 140 people, a relative success for us as we were just getting started. Today our events boast as many as 800 people in number.

I like to think we’ve made it to where we are by maintaining our company values. Chief among them is customer service. We believe that our supporters and our community deserves to have a space where they are treated as a priority and enjoy the respect that such distinction brings. Secondly, we don’t chase dollars, we chase vibes. We gauge success by the feedback we get from our guests. If people are enjoying themselves then the finances will likely reflect that. Our very first event was free and we still offer free or low cost events as our way of feeding positivity back into the community that has continued to rock with us.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Certainly not, but it has been a road filled with valuable lessons. One of our initial goals was to leverage our events to highlights African-American restaurants and businesses. As we’ve grown it has become harder to find such venues that also have the capacity to hold our audience so we’ve had to find other ways to bring attention to some of the dynamic individuals and business in our community. We’ve accomplished this by giving small business a platform and also supporting the Los Angeles music scene by featuring local artist performances at a number of events. We also work with a number of African-American vendors for every single one of our brunches who provide the gift of their craft to our guests.

Additionally, when you move with a genuine intent and spirit you’ll likely attract the same, but you can sometimes attract businesses or individuals who will look to take advantage. In this field, we have encountered more of the latter than we would like, but experience has been an excellent teacher and we now occupy a position where we can identify what’s not for us and don’t need to compromise ourselves or our guests’ experience for the sake of outside agendas. There’s a beautiful freedom in that.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a division manager for fiscal sponsorship. Essentially I work with over 30 unique projects, corporate giving programs and donor advised funds to provide guidance, financial management, HR support, consulting, marketing, and business development. I’m in the business of growth and expansion working with entrepreneurs and community based organizations to build capacity and drive missions. Additionally I’m a program consultant for 501c3 organizations.

Our Co-Founder and Entertainment Director is Rickey Collins.

Our Partner Relations Director, Kirk McClung, is also the Co-Founder of Robert Courtney & Associates, a branding and content creation company. Additionally, Kirk is the Co-Founder of UNEEK Collection. UNEEK is a culturally diverse apparel brand.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We LOVE collaboration. People can reach out to us at reakt.events@gmail.com. We love working with local business, artists, and curators. As far as support, just come check out our events and bring your tribe with you. We love feedback as well so tell us what you enjoy, where we can improve and also what type of events you’d like to see more of. We are a team of creatives so thinking up new, fun ways to entertain our crowd is exciting for us.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/refined_n_aktiv/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/refinednaktiv/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChwMs-XXo7ES9ET6YzoZLOg
• Other: https://linktr.ee/refinednaktiv