Meet Schreen Gomez | Entrepreneur & Business Development Consultant

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

Hi Schreen, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I learned about risks early on. When I think about the role it plays I often find that it’s not just about finances, there are other opportunity costs involved when you make the commitment to doing something that is opposite of everything you learn as a kid. Everyone tells you to make calculated risks, and or be “risk averse” but the literal concept of risk, is a risk lol. What I understand now as an adult after having been put in environments that drive two narratives around risk; is that : 1. You have to be fearless in your approach to becoming who you’re meant to be, You have to jump every time on the first thought no matter how stupid it looks to everyone else, or you risk the opportunity of getting closer to the vision you see for yourself. 2. There are risks involved in everything , sometimes someone inherits the risk for you , some hide it from you , but eventually risk shows up to challenge you and see if you trust yourself to overcome the things that invite you to quit as soon as you reach a stage in your career that gets a little shaky. But, I say all that to say …learn how to become comfortable with unknowns, it’s the first concept of risk you will learn.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
It is always hard to explain what I do so I have made sort of a game of saying something different whenever someone asks, of course they are all valid titles but I figure its worth it to give a little attention to them from time to time since I gave and still give so much of myself to becoming more of who I am daily. A CFO, A Business Manager, a COO, a Partner, an Owner, a Student, a Supporter, “The Help” lol .

I was your typical Sacramento citizen with a goal to get a job with the State of California. I took dozens of state exams after high school and some college courses but I thought ; this is the right way! Get a state job, a pension and retirement plan, and be happy ! I had lots of administrative experience and was great at typing and fast at 10-key , knew all of the Excel shortcut keys and macros in Microsoft Word, great customer service skills and my phone demeanor was welcoming and an impeccable employment history, And then one day I was laid off from a claims data entry position along with the entire department and didn’t know what to do. I was about to be broke, I had just bought a new car 2 months earlier and didn’t know how I would afford it and I knew I was moving back home. Luckily, despite my own disappointment my mom never closed her doors or looked down on her kids when they were struggling. So, November 2016 sitting in my parent’s kitchen I decided I am going back to finish school and I am not taking another “job”, I was looking for a “career” position.
One thing about me I know for certain is, when I want something I know how to apply the level of discipline needed to execute goals. I found a great position in Wealth Management in the Bay Area ,started school and I was excited all over again. I knew I needed a change of scenery and a new role and I was already planning on how to advance the moment I got in. I learned everything my position would allow in wealth management and then 2.5 years passes and I was stuck all over again in a position that didn’t have an opportunity to advance more than a senior administrator and, the way I am set up …living to exist in a cubicle forever is not for me.

During that same time I had been on a crazy fitness journey to change my lifestyle to lose weight because at one point I was 402 lbs., by the time I had looked up from my journey, I was 200 lbs and trying to motivate everyone around me to get to their healthier self. Part of the physical changes I experienced made me more open to sharing the journey and I watched all kinds of fitness influencers online and on Instagram and gravitated to videos I saw from Jim Jones and I thought ; “What if I got people to listen on his platform?” and soon enough I got to share my fitness journey and my professional history and before I knew it , I had kinda snuck into the music industry and been kind of taken under a wing. I found myself running out of PTO at work thinking about different ways I could advance by myself if I wasn’t punching someone’s clock anymore and saw a silly meme one day that got me thinking about my choices; would I really be okay with working for 25 cent raises annually in a wealth management firm or could I survive trying to find my way in a space and not even KNOW what my actual purpose in the music industry was or WHY it had happened this way? I didn’t have anything else but what I absorbed from every role I held and oddly enough It was perfect, because the music industry didn’t have structure. I still needed to pay my bills so I took every opportunity to network and meet people and thought If I could learn to make money in this space I would have the freedom to really build for myself. I had been given an opportunity to join and help build in a cannabis brand (Saucey Farms and Extracts) and that held me over for a while and I obtained lots of new consulting gigs, oddball bookkeeping jobs to stay afloat and then before I knew it…I had become versed in the music industry and was using the cannabis experience to build . Music ,and more specifically the urban markets were tough and not many women were recognized or held executive roles in music and I thought I’m great at business I could be in management and help artists with the right guidance to building their brand because Im great at operations management and I could increase my knowledge in the business of music and that is exactly what I did. I learned lots of things , big and small , like how to distribute music to booking a big festival, tour planning , publishing and royalties, travel arrangements to tax accounting, and more. I had even been trusted enough to be put in place as a manager for different artists and that’s one of the biggest roles I knew would teach me a lot because every musician was different, every artist had their own way, their own art and their own quirks. I respected their differences, their talents and I was grateful to have been on their teams…I still value this among the many things that I do now because its a powerful thing to be given the leadership role, the ones entrusted to keep their best interest in this industry and help guide them to the level they believe they see themselves in. For the sake of trying to keep this condensed I am still in management for artists but I have also been afforded an opportunity to build and invest into building some great things with great partners , great people. A gym in San Leandro (Elite Fitness) with two people who helped me fulfill a bucket list goal of having a gym that others could come and experience working with trainers who care about your progress and the quality of your life, and our application for people on the go! My non profit organization; Poppi House Org. that is centered around youth and work force development and a transitional home for non-minor dependents to open soon for a set of kids who need a place to call home. A new Yoga studio currently being built out here in the heart of East Oakland, called Flowhouse (opening the beginning of 2023!) A Big opportunity to build and restore a host of beautiful historic buildings and businesses and a special project called “The Loom” in Oakland with a great new team of people (Highbridge Equity Partners) who by the way have given me the dopest view of the city at the top of the most historic building in Oakland’s skyline; The Oakland Tribune.
I could go on about all the things but I know for every finish line, a new race begins right behind it. It has been hard especially going through some of the most difficult times for all of us, whether from the pandemic or just life but I persevered. What I learned the most about myself in this time was that I could not use an excuse, I could not blame others when things failed, these were my endeavors, my goals and my dreams I was manifesting and it was my job to carry out the tasks to do it. More than that, I had others who trusted me with their dreams and thats heavy too but value that because imagine how hard it is to believe in yourself that you still have to find a way to instill that same faith in someone else. My best friend sent me a documentary one day about a story on Clarence Avant, and said “this will be you one day” and started calling me Clarencita as a joke but I kept that in my mind, as Clarence was known for his ability to network with all kinds of people in all industries, he was just honest and good to people and about his business, his family and I know I have a long way to go to be compared to that because that would be an honor but, I damn sure made the most out of my network, out of my quilt. Everyone is connected to me in unique ways and I would tell people , you need others “People Need People” that’s my whole motto for life and most of all trust yourself to learn and be a student everyday, to build without fear of the “HOW” and just “Do”. You can figure it out as you go, you just have to be willing to take the first step.

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.
Well that is easy!, in downtown Oakland at the bottom if the Tribune is a beautiful restaurant that has been rebranded recently and Is titled “Oko at Tribune” with some wonderful new menu items designed by two very dope and highly regarded black chefs and just all around dope people (Mike Woods and Solomon Johnson “Chef Swoop!”) Im so proud to be in this era and apart of this team to share it with others. Shameless plug, but you would love their food its amazing on so many levels. Apart from that and drinks , it could be anything , hanging out at Lake Merritt on sunny afternoon. Maybe there is a concert in or around the greater Bay Area , there is always something to find tickets to in the music venues. Or maybe a trip into the city to hang out on the pier and watch all the people, enjoy festivities and just being outside again. I also spend a lot of time in studio with different artists and they always have something on the calendar to enjoy or just vibe out in their sessions. That’s what I would likely suggest to anyone coming to visit me.

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?
I would like to dedicate my shout out ,first to my Best Friend , I call him the “Boss in the Box” lol, because he was always working and looking out for me but didn’t stop my ideas or tell me they were too much or too big, he’d just ask me “is it what you want? is it going to benefit YOU?” and if I answered yes to both, then I knew whatever help I needed he would be there to help me get through it. He might have been a unicorn in another life because he is for sure one of a kind. I can’t imagine having to take on the things I did without the kind of love and support I received from this one human who literally would not allow me to fail. That was always enough for me.

And I know there is a lot of people to give thanks to in my circle but my second shout out dedication is for my Uncle Marty. He passed away last year and I miss him but he was a genius to me and I was lucky to have someone around growing up that just never accepted defeat. He used to say, “girl…we can do anything as long as we got time for a bowl of cereal first”. I am grateful for his life.

Website: www.elitefitness.studio

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redesignher

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tribune-oakland

Other: https://taplink.cc/redesignher

Image Credits
A. Kabbani Luie Viisuals